Looking somewhat like a cramped space used for a model railroad, this beautiful complex of the roundhouse and shops is all but gone.
There are not even any railroad tracks left in PEI. The province and the city were Confederation and the country was born in 1867, has zero tracks, zero trains. No train ride to Anne of Green Gables!
Roundhouses
Charlottetown, PEI 19xx
Someone once said railroading on PEI was like trying to run a freight railroad with stations on an LRT spacing.
Just about every mile was a final mile.
When the island portion of the Trans-Canada Highway was built, they had to import every cubic foot of gravel for the base, because the railroad builders had exhausted the island's supply.
Bruce
So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.
"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere" CP Rail Public Timetable
"O. S. Irricana"
. . . __ . ______
http://imagescn.techno-science.ca/railways/index_choice.cfm?id=55&photoid=-2012935688
https://archive.org/stream/1880t81tearesdirectoryh00tearuoft#page/468/mode/2up
Good to hear from you AgentKid!
Jane of Lantern Hill also would have tough time getting to see her father.
Johnny
I remember watching one of the "Anne of Green Gables" shows where Anne is leaving on a train.
Now if I remember correctly, the scene was shot at a rail museum on PEI that has one of the old railway coaches on a short stretch of track. No live locomotive there at the time, so when the car is in motion it was actually being pushed by a truck!
Much of th old roadbed has been turned into trails. My wife and I rode quite a bit of it on rented bicycles about 25 years ago.
There is a railroad museum at the far eastern end of PEI in Elmira.
There is a station there, some equipment, and a miniature railway and
some standard guage rails too!. There is a bit of rails left on PEI!!
Anyone in the Chicago area need not look any further than the Chicago lakefront for a little piece of Prince Edward Island railroading. The former Canadian Nation Railways Ferry 'Abegweit' is fully restored at the Columbia Yacht Club. The 'Abby' handled railcars....both freight and passenger between New Brunswick and PEI.
http://www.columbiayachtclub.org/about/ship-history
The carferry at the Columbia Yacht Club has a distinct resemblance to the later C&O boats "City of Midland 41", "Spartan" and "Badger", especially with the cutaway prow for icebreaking.
I rode from Charlottetown to Moncton on the PEI Mixed Train around 195-1966, the year that the anniversary of the Canadian Confederation occured, in connection with the Fathers of the Confederation Memorial Theatre work. This was not the occasion when I bought the LP of Pomp and Circumsances Marches for music at the opening of the threatre and met the Queen, but the time before. The air-conditioned coach was directly behind the boiler-equipped GP-7 or GP-9, with the freight cars following. The road power did the swithing at both ends of the ferry crossing. I think the ferry had three tracks, and the loading and unloading was time-consuming, because of the attempt to not unbalance the ferry. The coach and the locomotive ended up on the middle track. We were allowed to leave the coach while it was on the boat, and lunch was avaialble at the boat's dining room at a reasnable price. I connected with the Ocean Limited at Moncton, and left it at Saint Hyacinth for a visit to the Casavant Freres organ factory. Larry Phelps, the firm's "Tonal Director" drove me to Montreal and the Washingtonian to New York. And the organist-composer, John Weaver, happened to be in the roomette next to mine, and was interested in my obserfations at St. Hycinth.
By the time of the opening of the threatre, with the Queen's visit, the mixed had lost its coach and the ferry arried freightcars and a bus. I had been ticketed on the bus, but the architects were on the Ocean Limited, had a rental car waiting, and a place for me. The substitute for the coach on the freight was not a caboose but an old wood combine, Possibly some express was still carried.
The track on a island had lots of short-radius cuves. But it seemed well-maintained and I did not think that railroading would end there. A shame, with the causeway not having tracks.
Very happy I had that experience.
daveklepper The track on a island had lots of short-radius curves.
The track on a island had lots of short-radius curves.
CN tried using a Budd RDC for the Moncton-Charlottetown passenger service, but it did not like those curves. Or the steep inclines on the ferry ramps, which caused its overhanging ends to scrape the rails.
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
David K.---You are a very lucky guy. I saw them but never rode them. By the time it could be they were gone.
Wanswheel-- Thank you. I think you once stated your great grandfather? was from PEI. Hope you got to visit at one time.
