Falconbridge Nickel Mines Railway

While INCO (now Vale) was always the dominant player in the nickel mining and processing scene in Sudbury, Falconbridge (now Glencore) was the major independent competitor to INCO. This post will look at Falconbridge and how it relates to CPR’s railway operations.

Map showing location of Falconbridge smelter (top right) and rail lines. Red lines are Canadian Pacific, blue lines are Canadian National.

Falconbridge Mine and Smelter

Falconbridge Nickel Mines Ltd. was incorporated in 1928 to develop mining claims near the village of Falconbridge to the north-east of Sudbury. The first mine on the site was brought into operation in 1930. At the same time, development of a mill and smelter adjacent to the mine site was begun, with the smelter beginning operation in 1930 and the concentrating mill in 1933. A second mine at Falconbridge opened in 1935.

Due to patent restrictions in North America on nickel refining processes, Falconbridge purchased the Nikkelverk Refinery in Kristiansands, Norway in 1929 to acquire access to the refining processes they required. The smelter in Ontario produced a semi-refined nickel product known as “matte”, which would be refined to cathodes in the Norway facility.

FNM Railway map - Onaping-Levack

Rail map of the Onaping-Levack area. Red line at bottom left is the CPR main line. The (now-abandoned) FNM railway is in purple. Yellow is the INCO line to Levack Mine.

 

Hardy Mine/Mill

In the early 1950s, Falconbridge expanded their mining operations from their original mines on the east side of Sudbury and developed some mines on the north west rim of the Sudbury crater in the Onaping-Levack area. By 1955 these operations included a pair of nickel-copper mines, Hardy Mine and Mount Nickel Mine, and a processing mill (Hardy Mill) located alongside Hardy Mine on the south-west edge of the town of Levack, capable of processing 1,500 tons of ore per day into concentrate which would be shipped to the smelter at Falconbridge east of Sudbury in open cars (hoppers and gondolas). This dry concentrate has been described as “pyrophoric”, meaning it can spontaneously undergo oxidation reactions (combustion) in contact with air and/or moisture, and could arrive at the smelter in a clumped or “burning” state.

To serve the new mines and mill, a new private rail line was built between Hardy Mine/Mill to the CPR Levack siding where several interchange transfer tracks were built. FNM locomotives would haul loads from the mill to the CPR and bring back empties delivered by CP. Hardy Mill was FNM’s rail base of operations, with a single stall engine shop, repair track, and a turning wye located next to the mill loading tracks.

Hardy Mine aerial photo

1975 aerial photo of Hardy mine and mill. City of Greater Subdury aerial imagery. (Click on image to open larger size)

The Hardy Mill operated until 1977 when it was closed, with the older mines in the area reaching end of life near the end of the 1970s, and newer replacement mines having their ore processed at the newer Strathcona Mill (see below).

Fecunis Mine/Mill

In 1956 a new pair of mines, the Fecunis and Longvack Mines were in development on the north-east side of Levack. The odd name of “Fecunis” is based on the chemical symbols of the primary minerals found in the rocks here – iron (Fe), copper (Cu), nickel (Ni), and sulphur (S). By 1957 these mines and a new mill at Fecunis to handle the production were on line capable of processing 2,400 tons per day of ore into concentrate, which like Hardy Mill was shipped in a partially dry concentrate in open cars. The FNM private rail line was extended past Hardy Mill to serve the new mill. Additionally another large mine, the Onaping Mine, was opened by the end of the 1950s.

Fecunis Mine Aerial 1975

Fecunis mine and mill aerial photo from 1975. City of Greater Sudbury aerial imagery. (Click on image to open larger size)

The Fecunis Mill closed operations in 1979.

Strathcona Mill

Also in 1956 the Strathcona Mine was discovered, though it would be 1967 before this mine went into full production along with a brand new mill which would serve as the basis for all further Falconbridge expansions in the Levack/Onaping area.

Strathcona Mill Aerial 1975

Strathcona mill Aerial 1975. City of Greater Sudbury aerial imagery. (Click on image to open larger size)

The new Strathcona mill opened in 1967 with a 6,000 tons per day capacity, but was upgraded quickly to 7,500 tons per day capacity to support increased production from various new mines in the area.

