Canada Calling
July 1998
by Bryce Lee
Canadian National Railway
Canadian National announced May 11, 1998 plans to rationalize a total of 2,648
kilometres (1,586 miles) of track in 1998. This will consist primarily of the
transfer of 2,087 kilometres (1,250 miles) of secondary track to short-line railways. CN
intends to convey the following lines to short line railways:
- The 220-kilometre (132-mile) line from Saint-Andre Junction to Matane, QC. This line is
adjacent to the St.Lawrence River, north east of Quebec City;
- the 157-kilometre (94-mile) Sherbrooke, QC subdivision, in the Eastern Townships;
- the 27-kilometre (16-mile) Montfort (mileage point 23.1 to 39.4), QC line, west of
Montreal;
- the 261-kilometre (156-mile) Alexandria and Beachburg, ON subdivisions, located in the
Ottawa Valley (this line will be transferred to VIA Rail);
- the 172-kilometre (103-mile) Guelph Subdivision from Silver (just west of Georgetown
Ontario) to London, Ontario;
- the three-kilometre (two-mile) Longford line on the Newmarket, ON subdivision, north of
Toronto, near Orillia; the 58-kilometre (35-mile) remains of the Cayuga Sub now known as
the Talbot Spur (mileage point 81.0 to 115.0), east of St.Thomas;
- the 384-kilometre (230-mile) Coronado, Bonnyville, Lac-LaBiche, Alberta, subdivisions,
north east of Edmonton;
- the 691-kilometre (414-mile) Grande Prairie, Grande Cache, Smoky, Alberta subdivisions,
north west of Edmonton and the 114-kilometre (68-mile) Pine Falls, MB Subdivision, north
east of Winnipeg.
Passenger service of these lines provided by VIA Rail Canada Inc. will
also be maintained. CN also intends to discontinue operations on 483 kilometres (289
miles) of other track during 1998. In the United States, CN has informed
the Surface Transportation Board of its intention to discontinue operations on the Lapeer,
Romeo, Jackson, Charlotte and Cass City lines, totalling 78 kilometres (47 miles), all in
the State of Michigan. In 1997, CN sold or discontinued 2,500 kilometres (1,500 miles) of
track. Since 1992, CN has sold or discontinued more than 10,000 kilometres (6,500 miles)
of secondary lines. As of December 31, 1997, CN operated 24,600 route kilometres (15,292
route miles) in Canada and the United States.
Canadian National Railway will strive to protect its potash, fertilizer and
automotive business while slashing grain shipments if it is struck by the
Canadian Auto Workers union. A copy of the company's strike plan obtained by The Financial
Post indicates CN would cope with a strike by cutting its 2,100 weekly trains in Canada by
25%. It would seek to maintain service through a combined strategy of maximizing capacity
and reducing traffic by using longer trains, says the document. Train scheduling has
already been programmed into CN's mainframe computers to give the company the ability to
quickly implement the plan in event of a strike. Contract talks between CN and the CAW,
which represents 6,400 shopcraft, clerical and truck owner-operators, slowed despite being
in federal conciliation since February.
No firm timetable governs the talks, but under federal labour law the sides would be in
a strike or lockout position seven days after the labour minister
releases the parties from conciliation. There have been informal meetings recently but no
official negotiations are scheduled. CN has reached labour pacts with its three other main
unions representing about 61% of its 17,500 unionized workers. According to the plan, in
the event of a strike CN's two priority areas will be its fertilizer and potash business,
which it fears could be taken away by rival Canadian Pacific Railway Co., and automotive
shipments. It also wants to guard its coal shipments. Grain gets the lowest priority, with
CN saying it would cut grain train operations by 30% immediately upon announcement of a
strike. The reductions, affecting both main and feeder lines, would rise to 50% if the
strike persisted. Despite the planned cutback in service, the Canadian Wheat Board said it
does not expect a strike would have a significant impact because 80% of last year's crop
has already been moved.
