Is that the ten-wheeler that ran to Courtright ?
Yes sir it sure is!
I don’t know where Courtright is, but if it’s in Ontario then that humble Ten-Wheeler was the last of NYC steam, just quietly going about it’s business until the diesel replacement finally showed up.
And happy Confederation (Canada) Day to all our friends up North!
Courtright is just South of Sarnia, Ont. and Port Huron, Michigan. It was a branch line, an important one, serving oil refinieries and, along the way, oil producing area’s of Petrolia and Oil Springs. It was also a productive rural farming area all along the line. The branch ran from St. Clair Junction, just West of St, Thomas all the way to the St. Clair River.
Interchages and crossings with Pere Marquette, later Chesapeake and Ohio, CNR, CPR.
Check out that pretty hefty bell and whistle on the 1290. Also the marker lights up front. Looking over this old gal she is pretty ancient and very simple, nothing too modern or complicated thats for sure.
“Nothing too modern or complicated…” which is probably the reason it lasted so long. All you needed to keep a steam engine like that going was a set of wrenches and a good machine shop.
And looking at the valve chests it seems it was never superheated, which would have made keeping it alive even more simple.
Ironic that what closed out NYC steam wasn’t a colossus like a Hudson, a Niagara, or even a Mohawk, but a simple “work-a-day” steamer that never got much attention until the very end.
Wanswheel-Nice! So sad to see a picture of 1290 in that gallery with it whitelined. The archive link states there was an attempt to save 1290 and/or sister 1291 but was not successful. They were worth $4000 and change in scrap value.
1290 was replaced by #700, an Alco SW1.
Shortly after the line went too!
Canada Southern was saving for a rainy day (and 15 minutes of fame on Wall Street).
Excerpt from NY Times, March 31, 1976
Stock prices fell again yesterday as trading continued at its slowest pace since this year’s opening session.
The Dow Jones Industrial average, down by 9½ points in early afternoon trading, finished at 992.13 with a loss of 5.27 points.
The market’s feature was Canada Southern Railway, a seldom traded stock, which rose 40 points to close at 81, thanks to the declaration on Monday of an extraordinary dividend of $60 a share. The dividend is payable April 23 to stockholders of record on April 9.
This marked one of the largest single day’s gain for a common stock—one virtually as little known on Wall Street as it is to the investing public—and also constituted one of the biggest one-day advances in modern market history.
Canada Southern is a solvent leased line of the bankrupt Penn Central, which owns nearly 72 percent of its outstand
June 1976 - Effort to claim missing Canada Southern assets.
Lot of shenanigans going on! Thanks for the NY Times excerpt Wanswheel. People were pretty upset.
The line west to Courtright was to connect by ferry across the St. Clare river to St. Clare, Michigan. The Michigan Midland ran from there to Richmond, where it connected to the Michigan Air Line that ran to Jackson and beyond. Grand Trunk Western got ahold of the Richmond-Jackson line, which ended MC’s plan for this as a thru route.
Thanks for that Midland Mike- would have made for a great Classic quiz question.
March 16, 1943 - Oil shipments continue to expand on the local railroads. It has been approved to carry oil in fifty balloons that would allow 10,000 gallons of oil to be carried in boxcars. The B&O have automobile cars that carry four steel tanks. **
June 15, 1943 - CASO handles 600 cars of oil per day **
January 26, 1946 - During the war 1400 cars of oil passed through St Thomas daily. The oil trains started in 1943, the CASO ran 10 loaded eastbound trains a day. The NYC - because of the tunnel - could not haul explosives but the Pere Marquette and the Wabash could. The NYC ran from two to three troop trains every day.*
OK…so a question is…How does a rail line go from 8,000 cars a day and 81.5 million passengers a year down to 0 and abandonment. Of course WWII inflated the numbers, but even so those numbers were always around 2,500 cars a day and several scheduled passenger trains every day. I remember the CASO from '53 to '65 or so and saw a lot of change. It’s hard to wrap one’s head around.
Well we all know what happened and the outcome. Also the reasons are “rationalized” and everyone is a good parrot and sounds the same …more to it than that.
https://ia801904.us.archive.org/9/items/jstor-3304931/3304931.pdf
New York Central was in Canada Southern’s financial picture in the Commodore’s lifetime.
Fascinating reading on both links. Another great book for my digital library.
Here is another account of a stuck whistle.
May 15, 1944 - NYC 2058 had its whistle stuck while hauling an oil train.
Now that is not a Hudson. It’s a Mike, 2-8-2 H7 class.
From the book gratefully posted by Wanswheel.
"The run from Amherstburg to Fort Erie, two hundred and twenty nine miles, was made on May 5 1881 with Mr. Cornelius Vanderbilt and party of New York Capatalists in two hundred and thirty five minutes by the celebrated Fontaine Locomotive.
A print of it appears on Page 5 on the page titled “The Canada Southern Railway” " A few notes of interest along the line"
I’m sure most of us are somewhat familiar with the Fontaine locomotive. I did not know it achieved this remarkable feat and with the Big Boss on board. Suppose it was not such “folly” after all.
I’m not quite getting this one Wanswheel. Am I missing something?
Is it about the Fontaine Locomotive?
Yes, the first one. It seems there two Fontaines and another unbuilt.
“It ran like a bird and rode like a parlour car. I want to tell you that I can go faster than any man in the world. The engine hugs the rails and is as steady as a clock”
I believe RME was a fan, or was it as Overmod.
Would have been really something to behold trackside.
Suppose they chose the CASO for the run because of its long straight runs with zero grades. They claim only one curve all the way between Amhertsburg and St. Thomas.