In contrast to the Hardy and Fecunis Mills, the concentrate produced at Strathcona Mill was shipped to the smelter in a slurry form, with the concentrate mixed with water. To handle this traffic, CP provided a small fleet of specially designed short cylindrical hoppers to carry the slurry from Strathcona to Falconbridge. The first 20 of these cars were built in 1967, with another 40 cars added in 1969. These cars operated to the late 1980s or early 1990s, as the cars were starting to wear out due to the rough effects of the concentrate slurry on the interiors of the cars. At this point, rail service to Falconbridge’s Levack operations came to an end, as Falconbridge elected to ship their product by truck rather than agree to CPR freight rates that would have covered replacement costs for the rail cars.

CP 381930 ore slurry car

CP 381930 represents the special hoppers that were constructed for the slurry concentrate service from Strathcona Mill to Falconbridge. Bill Grandin Collection photo.

While no longer rail served, Strathcona Mill remains an important and active processing site for nickel ores from Glencore’s (Falconbridge’s current successor) mines in the area to this day.

Nickel-Iron Refinery

In 1970 Falconbridge opened a large new facility on their property on the south-east side of their main smelter to recover the trace amounts of iron from the processed nickel ores in order to directly market it to the steel industry. Unfortunately this operation was short-lived and closed in 1972.

Aerial photos from 1975 show a rather significant set of railway yard tracks and loading (and/or unloading) structures at this (then shuttered) facility, and CN (which also accessed the Falconbridge smelter via the north side) also built a spur crossing the CPR spur to directly access the iron plant. However given the short lived nature of this operation we have very little other information on its operation from a railway perspective; what went in and out by which railway and what kind of cars used.

Falconbridge Smelter Upgrades

Another major project at Falconbridge was the construction during the 1970s of an upgraded smelter using new modern technology. This modernization project opened in 1978. The project included new fluidized bed roasters which removed iron sulphide from the ore, and electric furnaces to smelt the roasted ore. The upgrade also included an acid plant which captured sulphur compounds from the off-gas of the roasters and produced large quantities of sulphuric acid. Some of the tracks leading to the shuttered iron plant (which was itself demolished) were reused to built large tank car loading racks for the sulphuric acid.

Railway Operations

Operations at Levack should have been fairly simple. While the exact operations of the FNM railway aren’t really documented, it seems Hardy Mine is their base of operations with a small engine shop and repair track. Operating from this base of operations, FNM switchers would gather up outbound loaded cars from the Hardy, Fecunis, and Strathcona Mills and deliver them to the CPR interchange tracks, pick up empties left by CP and spot them at the mills for loading. As noted in the individual descriptions of the mills above, Hardy and Fecunis mills loaded dry or semi-dry concentrate into open cars and Strathcona loaded a liquid slurry into special cylindrical hoppers. On the CP side, a local operating out of Sudbury yard would run up to Levack siding to deliver the empties and lift the loads left by FNM, which would then operate to the smelter where the loads would be dropped off in interchange tracks for the Falconbridge plant switchers.

After Hardy and Fecunis Mills closed (in 1977 and 1979 respectively), the trains from Levack to Falconbridge became “unit” trains of cylindrical slurry cars from Strathcona Mill. By the 1990s rail transport of concentrate from Strathcona was replaced by trucks ending FNM’s rail operations in Levack.

Falconbridge Yard

CP-FNM interchange tracks at Falconbridge smelter site. Note that a CP track is actively performing an interchange here (locos and caboose visible at left.) This shot gives a good overview of the traffic between Onaping and Falconbridge, showing a mix of open cars of dry concentrate, and the distinctive little short slurry cars from Strathcona. At bottom right the FNM switcher appears to also be lifting or spotting covered hoppers probably for nickel matte. (Click on image to open larger size)

Outbound traffic from the smelter was in the form of powdered nickel matte. Due to patent restrictions on refining processes in North America, the matte was shipped to the Falconbridge owned refinery in Kristiansands, Norway for refining. Originally the matte was shipped out of the smelter in barrels, but changed to bulk shipments in covered hopper cars in 1968. As both CN and CP had rail access to the Falconbridge smelter, it’s a little unclear how much product went out via each railway during the 1970s. By the 1990s, CN had abandoned their spur line to Falconbridge and contracted a switching arrangement with CP, wherein CN would supply cars via the interchange at CN Junction between Sudbury and Copper Cliff and CP would exclusively switch the plant.

Coniston

CP local heading up the spur track to Falconbridge in the late 1990s. The train consists mainly of CN hoppers for nickel matte loading (as CN had abandoned their access to Falconbridge by this time and engaged in a switching agreement with CP) and tank cars for sulphuric acid. By this point rail moves of ore concentrate to the smelter had ended. WRMRC collection.

After the new plant upgrades in 1978, sulphuric acid also became a major outbound commodity; with again CN and CP both having direct access to the acid loading tracks until CN’s abandonment of their line to Falconbridge, making it hard to know how much traffic was split between the two railways.

