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Caption: CPR 8481 and its consist of train 303, the boat train, have been turned and spotted at the main station, closing out the second last summer of the boat train. Canadian Pacific's boat train operated June through September from Port McNicoll to Toronto and return on Wednesdays and Saturdays to meet steam ships Assinaboia and Keewatin, which operated between Port Arthur/Fort William and Port McNicoll. One of if not the last steam boat train in North America, 303 and 304 continued to serve passengers until September 1965, when passenger service to Port McNicoll came to a close.
Earlier this year, the last piece of railway history in Port McNicoll floated away, as the 1907 steam ship Keewatin, now owned by Skyline Developments, was donated to the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes at Kingston. The departure of the vessel, which apart from a few decades moored in Michigan after retirement, spent its entire career working out of the port, caused much uproar amongst local citizens and the volunteer group, Friends of the Keewatin, who diligently have restored and operated the floating museum since the boat returned home in 2012. Tugboat Molly MI arrived from Hamilton on Sunday, April 23, 2023, and departed for Hamilton's Heddle Shipyards on Monday, April 24, where >i>Keewatin would receive repairs before travelling to Kingston in October 2023.
More images of the Keewatin and Port McNicoll:
Closeup of main station, 1976 by Arnold Mooney
Closeup of Keewatin shortly before departure, April 23, 2023 by Jacob Patterson
View of Keewatin from across the harbour, April 23, 2023 by Jacob Patterson
John Freyseng Photo, Jacob Patterson Collection Slide.
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This is just lovely.
Why did the boat trains exist? Was it quicker by ship from thunder Bay to Port McNichol than by train?
Stephen, the CPR Great Lakes steamships carried freight and passengers during the navigation season on Georgian Bay and Lake Superior, between Port McNicoll and Port Arthur/Fort William, taking two nights, with a stop at Saulte St Marie at noon time on the second day. Passengers were carried from mid-June to mid-Sept, and most ship passengers connected by CPR train to Fort William by train from Winnipeg (overnight, sleeping cars and a coach parked at dockside) and at Port McNicoll by a dedicated train from Toronto referred to as “a boat train”. Prior to 1954 and the introduction of the Canadian, the Dominion took 2 nights and a day between Toronto & Winnipeg (wb and eb, and once the Canadian started up, it was 2 days and one night. So the train was always faster than the train-ship-train (2 nights on the ship and 1 night from Lakehead to Winnipeg ). Before/after the passenger season, as long as the navigation season was open, the 2 ships carried freight but only a few passengers, who had to make their own arrangements to get to Port McNicoll as the boat train ends at the end of the passenger season. Was fortunate to have taken a number of voyages on both ships had visits to Port McNicoll a number of times.
Thank you for the explanation. Times certainly have changed – population has doubled since 1960 but fewer and fewer people using trains long distance despite the population growth.
Note my trusty VW parked on the left, which appears in a few of my pictures, covered many miles on photo expeditions, John