General News
Ford of Canada has new automobiles and pickup trucks stockpiled in
Windsor and Oakville Ontario and no railway cars to ship them. With the majority of
vehicle carrying railway cars stranded in the United States as a result of reduced service
due to the Union Pacific takeover of Southern Pacific, Ford Canada is now storing vehicles
wherever they can find room. At the beginning of May, Ford had 10,000 vehicles stockpiled
and were turning out an additional 2500 vehicles in May. The objective in the car
manufacturing business is to have no vehicles in storage. Under normal circumstances in
Oakville where the rail cars are loaded one would literally see an employee drive the new
vehicles directly from factory to railway car and be loaded. The Oakville plants produce
pickup trucks in the F150 series as well as the world's total production of the Windstar
van currently being produced at the rate of 60 vehicles an hour.
Bombardier Transportation is planning a joint venture with U.S.-based
Greenbrier Companies to build railroad freight cars at Bombardier's plant in Mexico.
Bombardier said there is a large demand for conventional boxcars in North America and that
Greenbrier has run out of capacity to keep up with demand. Meanwhile, Bombardier's Mexican
plant, known as Concarril, is running at about 50 per cent of capacity. Under terms of the
proposed venture, Greenbrier would provide marketing and engineering expertise, while
Bombardier would provide manufacturing know-how and the plant. Greenbrier, based in Lake
Oswego, Oregon, will not buy a stake in Concarril. Each company will have a 50 per cent
interest in the venture. Manufacturing is expected to start late this year and production
is anticipated to grow to 3,000 cars annually. The Mexican plant, acquired in 1992,
currently employs 1,000, working on two contracts building new subway cars and
refurbishing older ones for Mexico City.
Bombardier Inc. has signed a previously announced contract to build a light
rail link between New York's John F. Kennedy Airport and the
city's public transportation system. Bombardier Transportation's share of the
C$1.45-billion project is C$385 million, the company announced May 5, 1998. It could
eventually hit $700 million if the customer exercises two additional five-year operation
and maintenance options. Bombardier is allied in a consortium with Skanska USA, a Swedish
company that will build the New York stations. The consortium was selected by the Port
Authority of New York and New Jersey on April 16, 1998 to design and build the driver-less
light rail system and to operate and maintain it for five years. The trainsets, to be
built at Bombardier's factory in Kingston, Ontario, are a second generation to Vancouver's
automated SkyTrain. Another second-generation system is close to completion in Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia, to start service in September of 1998. The New York system consists of
14 kilometres of predominantly elevated, double-track guideway with 10 stations and 32
vehicles. It will move passengers among six airport terminals and link the airport's
central terminal area to regional intermodal hubs at a subway station and commuter rail
station. Service is to start in 2002 and is expected to attract 34,000 customers a day in
the first year, of whom one-third will be airline passengers and airport employees.
Bombardier Inc. of Montreal was the sole bidder on rail cars for the start of commuter
train services between Seattle and Tacoma in Washington state. The initial bid
was for 38 double-decker cars, but Bombardier could receive C$114.2 million US if Sound
Transit, which will run the new line, buys all 58 coaches from the Canadian-based
transportation and aerospace giant. Because of U.S. government subsidies and the lack of
additional bidders, an analysis is required to determine whether the bid is acceptable.
The decision is up to the 18-member transit authority that governs Sound Transit. The
price is in line with bids submitted to other transit agencies for similar coaches.
Service is scheduled to begin in late 1999 on a 50-minute run between Seattle and Tacoma,
followed by extension of service northward to Everett, Washington a year later and further
expansion later.
The Lynx Consortium wants to build an C$11-billion high-speed
rail link between Toronto and Quebec City. Its backers say the rail link would
create 175,000 jobs over the 10 years it would take to build it. The consortium says the
high-speed rail system, trains would travel at 320 kilometres an hour would connect
Toronto and Montreal in two hours and 21 minutes. The team says it would build and operate
the rail service. The backers wants Ottawa, Ontario and Quebec to guarantee financing for
the C$7.5-billion dollars it will cost to build the infrastructure. Federal Transport
Minister David Collenette says he was looking for proposals which don't require government
funding. The consortium members are Bombardier Inc., SNC-Lavalin, GEC Alsthom Canada and
AXOR all of Montreal, AGRA Monenco of Oakville, Ontario and Ellis-Don Construction of
London, Ontario.