After the 1978 electric furnace upgrade, coke was used as an input. This was sourced from the US and we have noted the occasional presence of various hoppers from the Eastern Seaboard in Sudbury yard in some late seventies photos. An additional input to the mill was powdered dolomite or limestone, which mostly arrived in Penn Central/Conrail covered hoppers.

After the late 1970s upgrade, separate locals handled the ore concentrate from the Levack region and the acid/coke/dolomite/matte traffic to the smelter.

Equipment

Diesel locomotives operated by Falconbridge consisted of a small collection of ALCO/MLW S-series switchers and GE centre-cab models. The larger ALCO and GE 80-ton units seem to have seen service at either Falconbridge or Levack, while the smaller 45 ton models were probably exclusively used within the Falconbridge smelter complex.

Falconbridge 108

Falconbridge S-4 #108, built new for Falconbridge in 1955, showing its 1970s era paint scheme. At CP’s Sudbury shops for maintenance or transfer between FNM operations.

FNM Railway Diesel Locomotive Roster
No. Builder Date Model Notes
101 ALCO 5/49 S-2 ex-NW 3321, ex-Wabash 321; to FNM 3/71
103 ALCO 12/46 S-1 ex-EL 309, ex-ERIE 309; to FNM ?/66
104 GE 8/26 45 ton New
105 GE 1/48 45 ton New; fire damaged 3/71, sold
106 GE 12/51 80 ton New
107 GE 4/53 80 ton New
108 MLW 7/55 S-4 New
109 MLW 1/50 S-4 ex-Canadian Commercial #1, to FNM /68

In terms of freight equipment, Falconbridge would have operated the usual assortment of hot-metal and slag cars for intra-plant movements within the smelter complex, and other freight equipment for the shipment of ores and concentrates from the Levack operation and shipment of refined products out from the smelter were provided by CN and CP.

INCO Ore Operations on the Sudbury Division

It’s hard to have any discussion about the Sudbury region’s industrial base without an extensive discourse on the mining industry. Sudbury is well known for being one of the world’s major sources for the production and refining of nickel, and the largest mining and smelting company in the area was the International Nickel Company, or INCO (today owned by Brazil’s Vale). Other companies in the area such as Canadian Copper Company, British-American Nickel Co. (BANC), and Mond Nickel were absorbed by INCO in the early 20th century helping to make INCO the biggest player in the Sudbury region.

INCO operated a large smelting and refining complex west of Sudbury at Copper Cliff, expanded from and replaced the original Canadian Copper Co. smelter in this area. Another older smelter at Coniston, built by Mond Nickel in 1913 was at the end of its useful life in the 1960s and finally closed in 1972. From the late 1970s to 2010s ore from all of INCOs mines was processed at the Clarabelle Mill, which opened in 1971 to consolidate all ore processing at a single mill.

INCO operated several large mining operations in the area, most of which were served by rail, and this posting will survey the mine and ore train operations of the 1970s which are (or will be) represented on the WRMRC’s layout.

Map of INCO mines and interchanges on WRMRC's modeled territory. Mines are highlighted in blue, and CP-INCO interchange locations in green.

Map of INCO mines and interchanges on WRMRC’s modeled territory. Mines are highlighted in blue, and CP-INCO interchange locations in green. Crushed quartz was also shipped from Lawson Quarry (highlighted in yellow) to Clarabelle in modified ore cars.

The key map above represents the Sudbury Division as modeled by the WRMRC. CP-served mines are highlighted in blue, and the interchanges connecting to INCO’s railway operations at Copper Cliff are marked in green.

In the 1970s, CP ran three unit ore train assignments for INCO. These were known as “INCO-1” (Creighton Mine), “INCO-2” (Crean Hill Mine), and “INCO-3” (Levack Mine). This posting will act as an overview of these operations and the mines they served.

Note: For a survey of the cars that CP used in ore service see the previous blog post The Sudbury Ore Car Fleet

INCO-1 (Creighton Mine to Clarabelle)

Creighton

Creighton Mine, 1970. John Brown photo, WRMRC collection.

Creighton Mine is still active, and one of the oldest currently operating mines in the country, and while served by a CPKC line, is located so deep in Vale INCO private property and away from public roads that these trains are not easily seen.

Fans of astronomy and astrophysics will also note Creighton Mine as being the location of SNOLAB, the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory/Detector built deep underground in a cavern connected to and accessed via the Creighton Mine shaft system.

