For the past several weeks, I have been corresponding with my long-time reader, and photographer, Bob Krone. As a teenager, Bob travelled to Montreal on occasions in the late 1950s from his home in Hackensack, New Jersey.
On both ventures, Bob’s objective was to photograph live steam. His first trip, in November 1957, yielded coverage of both Canadian National and Canadian Pacific steam in action. His second venture to Montreal, in June 1959, captured only CPR steam in active service.
This post is to give you a brief introduction and light overview of what Bob saw and photographed. His two trips to Montreal interlock nicely with Jim Guerin’s journeys to the same locale in 1956 and 1958, documented in Steam Encounters at Montreal.
Bob has allowed me to borrow and scan his (and his dad's) original transparencies and negatives from his two late 1950s trips to Montreal (and a few other places). I’ve selected six views, three from each of Bob’s trips, to introduce his work to our community:
Canadian National 5251, facing west toward Turcot roundhouse, poses adjacent to the Imperial Tobacco warehouse on Saturday, November 9, 1957. This is a location familiar to us from Jim Guerin’s visits to Montreal.
Canadian Pacific MLW RS-18 road switchers 8746, 8739 and 8748 repose near the diesel shop at St. Luc on Saturday, November 9, 1957. These units are only months old.
On Sunday, November 11, 1957, CPR G5c Pacific 1256 heads train 173 for Ste. Agathe, at Montreal West.
Moving on to Bob’s second visit to Montreal in the late 1950s, we find CPR G3h Pacific 2459 basking in the sun on the shop track at “The Glen” (the Canadian Pacific’s yard and roundhouse at Westmount). It’s Monday, June 22, 1959.
Now we’re out at Vaudreuil, nineteen miles west of Montreal West on the Winchester Subdivision on the same Monday, June 22, 1959. Another CPR modern G3, number 2461, backs her late afternoon/evening train into the yard here.
A couple of days later, on Wednesday, June 24, 1959, CPR Mikado number 5394 wheels a block of new refrigerator cars past our vantage point. We’re alongside the Angus Shops, near Hochelaga.
In subsequent samplings, we’ll dive a little deeper into some of the locomotives, trains and facilities Bob visited.
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Please share this post with any friends who share your interest in 1950s Canadian railway operations.