The Northern Ontario Railroad Museum is to be located in Capreol
Ontario featuring the Canadian National in Capreol from 1911 through the present. The
museum will be located in the home of the original superintendent of CN in Capreol, which
is beside Prescott Park, where 4-8-2 6077, as well as a wood CN boxcar and the
"Rules" car are located. The grand opening is set for July 1, 1998, however
there is much work to be completed prior to the grand opening. A few months back, the town
of Capreol purchased the building and donated it to the Museum. Immediately behind the
museum is the main line for CN (where else would the superintendent be located). Currently
the museum has a large collection of steam locomotive photographs taken in and around
Capreol in the 1920's through 1950's. They are also about to acquire a collection of
photographs of steam era structures, steam era accidents and local mining operations. The
museum also has a good collection of steam locomotive drawings and manuals dating back to
the early 1900's. They also have railroad artifacts which will be on display. The main
task is to restore the building, a task which is being done by volunteers.
Two railway companies will give the town of Smiths Falls, Ontario more
than C$100,000 to revamp the local railway train station, but only if
local investors participate in the next six weeks. Via Rail and the St. Lawrence and
Hudson Railway have pledged a combined six figure sum to help restore the neglected
facility. The companies want to see local investors commit money of their own to the
project by July 1, 1998 for the deal to continue; if the private sector doesn't show and
serious interest by the specified date, the 111 year old station will likely be torn down
and replaced by a much smaller structure.
CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY
Members of the Canadian Pacific Police Association at Canadian Pacific Railway ratified
a three-year collective agreement May 4, 1998 effective through to the
end of 2000, the sixth of the railway's seven unions in Canada to ratify an agreement. The
agreement provides for wage increases of 2 per cent in each of the three years and
includes a gain-sharing provision under which employees can share directly in the benefits
of the productivity gains they help achieve. In addition, the contract reduces employee
pension contributions and provides for improved benefits for extended health, vision and
dental care.
The Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) hearings into the Canadian Wheat
Board's complaint about railway service last year continued with the Canadian
Pacific Railway as sole respondent. The wheat board has accused the railways of failing to
meet their service obligations for the transportation of grain during the winter of
1996-97. Prairie farmers lost about C$65 million in penalties and cancelled sales because
the railways couldn't handle the flow of grain. CN Rail agreed to compensate farmers for
delays, leaving CP Rail to defend itself alone. CP Rail maintains its rail service met the
test of reasonableness under extreme weather conditions during the winter of 1996-97.
Pat Pender, vice-president of field operations at CPR, testified May 8, 1998 that the railway's
resources were stretched to the limit during the winter of 1996/97, with a
succession of uncontrollable weather-related events frequently diminishing the capacity of
the railway and bringing train movements to a virtual standstill. At one critical period
last January, up to 192 trains were idling or stalled in sidings and yards across the
railway's network. He pointed out that the on-time service performance of the railway
dropped to zero at some points in 1997 with shipments of many different products stranded
for long periods of time along stretches of track beset by harsh winter conditions along
with the locomotives and crews that endeavoured to carry those shipments to destination.
As a result of the congestion, the capacity of rail yards and shops was strained and other
resources were stretched beyond their limits of performance, with equipment and
infrastructure problems further aggravating the railway's efforts to recover.
Karl Jansens, the CPR's general manager of track and deputy chief engineer presented
evidence that track work and engineering expenses soared during the
winter of 1996/97: expenses for CPR's snow clearing operations between November 1996 and
March 1997 in Canada were C$11.4 million, a 46-per-cent increase over the six-year
average, and US$3 million on the railway's Midwest U.S. territory, a 114 percent increase
over the average of the two previous years; CPR's over-time payroll expenses for
engineering crews during the same period were C$11 million, a 31 percent increase over the
average of the previous six years; wages for crews of snow ploughs and work trains
responding to winter-related incidents last year were up 53 per cent; snow plough
operations increased 495 per cent in Saskatchewan, 160 per cent on segments of the CPR
main line in British Columbia, and 646 per cent on the railway's Midwest U.S. territory,
compared with the average during the previous four years; the railway's consumption of
fuel for switch-heater operations last year were up 43 per cent in Canada and 193 per cent
in the US, while expenses for maintenance of switch heaters in Canada were up 124 per
cent, at almost $1 million; there were 119 rockfall occurrences between November 1996 and
March 1997 on the railway's Calgary-Vancouver main line, a 162-per-cent increase over the
average of the previous three years.