SD70Dude--Could they not have figured that out ahead before they were sent there? It's not like CNR was some Mickey Mouse outfit. Wonder if they went all full hog and had special training for engineeers and mechanics, spare parts and all that or if was just on a wing and a prayer.
Hard to believe that an island of appx. 150,000 people is a seperate and equal Province of full standing, guaranteed 4 Federal seats, Constitutional power with a big say in how it goes across the land...the mouse that roars! There are Ridings in Toronto with more people than that and they have only 1 seat eg. Brampton and Vaughn And certainly no Senate appoitments and such. We have only 1 Member of Parliment in Northern Sask covering an area the size of Nebraska. "Big laan, Vera few pipple"
Perhaps tiny Rhode Island in the USA is somewhat equivalent in punching above its waist.
Potatoes and Japanese tourists...go figure.
Miningman Wanswheel-- Thank you. I think you once stated your great grandfather? was from PEI. Hope you got to visit at one time.
And his many daughters and sons, including 3 CV engineers. I went up in '96.
Miningman SD70Dude--Could they not have figured that out ahead before they were sent there? It's not like CNR was some Mickey Mouse outfit. Wonder if they went all full hog and had special training for engineeers and mechanics, spare parts and all that or if was just on a wing and a prayer.
I believe (but cannot confirm) that the Railiner made just that one test run. I am also not sure exactly how much damage was done to the car and/or the ferry ramp.
But his does seem an opportune time to bring up another unusual bit of island-based motive power, in addition to the 70-Tonners there were several road-service 44-Tonners, numbered 3, 4 and 5. They were among the last GE built and represented 3 of the only 4 units built with CAT D342 6-cylinder engines (widely used in D8's of the era), instead of the far more common D17000 V8. 3, 4 and 5 also boasted larger air compressors and MU connections, though I believe they would only MU with each other and possibly the 70-Tonners.
http://www.cwrailway.ca/cnrha.ca/sites/default/files/Diesel%20Drawings/1-1000/4%265%20ER-4b.png
They bounced around the country after leaving P.E.I, and while I am not sure what became of 3 and 5 #4 ended up being donated to the Alberta Railway Museum by her last owner, the Evraz Pipe mill in Camrose, AB. I have had the pleasure of running her on several occasions, just a fabulously responsive little unit.
But boy do they ride rough, 10 mph is bad enough, I can't imagine doing over 30 on that light island track!
Hi Miningman!
Concerning "Rhode Island ...punching above it's waist" here's how it works in the US.
Two houses of Congress, the Congress proper and the Senate. The seats in the Congress (435 of them now) are apportioned to the 50 states by population density, so the more people you have in your state the more congressmen (or women) you get. However to balance things out each state gets two senators, and two only. 50 states now, 100 senators.
One of the best compromises the Framers of the US Constitution came up with, it's worked for 221 years.
Firelock--There are slightly over a million folks in Rhode Island so the analogy to PEI sort of falls apart. I doubt if Rhode Island is constitutionally guaranteed a fixed number of representives for the 'house' regardless of population, but PEI is. So 'rep by pop' is 'waived' for in PEI they currently have a representative for each 35,000 people, where as the rest of us up here it's roughly in in 100,000 although some places far exceed that by more than half again.
Our Senate is fuzzier, they are appointed, not elected, by the PM. Lot of patronage and nonsense involved in that.
Now Rhode Island does punch above its weight with the Senate as its 2 Senators are just as effective as the 2 from California but you can say that for many of the States, especially in the West.
PEI in total population is smaller than cities like Burlington or St. Catherine's in Ontario, hardly household names across the land, and they certainly do not hold the Constitutional Powers that those folks in PEI do.
Plus we have all that Queen, King, Monarchy stuff. It just is.
I see where there is a very serious proposition to break up California into 3 seperate States which people are touting as actually quite reasonable.
You know there was some proposals, floated by economists, back in the 60's for the USA to just 'buy' Canada. It was for each individual Canadian resident receiving 1 million. Would have been a bargain at the time with the population under 20 million. Plus a million was an astronomical amount of money, everyone rich!
Of course the suggestions were wackadoodle in reality and it never got anywhere.
PEI started with 6 members of the House of Commons, out of 206 total.
https://archive.org/stream/1941981941M26A101941ef#page/n7/mode/2up
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