Lambton Freight and Mechanical Yards

The CPR's terminal facilities at West Toronto having become overtaxed recently, it was decided, as mentioned in these columns at the time, to build new facilities to the west of those then in use. The site selected is on the north side of the main line to Detroit, near Lambton, just beyond the city limits, which are at Runnymede Road, as shown in the accompanying plan. The terminals extend from Runnymede Road on the east to Chadwick Avenue on the west, which is near the approach of the high level bridge across the Humber River. The site for the terminals is in many ways ideal, as from Runnymede Road westerly for 2,200 ft. there are no highway crossings, Jane Street being the first, this street passing under the narrow western end of the terminal yards in a 30 ft. subway, with double approaches on the St Clair Avenue end. Scarlett Road, further west, also passes under the line in a 44 ft. subway. At the eastern end of the terminals, the layout has been hampered to a certain degree by the presence of Runnymede Road, which made it impossible to make the yards double ended. This street is carried under the tracks at that end of the yards in a 56 ft. subway, which has at present a 6 track crossing, but the abutments are built for an additional 6 when traffic conditions warrant.

The main line from Toronto, and beyond these new terminals, is double tracked. The westerly entry to the terminals leaves the main line at Chadwick Avenue, from which point into the yard ladders there are two leads 2,000 ft. long for arriving and departing trains. These will accommodate 55 car trains. The main part of the yard is double ended and is divided into two sections, for arriving and departing trains, each with a capacity of 500 cars. The arriving yard is the southerly of the two and extends from Jane Street to the easterly end. The outgoing yard extends the full length of the yards, from the Lambton Station, The combined yards have 20 tracks, located at 13 ft. centres.

To the north of the east end of the yards there is a 12 track freight car repair yard with capacity for about 150 cars. It is arranged with two leads from the north side of the main yards, the central tracks having a car capacity of 22, with the outside tracks accommodating only three or four. Between every other pair of tracks there is a 2 ft. service track, connecting at the east end by turntables to a track running along behind the earth bumpers. The wheel storage tracks are at the north end of this track, in the open space opposite Ryding Avenue, where four sets of storage tracks are being installed. At the south end of the locomotive house there is a pneumatic jib crane over the service track for unloading the wheels from cars on the northerly of the car repair tracks on the track leading into the storage yard. This track is arranged for both standard and narrow gauge. On the track behind the bumpers there is a narrow gauge car, with a carriage top, on which the wheels are run for distribution throughout the yard. The car foreman's office is in the building to the east of the repair rack yard, and in the same building are housed the car stores and a small blacksmith shop of one forge. The front of the building is planked, and against the building are material bins for rough car stores. The car stores in the building are contained in 4 tiers of double bins. The building also contains an oil room, lunch room for the men, lavatory and tool room. This yard is not intended for the handling of very heavy repairs, these being handled for the most part in the main shops at West Toronto. The average capacity is 100 pairs of wheels and 200 long sills per month. The yard is in charge of J.J. Bannon, Car Foreman.

The new locomotive house and motive power handling facilities form the main part of the new terminals. The locomotive house is built entirely of concrete and has 20 stalls (sic. 30 stalls), the building being divided into three sections. It opens to the southwest, the entering tracks coming from the east, there being provision for the addition of a further 10 stall unit when required. This locomotive house handles all the power formerly accommodated in the old building adjoining the locomotive shops in West Toronto.

In the centre there is an 80 ft. turntable operated by an air motor tractor. The inner radius of the locomotive house is 95 ft. and the outer radius 180 ft., giving a depth of 85 ft. As mentioned, it is of concrete construction, with large window area in the outer wall. The roof is of 2 by 5 in. planking, laid on edge, and covered with fireproof sheeting. It is supported on the walls and two intermediate circular rows of concrete columns. Over the forward end of each track there is a Johns-Manville asbestos smoke jack.

Each locomotive house track has a 65 ft. concrete pit, with convexed bottom, sloping to the inner edge for drainage, a pit for this purpose and for the piping being located the forward end of the pits, passing around the building just inside the inner wall. The sides of each pit are planked with heavy planking for a width of 2 ft., the balance of the floor being of cinder construction, with the exception of the central section of 10 stalls, which is paved with concrete. The three pits at the shop end are drop pits, the first one for front truck wheels, and the next two for driving wheels. The intervening space between these pits at the shop end is floored with heavy planking, on which the wheels can be run from the wheeling tracks, and then into the machine shop.

Alongside each smoke jack, at about 8 ft. centres, there is suspended a light trolley with a 6 ft. rod attached thereto, the tracks being about 36 ft. long. This length covers the locomotive forward of the cab and is found most useful in the handling of the exterior locomotive fittings such as the bell stand, etc., without the necessity of slinging a block and tackle over a beam. A block and tackle is attached to the trolley to be used, and can be moved along the length of the locomotive at will. The trolley capacity is about 1,000 lbs., which is ample for the handling of such light fittings as would come under running repairs. Only light repairs are handled here, the heavy ones being sent to the nearby locomotive shop in West Toronto.

The general lighting of the locomotive house is by clusters of three 32 c.p. incandescent lamps suspended from the roof near each of the columns. These lights are controlled from a central switchboard panel in groups of 3 pits. In addition to this general lighting, there are incandescent lamp sockets around the walls, and in each pit there are two lamp cord connections.

The indirect system of heating is employed throughout the locomotive house by means of batteries of pipes in the pits and along the walls. In the pits along each wall there are four lengths of pipe, with similar units along the outer wall. Exhaust steam is employed, supplied through a pipe in the circular pit. The pit also contains a 2 in. steam main, 3 in. water main, and a 1½ in. air main. These all have connections to the columns between the pits.