A representative of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) testified in
support of the CPR. Dave Dealy, BNSF's vice-president of operations, testified
that his railway lost nearly US$50-million US in grain sales because of the same terrible
weather conditions afflicting the CPR in 1996-97. He said that the weather resulted in a
total revenue loss of US$100 million in the first quarter of 1997 and BNSF's stock price
dropped $20 within a week at one point.
CPR lawyers also called Environment Canada witnesses to present a
report on weather conditions in 1996-97. The Winnipeg Environmental Services Centre, said
Manitoba and the northern United States received record snowfall that winter. Southern
British Columbia recorded record rain and snowfall, while Alberta and Saskatchewan had
above-average snow accumulations. To break a record by two to three per cent is not
unusual, but to break a record by 30 per cent is an awesome event in climatology on the
Prairies.
A report presented at the hearing by the Canadian Wheat Board which said the CPR did
not provide the same service to grain as to other commodities in 1996-1997 was
challenged by railway lawyers. The report, compiled by Mainline Management of Seattle,
said grain shipments did not recover to normal levels as quickly as other commodities,
particularly coal. Adrian Measner, the wheat board's executive director of marketing, said
the report proves grain was unfairly treated. But the CPR said the report was faulty.
"It's not an accurate representation of reality. We provided them with a mountain of
data. What they've done is discarded all the data they didn't like, selected a very narrow
segment of (the remaining) data and used that to build their case." The hearing was
scheduled to move to Ottawa on June 2 after two months in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
Service on a 35-km (22-mile) rail line between Fort Macleod and a
point just south of Claresholm, Alberta, was discontinued May 20. 1998 by
Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), in accordance with the Canada Transportation Act (CTA),
the railway announced today. Attempts by the railway to find private-sector, government or
community buyers did not succeeded. On April 1, 1997, CPR announced the line, known as the
Macleod Subdivision, was a candidate for discontinuance under its three-year network plan.
In recent years, traffic on the line has averaged less than 35 carloads a year.
Canadian Pacific Railway Company (CPR) announced May 27, 1998 that it plans to amend
the proposed amalgamation involving its subsidiaries Ontario and Quebec Railway
Company (O&Q), Toronto Grey and Bruce Railway Company (TG&B), and
wholly-owned St. Lawrence and Hudson Railway Company, to broaden the alternatives
available to holders of O&Q 5% permanent debenture stock and TG&B 4% first
mortgage bonds. CPR's revised proposal, which was developed in response to requests from
holders of the securities would, if approved by Revenue Canada, permit the holders to
elect to receive common shares of CPR's parent company, Canadian Pacific Limited (CPL), on
a tax-deferred, rollover basis. Under the original CPR proposal announced on April 28,
1998 holders of O&Q 5% permanent debenture stock and TG&B 4% first mortgage bonds
were to be paid the par value of their securities in cash. Under the revised proposal,
such holders would also be able to elect to convert their securities into common shares of
the subsidiary concerned, which would then be exchanged for CPL common shares having
equivalent value. The proposed amalgamation is subject to court, shareholder and
regulatory approval. The roll-over proposal is subject to receipt of a favourable tax
ruling from Revenue Canada. A major holder of O&Q 5% permanent debenture stock, who
requested that CPR propose the amendment in the interest of the security holders, has
agreed to support the transaction on the basis of the revised proposal.
Delta BC based Coastal Marine Operations (CMO), a division of Canadian Pacific Railway
(CPR), announced that CPR is seeking bids to purchase its major marine commercial
freight transportation service operated by CMO between the British Columbia
mainland and Vancouver Island. CMO handles trailer and truck traffic for trucking and
distribution customers, as well as railcars for E&N Railfreight and a other drive on
traffic. Marine commercial freight transportation is not part of CPR's core business and
is not aligned with the railway's strategic priority of concentrating on, and reinvesting
in, its mainline operations. CPR intends to review bids to acquire CMO over the spring and
summer and hopes to complete the sale by year's end. In seeking a new owner, the railway
is looking for a purchaser where CMO would fit as a complementary component of their
overall business.
As of May 20, 1998 Canadian Pacific Limited completed the acquisition of Ivaran
Lines business from Ivarans Rederi ASA of Oslo, Norway. The transaction includes
Ivaran's container shipping services linking North America with South America and the
Caribbean. The acquisition will increase CP Ships C$2 billion annual sales revenue and one
million teu (twenty-foot equivalent), annual container volume by about 10%. Ivaran Lines
is now part of the CP Ships group of companies, which includes Canada Maritime, Cast,
Lykes Lines, Contship Containerlines and Montreal Terminals. It will maintain its own
distinct identity and be run as a separate business. The transaction includes Ivaran Lines
brand name, services, organisation, container fleet and nine chartered container ships,
three of which remain owned by Ivarans Rederi.