Train symbol INCO-1 would have been based out of Sudbury yard, running as a caboose hop on the Nickel Subdivision to Clarabelle where empty ore cars would be lifted from the INCO interchange yard, then on to the end of the line at Creighton to switch out loads and empties at the mine shafts. Then the train would head back for Sudbury, shoving the loads into the INCO interchange at Clarabelle on the way back.

While the Creighton Mine is still active today, as mentioned, there have been many changes over the years and in the 1970s the old No. 3 and 5 shafts would have still been active, while today the modern No. 9 shaft is the main access and the older shafts are abandoned and capped with the associated structures demolished, so the track arrangements around Creighton are quite different today. 

INCO-2 (Crean Hill Mine to Clarabelle)

Crean Hill Mine

Crean Hill Mine in the late 1990s. WRMRC collection.

The second INCO ore job serviced the Crean Hill Mine west of Sudbury on the CP’s Sault branch. This mine was accessed via the “Victoria Mine Spur” which connected to the Webbwood Subdivision at Victoria Mine. Why the different names? Well in the early 20th century CP had a previous station at or near the same location where the spur connected to the main line called Victoria Mine, which served a Mond Nickel mine of the same name. So the railway location and spur inherited the historical name.

The Victoria Mine Spur/Crean Hill Mine is the first of the INCO nickel mines and ore trains to be built and placed into operation on the WRMRC layout, with 3D printing technology enabling us to finally build and place into service a train of accurately modeled ore cars.

Ore train at Crean Hill Mine on the WRMRC layout.

A second mine, INCO’s Totten Mine at Worthington, was also located on the Webbwood subdivision, however this mine was closed in 1972. Due to its short period of operation relative to our modeled era, space constraints, and the fact that we already had one other mine on this line, this location was excluded from our model layout. (Interestingly, this mine was redeveloped in the mid 2000s, however ores are today shipped to Clarabelle Mill by truck, not rail.)

Totten Mine

Abandoned loading conveyor at Totten Mine (Worthington) in the late 1990s. WRMRC collection.

Train symbol INCO-2 would have again been based out of Sudbury yard, running up to the Victoria Mine Spur on the Webbwood Subdivision to swap empties for loads at Crean Hill Mine, then back to Sudbury to runaround and head onto the Nickel Subdivision to Clarabelle to deliver the loads to INCO and pull empties for the next run.

Crean Hill Mine was closed in the mid 2000s, ending this service, although currently there is a mining company exploring redevelopment of the Crean Hill Mine property..

INCO-3 (Levack Mine to Sprecher)

1950s view of Levack mine.

This job would operate out of Sudbury yard and lift empty ore cars from the CP-INCO interchange tracks at Sprecher, on the Cartier subdivision main track west of Sudbury. Having lifted the empties, the ore train would then operate over the Cartier subdivision west to Levack siding, where the empties would be exchanged for loads on a series of interchange tracks with INCO’s spur line to Levack. Like most of INCO’s operations, this line was operated with electric engines under trolley wire catenary, which would bring the loads down from the mine to the interchange at the CP siding, and then spot the delivered empties up at the mine.

INCO 126

INCO 100T electric #126 at Levack in 1970. John Brown photo,  WRMRC collection.

Today CPKC still runs ore trains to Levack, although the old fleet of CP drop bottom ore gondolas have been retired since the late 2000s, and the ore is coming not from the same Levack Mine, but nearby Coleman Mine. Vale INCO now owns their own fleet of 220 modern ore gondolas built by Freightcar America in 2008, replacing both CP cars and INCO’s own previous fleet of aging cars. INCO’s old electric operations have long been abandoned, and CP locomotives handle the ore train all the way to the loadout tracks and do the switching themselves. While a few other mines are also still served direct by Vale INCO, this is the only ore train operating out on a CPKC main line.

CN Garson Ore

CN 198750

CN 198750. Bill Grandin collection.

Another source of ore for INCO was Garson Mine, located east of Sudbury between Sudbury and Falconbridge. This mine was served by a CN spur which accessed Garson Mine, a sand pit, and the Falconbridge smelter which will be discussed elsewhere. CN trains operating out of Algo yard in Sudbury would assemble a train of empty ore and sand cars, run out to the spur and switch the mine and sand pit, then run back across Sudbury to the CPR connection at CN Junction and joint trackage on the CPR Nickel Subdivision to interchange with INCO at Clarabelle to deliver the ore and sand to INCO’s operations. As CP did and does have exclusive physical access to INCO’s operations, all interchange traffic to INCO operated through Clarabelle, with CN sharing CPR tracks from CN Junction to Clarabelle and both railways jointly operating over this section.

