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Caption: Eastbound CPR Agincourt to Montreal freight 906 rolls across the Cornelia Street/Highway 15 overpass in Smith Falls behind a pair of MLW road switchers and leased Chicago Great Western F7A 156. This scene was captured during a trip to Smith Falls to ride train 21, a former CNR/CPR pool train, before cancellation as the pool agreement had been cancelled a few months previous.
With both the Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Railways seeing sharp declines in ridership during the Great Depression, both companies entered into an agreement to pool some competitive passenger services on Toronto - Montreal and Toronto - Ottawa routes where both operators had similar schedules. The agreement would come into effect April 2, 1933. Montreal - Quebec City operations were added the following year. This agreement would come to an end at midnight on October 30, 1965. CPR overnight pool trains 33 & 34 became CPR daytime RDC runs Toronto - Peterborough - Havelock - Smiths Falls - Bedell Jct. - Ottawa. The CPR overnight pool trains 21 & 22 became luxury late afternoon trains Toronto - Belleville - Smiths Falls - Montreal using equipment from CPR's Canadian, including dining car and dome-observation lounge Park cars in a vain attempt to compete with CN’s afternoon Rapido’s to/from Montreal. By January 1966, it had become obvious that CP couldn’t effectively compete with the Rapido’s, so CP applied and was granted permission to terminate trains 21 & 22. Wanting to ride #21 before it was discontinued, on this Saturday I made a trip on RDC equipped Ottawa train 33 to Smiths Falls and returned to Toronto on train 21, now named the Royal York. The eastbound counterpart, train #22, carried the name Le Chateau Champlain. Both trains being named after CP hotels at each of their destinations.
Scan and editing by Jacob Patterson.
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John…if you were (are) a Euchre player…I would say you are “sitting in the bush”…with so many great photos, the trump cards are coming out…these are fabulous!!
Very nice, John.
Beautiful John. This picture is alive! – Ken
is it fair to assume this was a passenger unit with the steam?
Thank you for your comments and Stephen you are correct, 8572 was equipped wiyh a steam generator (boiler) for CP passenger train service. One reason for taking this picture was steam leaking from the steam line with this diesel in freight service, something that was not seen very often, John
Stephen, we would sometimes get those dual service RS-10s on London bound trains out of Toronto. This was usually on a weekend if I recall. The steam “jennies” were kept running in extreme cold weather, presumably to keep them from freezing up. I recall more than once having a “steaming” unit trailing & when you coupled the power onto the train, the steam was right in your face. I didn’t wear eyeglasses back then, but it must have been an even bigger nuisance to those that did.
I believe that the beaver shield was another indicator of a passenger equipped unit.
Thank you all for the explanations. Wonderful.
first time that i noticed a wrap around pilot on the front of the units instead of foot boards….never knew that some had those..great pix and info
thanks Don