Canadian Pacific Railway has purchased three former Canadian locomotives for
use on its new business train. These were purchased from the Nebkota Railway at
Gordon Nebraska. They are FP9A 54, GMD 7/58 sn A1401, ex-VIA 6541, 1994; nee CN 6541
(3/78). FP7Au 55, GMD 4/53, sn A520 ex-VIA 6550, 1994; exx-VIA 1400, 7/81; exxx-CP #1400,
9/78; nee CP 4099, (3/54). F9B 66, GMD A629 1/55. ex VIA 6612, 1995, nee CN 6612 (3/78).
At this writing two former Canadian Pacific B units used in hump service are also under
consideration for the business train. No word as to when the recently purchased
locomotives will re-enter Canada nor what the colour scheme or numbering will be. CP is
also searching for additional business cars in the United States. Basically with four-
axle locomotives the movement of the train will not be restricted to mainline trackage.
This is an ongoing project with no date of completion specified.
Passenger News
The former CEO of Marine Atlantic, Rod Morrison, was appointed president of Via
Rail May 12, 1998 by Transport Minister David Collenette. Morrison, who currently
lives in Moncton, New Brunswick, served as deputy minister of economic development and
tourism in the Northwest Territories and later joined the British Columbia Ferry
Corporation as assistant general manager of human resources. Morrison headed up Marine
Atlantic from 1994 to 1998. The former president of Via Rail, Terry Ivany, resigned in May
1998 after five years at VIA.
GO Transit is interested in reviving commuter rail service between
Peterborough and Toronto as early as the fall of 1999. Stops would include Pontypool,
Myrtle Station, Claremont, Locust Hill, Agincourt and Union Station in downtown Toronto.
There has been no commuter rail service to Peterborough since VIA Rail pulled the plug on
the Havelock Peterborough Toronto run in January 1990. GO, an acronym for Government of
Ontario Transit, began commuter rail service with its trademark green-and-white, bi-level
cars along the heavily populated Pickering to Oakville corridor in May 1967. The province
stopped funding GO Transit December 31, 1997 and it is now funded by municipalities that
use the commuter rail service. GO trains run from Hamilton in the west to Oshawa in the
east. They also go north from Toronto to Bradford, northeast to Georgetown and northwest
to Milton. With the loss of provincial funding, GO Transit is looking to obtain new
municipal partners. Toronto is now picking up 49 per cent of GO Transit's subsidy cost.
Apparently it would take several million dollars in taxpayers' money to get GO Transit up
and running in Peterborough, Ontario.
The Ontario provincial government is fighting back over complaints about
changes to GO train service in the Toronto area. GO Transit will be adding 14
express trains for commuters in the regions surrounding Toronto, but service for local
Toronto riders is being cut. The new routes will come at the expense of Toronto residents,
who would see fewer trains at their stops. The city pays half the cost of GO, a former
provincial Crown corporation now run and paid for by Toronto and surrounding
municipalities. Toronto residents make up just 15 per cent of the ridership. Toronto Mayor
Mel Lastman is upset about the changes because the city of Toronto currently picks up half
the cost of GO service. Ontario Municipal Affairs Minister Al Leach says the mayor should
realize this is a funding trade-off. He says the regions surrounding Toronto pick up a lot
of social service costs for the City of Toronto. Premier Mike Harris says if Lastman is
upset with funding and service, he should take it up with the GO Transit board. Lastman
said he'd like to cut off Toronto's C$53 million contribution to GO and have the trains
stop on the city's outskirts. Then suburban commuters would be forced to take Toronto
transit the rest of the way to work, he said. Leach called that suggestion silly, adding
that the 100,000 commuters who take GO into the heart of Toronto each day probably spend
as much as C$500 million a year in the city.