Garson Mine appears to be still active today, but is no longer rail-served.

Other INCO Mines

Copper Cliff

INCO Copper Cliff South Mine in the late 1990s. The track at right next to the highway (Highway 55) with the stored cars is the CPR Copper Cliff Spur which accessed the INCO Iron Ore Recovery Plant, now closed. WRMRC collection

A few other INCO mines were rail served directly by INCO’s own private rail system connected to the Copper Cliff mill and smelter operations, and therefore would not impact CPR operations, although parts of these operations could be seen from CPR rails. These mines included Frood and Stobie, which were and are accessed via an INCO private line heading north from Clarabelle which crosses the CPR Nickel sub at grade at Clarabelle, and bridges over the Cartier sub near Sprecher. Copper Cliff South Mine is located alongside the CPR Copper Cliff spur near where it connects to the Webbwood Subdivision, and can actually be included on the layout as static non-operating tracks here. Frood and Copper Cliff South are still active, and served exclusively by Vale INCO’s private railway. There is also a Copper Cliff North mine, but being located immediately next to Clarabelle Mill it was not rail served.

A loaded INCO train of ore returns to Clarabelle Mill from Frood/Stobie Mine. CP cars on the tracks in the background are loads from Levack on the Sprecher interchange track.

Lawson Quarry

An honourable mention, the quarry at Lawson Quarry south of Espanola on the CPR Little Current subdivision quarried crushed quartzite rock which was shipped to INCO to use as a flux in their smelting process. While not an ore-bearing rock, the quartz was shipped in modified ore cars with side extensions (as the quartz was lighter than the nickel ores) from the quarry to the INCO interchange at Clarabelle. The INCO quarry operation began in 1942, and rail operation ended by the early 1980s, although a quarry is still active here today.

Lawson Quarry

Abandoned crushing/screening building and loading tipple at Lawson Quarry, late 1990s. WRMRC collection

While we don’t have solid information on the frequency of this operation, there is some indication that this was shipped in occasional “stone train” extras. We don’t have solid information on how often these trains operated, or any evidence on whether individual cars of quartz were occasionally handled by the regular trains 73/74 on the Little Current branch, although the limited information does point towards dedicated extra trains. Any further information  or clarifications (on any of the topics and articles we post) are always appreciated.

Intermodal Traffic via The Soo

Over twenty years ago when our club began holding its first operating sessions, we had to employ a lot of stand-in equipment to fill up our freights. Accurate HO-scale ready-to-run Canadian prototype models were only just starting to come into existence in the early 2000s. At the time our members understood most of the equipment we required would have to be assembled either from kitbashed US-based models, complicated resin kits, or built completely from scratch. We are very grateful (and relieved) that this didn’t turn out to be the case, as Rapido, Bowser, Atlas, North American Railcar, True Line Trains (RIP), etc, have produced so many wonderful Canadian prototype models over the years to help us emulate the operations of the 1970s-era CP Sudbury Division in miniature.

Despite the state of our early rolling stock fleet there was one operation we were able to model fairly accurately right from the beginning, and that was the intermodal traffic which used to be ferried via the Sault Ste Marie gateway. Canadian Pacific along with their US affiliate the SOO Line (Minneapolis, St Paul and Sault Ste Marie Railroad) had for many decades operated a pair of freights between Côte Saint-Luc QC (Montreal) and Schiller Park IL (Chicago) numbered 911 (westbound) and 912 (eastbound). These symbol freights were routed via the CPR’s transcon route between Montreal and Sudbury, and traversed across the north shore of Lake Huron between there and the USA at Sault Ste Marie. The border crossing was done via the CP/SOO international bridge, and the SOO Line’s network across the Michigan upper peninsula and Wisconsin was used to reach the Chicago area.

Route_911_912

The route of joint CP / SOO trains #911 & 912 shown in the dashed blue line (click to enlarge). Despite the circuitous routing, CP was able to lure New England customers away from Penn Central’s direct ex-NYC ‘Water Level Route’ between Albany NY and Chicago.

Throughout the 1970s, CP Rail was transporting a healthy level of New England – Chicago bridge traffic via their Sudbury-Soo gateway, regardless of its extended length and customs legalities. Despite Penn Central possessing the most direct route between Albany NY and Chicago (the former New York Central ‘Water Level Route’), the fallout from their bankruptcy coupled with the overall degradation of the Northeast US rail network resulted in conditions which allowed CP to offer competitive transit times for New England shippers. Additionally, Canadian Pacific had devoted a lot of capital throughout the 1950s and ’60s in intermodal operations, and that investment had cultivated a respectable level of container-on-flat-car (COFC) traffic rolling between Chicago and the Port of Montreal via trains 911/912.