Near the entrance from the locomotive house into the machine shop there is a Miller washout plant which is found very useful. Three sets of piping run from this plant, suspended from the roof, to a column between every other pit. All the column connections are 2 in., branching from 4 in. mains. Through these connections, the blow off water can be drawn off to the washout plant, where it is held in one compartment of the large tank, and is used over again for washout purposes, one line being provided for this purpose. The third line is for filling the locomotive boiler with clear water at about 200 degrees. The temperature of the washout water is automatically regulated to 125 degrees for convenience of the men in handling.

On every water column there is an air connection for blowing purposes, this connection coming up through the floor between every other pit from the front pipe pit, with a connection at the column where it comes up, the connection continuing on up to the roof and across to the next water column. On every other water column there is a 2 in. fire connection, with a 50 ft. length of hose carried in a glass fronted box on the column.

In addition to the foregoing special facilities, in the shop end of the locomotive house there is a small forge for general work, with iron rack adjoining. These are both located in the space between adjoining pits. Here are about 100 expanded metal lockers for the employees in the building, ranged along the partition walls.

The machine shop is contained in a 50 by 90 ft. addition to the west end of the locomotive house. The south side of this building is separated from the machine shop and contains the offices for the locomotive foreman and his staff, and a room for the men to register trips. This section of the machine shop building is only half the height of the shop, and over the offices, open to the machine shop, there is an air brake testing department, and accommodation for the electricians.

The machine shop contains the following equipment: 16 in. double punch and shear, small press, large press, 2 in. bolt machine, heavy drilling machine, small drilling machine, 26 in. shaper, 18 and 36 in. lathes, grindstone and double emery. The tool room for the shop is in the V corner, adjoining the door into the locomotive house. In the opposite corner is the power equipment, consisting of a small vertical high speed engine for shop drive, and a 16 by 16 by 9 in. air compressor. The westerly section of the shop is divided off for the boiler room, containing three 120 h.p. locomotive boilers carrying 120 lbs. of steam. Outside the boiler room there is a 95 by 10 ft. stack. Adjoining the stack there is a standard CPR air storage tank, with a similar one at the opposite end of the locomotive house for supplying air to the freight car repair yards, which are piped for air. The pressure carried is 100 lbs.

To the west of the machine shop is the stores building, equipped in the usual manner with racks, etc., for the accommodation of the stock material, and a Bowser equipment for the oil, with storage tanks in the basement. The floor is on a level with that of a car, with a platform along two sides of the building for unloading stores. At the east end of the platform there are stores bins for the rough supplies.

The west end of the stores building is used by the locomotive department, a room in the southwest corner of the building containing racks for the enginemen's clothes and tool boxes. An adjoining room contains the enginemen's oil cans, etc. Both these rooms are in the charge of an attendant. This man's duties also consist of recording departures, detentions, etc., a system that has been found valuable in locating the cause of delays. Along the west wall in this building there is a small room for the ashpit men, and in the northwest corner of the building there is a room used as a general storing room by the locomotive department, in which are kept winter stores out of season, patterns of buffer beam and other parts, curtains, and such material.

Charcoal is employed for lighting fires, and is contained in a frame building to the southeast of the stores building. The east end of this building is a window sash storing room, in which all the double windows of the locomotive house are stored in summer, all the windows in the plant being provided with double storm sashes. The charcoal house portion, which comprises the westerly three quarters, is divided into two equal rooms, both of which have a storage capacity of about one carload of charcoal. The practice followed is to draw from the one room at a time, completely emptying it before commencing on the second. In this manner, better check is kept on the material and the charcoal is kept in a better form for use than if it were constantly being trampled over as in a single room store.

To and from the locomotive house, there are two inbound and four outbound tracks, with four immediate tracks connecting with the turntable pit. For the handling of the ashes on the locomotives there are two Ord ash handling plants of the type described in Canadian Railway and Marine World, October 1911. Over each there are two tracks, with a blind track between for spotting ash cars. In the accompanying panoramic view of the mechanical terminals, a locomotive is shown on the left dumping ashes.

The coal handling plant is of the CPR standard type, consisting of a chain of buckets raising the coal from lower hoppers to hoppers over the service tracks. The plant is of 300 tons capacity and has four chutes. Coal cars come into the plant up a ramp, which is continued 9 car lengths beyond the plant. A string of cars can thus be fed through the plant as required from the stub end without assistance from the yard crew, once the train of 10 cars is run up the ramp. Adjoining the coaling plant there is a sand storage bin, from which the sand is elevated into hoppers on the coal hopper frame for feeding into the locomotive.

Locomotive water is obtained from the city service, there being a 60,000 gal. tank on the grounds. Between each of the pairs of ashpit racks, and between two of the coaling plant tracks, as well as on one of the tracks passing the tan, there are water spouts so that a locomotive can be watered on any one of 7 tracks.

On the St Clair Avenue side of the yards, there is an old house, now used by the locomotive department as a bunk house for the locomotive drivers and firemen. In the rear of the bunk house there is a well equipped kitchen where the men may cook meals, and the centre room is for dining. The front room of the house is fitted up for a reading room, with current railway technical literature, as well as books and general periodicals. This room also contains a series of air brake charts that are handy for the men's reference. The upstairs section of the house has a chain of bedrooms, containing 12 beds. Below stairs is a register book for the men's calls.

The Locomotive Foreman of this new locomotive terminal is F. Ronaldson, to whom we are indebted for the data on which this article is based.

CANADIAN RAILWAY AND MARINE WORLD - November, 1913

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