SHORTLINES
A majority of taxpayers in Stettler Alberta agreed on a plan to keep
an excursion train. A recommendation to loan C$100,000 to a society
planning to buy the Alberta Prairie Rail Excursion company was passed 1,039 in favour
versus 329 opposed in a vote May 14, 1998. The 76 per cent endorsement is a vital cog in a
plan that now sees a consortium of municipalities lending money to the East Central
Alberta Heritage Society so that it can buy the railway line between Stettler and Big
Valley. It was simply a case of no rails; no Alberta Prairie Steam Tours, said Calvin
Confer, who is both president of the society and a Stettler councillor. It brings in
30,000 visitors a year to Stettler. That's good for the local economy and over and above
it helps preserve a little bit of history. Other contributions towards the C$854,700
needed to buy the line have come from private loans, fund-raising and provincial grants.
The track was to be dismantled for salvage if the purchase attempt had not gone through.
That has already happened to almost 400 kilometres of railway line that once formed the
Central Western Railway, a company owned by Edmonton's RaiLink Investments. The steam
train business employs about 40 people during the summer.
New Brunswick East Coast Railroad, with headquarters in Campbellton,
New Brunswick was in full operation May 10, 1998, shipping newsprint, cement, ore and
other products to market. The railway, a division of the Quebec Railway Company, has taken
control of 340 kilometres of track between Tide Head, west of Campbellton, and Pacific
Junction, just north of Moncton, from Canadian National. A total of 70 employees are on
the new railway's payroll. The company is looking to expand on its traffic of 35,000 cars
a year. Its list of customers includes Brunswick Mining and Smelting and various pulp and
paper mills.
On May 29, 1998 RailTex announced the appointment of Mr. James R.
Davis as Vice President-Operations of RailTex Service Company, Inc. and Mr. Joseph P.
Jahnke as Treasurer, effective May 27, 1998. In addition, RailTex Canada, Inc. announced
the appointment of Mr. Peter E. McCarron as President of RailTex Canada, Inc., a
wholly-owned subsidiary of RailTex, effective May 27, 1998. Mr. McCarron joined RailTex in
1993 and most recently served as Regional General Manager for RailTex. In Mr. McCarron's
new position, he will be responsible for all Canadian operations and two of the Company's
railroads in New England; the New England Central Railroad and the Connecticut Southern
Railroad. In addition, Mr. McCarron and his support team will be closely working with the
Canadian Class I railroads to review acquisition opportunities and to develop significant
new business for the Company's existing Canadian properties.
The next few years stand to be trying times for Algoma Central Railway.
The Sault Ste. Marie based carrier faces an uncertain future after this summer with the
closure in June 1998 of the Algoma Ore Division in Wawa, Ontario. And its parent company,
Wisconsin Central of Chicago, Illinois, is scrambling to fill the void left after losing
its primary freight customer. Although the railway expects to pick up new business with
Agrium's still unopened phosphate rock mine near Kapuskasing, Ontario it does not offset
the loss of a principle revenue generator with a loss of between 30 and 40 per cent of the
Algoma Central revenue. Though the railway seeks to improve its initial thrust of forest
products into mid-western U.S. markets and runs of five day a week passenger service the
length of its 518-kilometre line between Hearst and the Sault, the absence of Wawa sinter
makes it difficult to sustain the line's viability.
The Algoma Central Railway and Algoma Steel Inc. (ASI) have been
historically-linked partners since the turn of the century. That relationship soured last
December when the ASI board of directors confirmed years of speculation by approving the
closure of the iron ore operation because of high production costs. The railway hauled
about 950,000 tonnes of lower-grade sinter annually to the Sault Ste. Marie steel maker.
The 200 Ore Division employees were subsequently offered jobs with the parent company.
Some new business has been generated with the Ontario Northland Railway's
plan to build a 25-kilometre spur line from Opasatika into a mine site located about 40
kilometres southwest of Kapuskasing in Cargill Township. Algoma Central Railway, which
ties into the line at Hearst, has a letter of agreement in place to act as a bridge
carrier in shuttling about 1.1 million tonnes of treated phosphate rock annually along 81
kilometres of line to Oba. From there, Canadian National Railway will complete the journey
west to Agrium's Redwater, Alberta fertilizer production plant. But the first carload of
phosphate rock is not slated to leave the mine site until August, 1999.
Algoma Steel will now rely upon the Tilden Mine in Michigan's Upper
Peninsula, a joint venture between ASI and several Canadian and American steel makers
since the mid 1970's to supply its blast furnaces with iron ore instead of the Wawa mine.