CP Transfer at SOO MI 05Sept80 Mike Cleary

CP S-4 7099 arrives on a transfer run at Sault Ste Marie, Michigan with a COFC cut for SOO Line train #911 on 05 September 1980. (Mike Cleary photo)

Not only did this 911/912 intermodel service offer an interesting facet to our operating sessions, but as an added bonus this Chicago-Montreal COFC traffic was easy to model as it was carried on US-built Trailer-Train flatcars. It was also serendipitous that Accurail had introduced their Bethlehem 89ft piggyback flat kits just as we were planning our first op sessions. Naturally, we assembled a large pool quickly, and over the years that fleet has been augmented by various newer Atlas, Athearn-Genesis and Walthers intermodal flatcar releases as well.

COFC block off train 911 at Soo 18Jun83

A very healthy COFC block off train 911 at Sault Ste Marie, Ontario on18 June 1983. (Ted Ellis collection)

In direct contrast to these Trailer-Train flats on trains 911/912, all the transcontinental priority freights (901, 902, 949, 951, 952, etc) we need to model all operated with nothing but Canadian-built CP intermodal flat cars, for which no accurate models have even been produced. However, there is some great news here, as Rapido Trains will be producing Canadian piggyback flats as we’ve written about in a previous blog-post. We hope this is just the beginning.

TTAX 990569 flat at Sault Ste Marie on 9 6 80

Pullman-Standard built TTAX 990569 89ft container flat at Sault Ste Marie, Ontario on 06 September 1980. (Ted Ellis collection)

What might have been?

Despite the advent of Conrail and its significant improvement of the northeast US rail network, CP Rail was developing plans in the early 1980s to make trains #911/912 true run-through freights with pooled SOO/CP power and expedited schedules. However this was always held back by the money required to rehabilitate the international bridge and increase its weight limits. Rather than making that investment, instead the CPR negotiated trackage rights with CSX over their C&O / ex-Pere Marquette line across southern Michigan to Detroit. That resulted in the introduction of hot new CP/SOO intermodal trains #500/501 in 1985, operating on a much more direct Chicago-Detroit-Toronto-Montreal routing.

Travelling via the CP’s Galt Subdivision across southernwestern Ontario, the local railfans of the Cambridge / Kitchener-Waterloo area were pretty excited (myself included) seeing SOO/CP run-through power on hot container trains. By the 1990s this had grown to three pairs of joint CP/SOO freights operating daily. But it came at a cost, namely with the withering in importance of trains #911/912 over the Sudbury Division. Eventually the CPR spun off their Sudbury-Soo route (the Webbwood Sub) to the Huron Central shortline. Even more surprising, they sold off most of their Michigan/Wisconsin SOO Line network to the newly reconstituted Wisconsin Central Railroad. Ironically, it was the WC who fixed the bridge so that a 6-axle unit could finally cross it. But it was too late by then.

912_COFC_Nairn

A large cut of COFC intermodal traffic makes up the tail-end of train #912 as it rolls through Nairn siding enroute to the Port of Montreal. Model photo from the CP Sudbury Division layout.

However it is always the 1970s back in the time-warp that is our club’s CP Sudbury Division layout, and trains 911 & 912 roll over our territory daily. As a consequence whenever we hold an operating session and I happen to spot a cut of US-northeast and Chicago-area freight cars rolling by, followed by that oh-so familiar string of Trailer-Train COFC flats punctuated by a bright Action Yellow van; I can’t help but wonder what might have been had CP stuck with their original plan.

 

2021 Virtual Tour Video

We are pleased to present another new video for your enjoyment, this time featuring a tour over the current operating portions of the CP Sudbury Division layout.

This video was originally created as our club’s submission for the 2021 Doubleheaders Virtual Layout Tour. Though the event was a great success, the nature of Zoom Meetings prevented the greater masses from being able to view our presentation. There was also the inconvenience of it only running once, and at a fixed time slot.

So we’ve decided to add our video presentation to the club’s YouTube channel for everyone’s entertainment, for anyone to view, pause and repeat at will.

All of us at the WRMRC are looking forward to the near future, where we can meet together again at real club open houses. We’re keeping our fingers crossed for October 16th. In the meantime, we hope this video will suffice.

