Ontario Northland

[jonpd]

Looking forward to this route. In my childhood we lived for a time in Northern Ontario (although not near ONR) so this has some interest for me.

Jon

[charland]

Just starting to put together the town of Iroquois Falls, the mill was the hard part and it's finished now other then a couple of parking lots and a few cars and trucks.

Paul :-)

[charland]

I'm just about completed the six mile long Iroquois Falls Sub, Just have to go through and make sure everything that needs a winter texture has one and it's working. The following is a typical 'day in the life' of the traffic too and from the Sub.

P01 0405 Train 417 arrives in the Welsh Yard and drops off what will become the Paper Train later in the morning. With the train dropped in the yard 417 will continue north to Cochrane.



P02 0505 Train 415 arrives in Porquis Junction and drops cars for Iroquois Falls and locations between Porquis Junction and Timmins to be delivered by 311 on their return trip to Timmins.



P03 0740 Train 312 arrives in the Welsh Yard.



P04 0800 Extra 1308 East takes their train of empty boxcars to Iroquois Falls.



P05 0835 Extra 1308 departs Iroquois Falls for Welsh Yard with 20 loads of paper.



P06 0845 The Abitibi Power and Paper switcher brings ten loaded paper cars to the interchange and lifts ten empties to bring back to the mill.



P07 0900 Train 414 departs Welsh for Englehart and Train 314 heads east to perform local work on the Iroquois Falls Sub.



P08 0945 Train 413 returns to Welsh Yard with a few cars from Abitibi and from local work.



P09 1100 Train 311 departs Welsh Yard working it's way back to Timmins.



P10 1540 After lifting the cars left by 312/413, Train 416 waits for 47 to head west to Timmins and 147 to Cochrane before they can head south to Englehart.



Paul :-)

[charland]

As it turns out, not only did Abitibi Power and Paper have an S-4 plant switcher, they also had a 70 ton 3 truck Shay. The engine was bought third hand in 1947 when they had tracks going into the bush. The log traffic from that area was turned over to trucks and the Shay was kept as a standby engine into the mid-1970s.

APP 70 pulls a cut of loaded paper cars out of the mill.



70 heads south through the yard on the way to the interchange.



&0 struggles up the 2.6% grade in their yard, passing the shops and APP 80.



Almost to the interchange with the Ontario Northland, passing the businesses along Ambridge Drive.



Paul :-)

[lineman]

Love that Shay!!

[SMRY]

Shay: Is this portion of layout narrow gauge!.

[pnrailway]

Shay: Is this portion of layout narrow gauge!.

Shays were not just narrow gauge. The largest shay every built was built for the Western Maryland Railway for use on a col branch. It is still in operation on the Cass Scenic Ry. in West Virginia on loan from the B&O museum in Baltimore

[SMRY]

I couldn't recall if ONT had any narrow gauge. Filled in several times over the yrs, oh so long ago, but, those few times, filling in during manpower shortages. By then, least what I manned were GP series. memory serves me were orangish/yellow for the most part with black stencil work. Never really did explore much of any ONT while helping out, nor, once back to my home RR of the time.

[dcarleton]

Here's a master list of all Shays constructed:
http://www.gearedsteam.com/shay/master_list.htm
The 5th column of he list indicates what gauge the engine was when it was delivered (although in some cases they were later converted to a different gauge). Standard gauge appears most often. Other popular gauges were 42" 36" and 30". A few wider than standard gauge, too.

[SMRY]

hell, I got disoriented looking thru the list. Feels more like those sizes are diameter rather than gauge.
Hell I can't even recall what standard gauge is anymore 4' 8.5" = 56.5" jumps at my O'l memory bank
I do recall some of the old timers when I just started out calling shays what's now NG being called standard from the mfd
all the while not fitting a standard gauge rail of our time.