The mine supplied ASI with 26 million tonnes of high grade taconite pellets last year, and
should supply even more with Wawa's closure. Most of the Tilden mine pellets are delivered
by another railroad from the mine near Ishpeming to Marquette on Lake Superior to delivery
to Algoma by lake freighter. But Wisconsin Central is making a proposal
to supply Algoma with Tilden taconite, moving 600,000 tonnes of pellets in test runs over
the next two years.
The Algoma Central Railway used to haul steel products to southern
Ontario markets via the northern route prior to Wisconsin Central acquiring the ACR in
1995. But ASI switched to Canadian Pacific's more direct easterly route, and there has
been no resumption in that service. Schauer says the Agawa Canyon Tour Train,
a popular regional tourist attraction run by Wisconsin Central although self-sufficient as
an entity cannot survive unless the rest of the railway remains viable. Though Wisconsin
Central is sensitive to the tour train as an important area attraction, the fact of life
is, if the rest of the railroad doesn't support itself, the tour train will not support a
300-mile railroad.
The Elgin County Railway Museum in St. Thomas, Ontario has recently
received six pieces of rolling stock to add to their collection. CSX Transportation
donated a boxcar, a flat car, and a gondola, from the Maintenance of Way Department, and
two boxcars from the signal department all from their Canadian division. Also Norfolk
Southern, donated ex-N&W caboose 555020. The caboose was retired from Canadian
Operations in late 1996, then went to Detroit for storage. From Detroit it went on to
Chicago and was used until this year as a rider van. The Elgin County Railway Museum
celebrates their 10th anniversary with the Railway Heritage Festival on August 22 &
23, 1998. This year's show will be the largest to date with many new groups participating.
The anniversary celebrations are in the former Michigan Central railway shops on
Wellington Street (south of highway 3) in St. Thomas, Ontario. There will be modular
railway displays, exhibits of prototype railway equipment, as well as caboose and motorcar
rides. Free admission. Vendor tables are available at C$20.00. For further information,
contact Shari Boland at (519)644-1874, or e-mail sjbecrm@elgin.net .
MOTIVE POWER
Canadian Pacific Railway:
As of Sunday May 31, 1998 the following Montreal Locomotive Works built, Alco powered
locomotives were still operational on CP: RS18u 1822, 1828, 1837, 1838, 1839; C424 4204,
4210, 4216, 4230, 4237. It is expected these locomotives will be retired by the end of
June 1998. As the locomotives come due for monthly inspections, they will be terminated.
Caterpillar powered M636m 4711 was stored May 26, 1998 and is for sale. Once all MLWs are
retired a summary with dates of retirement and disposition shall be published. RS18u 1860
was moved on train 512 from London to Guelph Junction the second week of May having been
purchased by Ontario Southland Railway. It will be a backup unit to OSRY RS23 505
mentioned in last month's column. It will be renumbered OSRX 180.
Canadian National Railway:
Retired: SW1200RS 1338 May 13, 1353 May 14, 1361 May 27; GMD1m 1169 May 28; SD40s: 5088
May 5, 5089, 5090, 5147, 5214 May 27, 5057, 5065, 5191 May 25, GP40 9309 (class of 1966)
May 27. Ohio Central has sold former CN SW1200 1329 to Cando Contracting at St. Thomas for
switching services at the Magna stamping plant which is manufacturing frames for GM
trucks. The 1329 is joining former Missouri Pacific SW1200 1139 renumbered 1110.
Department of Corrections
In the April 1998 column I mentioned the Ontario L'Orignal Railway operating from Glen
Robertson to Hawkesbury in eastern Ontario had repainted and renamed their locomotives. I
noted GP9 179 was now named Butler. It is in fact still named Griffin, where the name
Butler appeared from is anybody's guess. GP9 180 is still named Champlain. Thanks to Manny
Jacob for this correction.
Thank you to the following individuals for contributions to the July 1998 Canada
Calling: Will Baird, Peter Bowers, Gerry Burridge, Bruce Chapman, Brian Ellis, Tim Green,
Roman Hawryluk, Ken Jones, Joseph F. Kazmar, Randy Kotuby, Eric Lee, Mark Liddell, Bill
Miller, Raymond Morrissette, Carl Perleman, Earl Roberts, Jim Sandilands, Mick Swick.
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