 

Switching ‘The Canadian’ Video Posted

Our club has been rather neglectful in video creation lately, due in no small part to COVID restrictions keeping us from hosting operating sessions and filming the events. However we’ve cleaned the cobwebs and dusted out our YouTube channel, and are pleased to announce a new video.

This explains how a typical 12-car consist of CP train #2 ‘The Canadian’ was switched out at Sudbury into Toronto (CP train #12) and Montreal (continuing as CP #2) sections, and goes through the shunting step-by-step.

Our club goes through this process each operating session, and the reverse process as well (combining Montreal and Toronto sections into one) at the close of the session. It takes up one scale hour (15 minutes real time) to complete, requires four operators to perform all the moves, and completely shuts down the yard while in progress. Needless to say, it’s a pain in the backside for whoever is performing the Sudbury Yardmaster’s roll that op session, but it’s also an operational highlight of the layout.

As the vaccine roll-out continues, we are hopeful that full club operating sessions can be held again later this year, and you may be able to witness switching ‘The Canadian’ in person again.

 

When a Plan Comes Together

It has taken a long time to collect all the information we have about CP operations over the Sudbury Division. Most of it has been acquired through dedicated research, photo studies, and conversations with former employees. Even though the WRMRC has been at this for, literally, decades now. there will always be new things to learn. Research and education are lifelong pursuits after all.

A case in point; within our photo archives we have discovered three separate instances of CB&Q 2-bay Center-Flow hoppers travelling over the Sudbury Division. As the WRMRC’s chief operations guru, I’ve developed some plausible waybill information for mid-western US covered hoppers to run over our layout (note – we will be publishing a series of club operations posts in the future). However, finding out the prototype shipping information for why these specific CB&Q railcars were showing up in Sudbury would be our desired goal.

Despite the hardships one should normally expect with prototype research, sometimes good stuff just falls into your hands when you’re not even looking. Recently, Mike Confalone‎ posted a model photo on his Allagash RR Facebook page of Minnesota Dakota & Western (MD&W) boxcars being loaded on his layout. He had seen these being used in Maine in real-life back in the 1980s, and had always wanted models of them for his own layout. The problem was that despite these FMC-built combo-door boxcars being available in HO-scale for years now, they were never offered in this particular ’80s re-paint scheme. So he painted and decalled his own.

mdwboxes

Mike Confalone’s MD&W boxcars on his Allagash RR layout.

Mr. Confalone is an incredibly skilled modeller, as you can see, so it is no surprise his efforts would be top notch. The surprise for us was; why the heck are Minnesota Dakota and Western boxcars being used to load paper in Maine? The answer is forestry giant Boise Cascade (parent company of the tiny MD&W RR) owned a paper mill in Rumford ME. Apparently some of these boxcars even had “Return to Rumford ME” stencilling applied to them.

This one model photo along with the real-world information about Boise Cascade’s Maine paper production helped to resolve a number of CP Sudbury Division puzzles, ones we didn’t quite remember even existed. This explained occurrences of Boise Cascade MDW boxcars on prototype photos of CP train 911, a manifest freight that had rolled daily through Sudbury ON. This train operated from St Luc Yard in Montreal to Sault Ste Marie ON; then continued via CP’s US-affiliate SOO Line to their Schiller Park IL Yard within the greater Chicagoland area. CP #911 carried a lot of New England paper traffic bound for Chicago during our 1970s modelling era, as many shippers were avoiding the transit-time mess created by the Penn Central merger. Service was so good in fact that CP Rail continued to ship a decent amount of New England rail traffic well into the 1980s.

4232 leads train at Sault Ste Marie 09 05 1981

MLW C-424 #4232 leads train 911 at Sault Ste Marie ON on 05 Sept. 1981. Note the four MD&W boxcars behind the CP steel-coil service gondola trailing 911’s locomotives.

Our original assumption was that these MD&W boxcars were lumber empties being returned to the US mid-west, with no idea of their true origins. The truth was they were hauling newsprint bound for the Chicago area, and for all intents and purposes are as New Englandy as any paper-service boxcars painted for the Maine Central or Bangor & Aroostock.

Topping this off, one of our club members had purchased two recently released Athearn HO-scale models of FMC-built combo-door boxcars painted in the 1970s as-delivered MD&W white scheme to operate on the WRMRC layout. Being uninformed at the time, they were placed within our “Pool 733 – US mid-western misc boxcars” category (more information about our pools when we publish operations articles) and tried to stretch excuses for why some lumber might be rolling through Sudbury from International Falls MN (where the actual MD&W RR is located). Knowing the real story about why these boxcars were rolling though Sudbury, they have since been re-classed into our New England newsprint service boxcar pool. In fact our layout could now use a few more models.

