IAN MACDONALD VIDEO ON THE ROYAL HUDSON AS UNIQUE MASTERPIECE OF ENGINEERING DESIGN AND CPR AT CHAPLEAU-CARTIER IN 1957

Ian Macdonald, who worked on the Canadian Pacific Railway before attending university, and graduating in architecture, shares moments of railway history in this video with CPR activity as well as hostling in Cartier in the summer of 1957.

Ian became an architect and is now Professor Emeritus and retired head of the department of architecture at the University of Manitoba.

The video is a must see for railway buffs  everywhere, Please feel free  to share with  those who may be interested. Thanks Ian.


CPR Activity in the Mid-Fifties

The video begins with a shot of CP diesel locomotive 4089. This was an Alco FA-2 unit built by Montreal Locomotive Works coming into Chapleau from the east. Yard engine engine 6527 was an MLW S-2 type, which eventually wound up assigned to the Schreiber yard.


We then see eastbound passenger train Number eight slowly cruising into Chapleau. The footage was taken shortly after “the Canadian” was added to passenger service in 1955. One can see some of the CPR’s new stainless steel Budd passenger cars that began being introduced into service during 1954 and 1955. We also catch a glimpse of a young Darryl Dowsley who had just started working as a fireman that year climbing out of the GMD FP7B unit. The “Dominion” was subsequently eliminated in 1966 leaving the Canadian as Canadian Pacific’s sole transcontinental train. The Canadian unfortunately ceased operation on Canadian Pacific tracks on January 16, 1990.






Hostling in Cartier, summer 1957

CPR Firemen in those days learned their trade through working as hostlers in the shops at Chapleau and Cartier combined with experience on main line trips working the spare list when more senior running crew booked off. Steam engines required heavy maintenance at the end of each run and were brought over to the shop track where they were handed off to the hostler.

Hostlers would move the locomotives into the roundhouse where they were turned around, serviced and prepared for their return runs. Cartier was a particularly busy divisional point as it was the western terminus for rail traffic originating in North Bay, Sudbury and Mactier. While the Schreiber Division had been priorized for dieselization in the mid 1950’s, steam locomotives of every possible size and class were still being used on the subdivisions east of Cartier and eventually wound up at the Cartier shops for servicing.


In addition to a diesel consist of 2 Alco RS10 units (8572 and 8478) and Cartier yard engine No.7094; the video includes some footage of iconic CPR steam locomotive 2841. This was a Montreal Locomotive Works Hudson Type H-ic that was built in 1937 and ultimately scrapped in March 1961. These locomotives were originally assigned to CP’s high profile transcontinental passenger trains 3,4,7 and 8 but were eventually replaced with diesel power and relegated to milk-run trains 1 and 2 in the final days of steam power on the Nemegos subdivision. It was amongst the last steam locomotives operating out of Chapleau and I had the good fortune to work on one as fireman from Cartier to Chapleau with engineer Harold Dowsley.

Dr. Bill Pellow provides an interesting, albeit erotic, description of the Royal Hudson in his Overalls to Scrubs book in Chapter six, which successfully captures the essence of those beautiful machines. They were unique masterpieces of engineering design. Diesel locomotives, although built under licence in Canada, were designed and developed in the United States and simply modified to suit Canadian conditions. Canadian Pacific steam power, on the other hand, was conceived, designed and built in Canada by Canadians to meet the specific challenges faced in the Canadian environment.