MDW_10009

Produced by Athearn, MD&W 10009 wears the as-delivered 1970s white Boise Cascade corporate scheme. This car is now in New England paper-service on the WRMRC layout.

This information comes at a great time, as the Coronavirus break from operating sessions has given our club a chance to update and fix a number of older waybill shipping inaccuracies. But this MD&W boxcar mystery has to be one of the easiest puzzles we’ve had solved. When something just falls together like this, one is reminded of that old catch-phrase that Lt Col Hannibal Smith used to say on the old ’80s television series ‘The A-Team’ – “I love it when a plan comes together.”

Signalling the Sudbury Division

Since our club’s initial decision to model the CP Sudbury Division in the 1970s era, it was understood by the membership that at some point railway signals would need to be installed on the layout. Not only did we want our layout scenes to look close to their real place counterparts despite having to selectively compress them, or operate equipment that appeared just like what really ran through northern Ontario in the ’70s, but we also wished to operate the layout in a realistic manner too.

The CP Cartier Subdivision between North Bay and Cartier was all CTC (Centralized Traffic Control) territory during the 1970s, with the exception of the six mile double-track section between Romford and Sudbury yard which was ABS (Automatic Block Signal System) signalled in one direction for current of traffic. Regardless of the two signalling methods it meant the club’s entire east-west mainline was protected by signals, and therefore we would need to duplicate this if we wished to achieve our goals of both looking right, and running right.

That said, we can report that signalling a model railway is very much more easier said than done. However after 20 years of planning, and of delaying a lot of scenery work from being started due to the wiring and complexity of the project, the 1/87 scale Sudbury Division is seeing its first signals begin to sprout around the layout.

RomfordSignals01

Temporary dual-head and permanent dwarf signals installed at Romford. Once fully programmed they will protect this busy junction just like their real-life counterparts.

Though much of the hobby has progressed quite dramatically over the past 40 years, sadly the process of signalling a layout has lagged behind despite the pioneering efforts of Allen MccLelland’s V&O, or Bruce Chubb’s Sunset Valley back in the 1970s. Yes, there are multiple sources of hardware available, and JMRI (Java Model Railroad Interface) software is free, however none of this is really plug and play. You need to program signal scripts and modify JMRI for any of this to work. Between knowing where the signals need to be installed, planning and wiring the signal blocks accordingly, selecting the detectors, switch and signal controllers and then programming it all to work, there is one other big problem for us. No one out there offers ready-to-run Canadian-style searchlight signals.

Romford, ON in October 6, 1971

From the cab of ‘The Canadian’ at Romford, ON – 06 October 1971. Photo by Roger Puta, from Marty Bernard’s Flickr album.

Though searchlight signal kits do exist in HO scale, they are US-based and need to be disassembled and pretty much scratch-build to have them appear like the real deal did. This and both CP and CN did have some differences in their ladder assemblies. For this reason, the WRMRC has decided to build their own, and to use temporary signals in the meantime. But it sure would be nice if a Canadian model manufacturer considered reproducing them for HO modellers at some point. Hello Rapido; wink, wink, nudge, nudge!

RomfordSignals02

Westbound signals guarding Romford. The mainline is on the right. The wye tracks to the left connect with the Parry Sound Sub to Toronto. The track in the middle is a set-off siding.

There is also the little wrinkle of the dispatcher needing a CTC panel for this all to work. However the good news for the WRMRC is the CP Cartier Sub was signalled in the 1960s, and thus never used one of the ‘classic’ CTC panels that railfans usually imagine. CP had their own hybrid system housed on the second floor of the Sudbury Division HQ building, featuring a large white wall panel with a black trackage schematic, and yellow lights displaying track occupancy. The dispatcher set switches and direction of traffic with a keypad assembly. Frankly, this sounds a lot like something you can duplicate on a computer screen and controlled with a keyboard, and so that’s exactly what we will be doing.

RomfordSignals03

Temporary dual-head signals protect the CP Cartier Sub diamond crossing with the CN Bala Sub at Coniston, Ontario. The diamond, much like our signals, is a work in progress.

Regardless of all these difficulties, the WRMRC has a small team working on the project and they’ve been making great strides recently. As you can tell from the photographs, the layout is already looking dramatically different. We look forward to the day we can ‘un-bag’ these signals for a future operating session, and have our engineers operate their trains as per signal indication. This also means scenery can progress in these areas too. The WRMRC’s goals of ‘looking right’ and ‘running right’ are slowly being achieved.