Old Time Trains

CPR Carleton Place Subdivision

Number 556 engine 2518 on wye at Carleton Place. Other train is 563 to Brockville. Bruce Chapman Collection

G2 2518 with No. 556 from Chalk River drifting to a stop at Stittville (CPR spelled it wrong!) station in Stittsville, Ontario. Baggageman ready to handle express or, just getting some fresh air! Mother and child waiting for someone arriving on the train or, just watching it. No date or caption unfortunately. The open cab is not a clue since 2518 retained its open cab
until the end unlike other G1 and G2 class engines. Bud Laws Collection

Another undated photo of 2518. This time dropping downgrade passing the mile board for Nepean (behind train) about
Mile 9 on the Carleton Place Subdivision...this looks like #556 coming in from Chalk River about noon. 2518 was the
engine involved in the infamous Almonte wreck 12/27/1942 when a fast moving 13 car troop train hauled by 2802 a heavy
4-6-4 passenger engine rear-ended No. 550 a local passenger train stopped at the station which did not have an SPS signal, killing 39 (more died later in hospital) with 150 injured in one of the worst wrecks in Canadian history. The last three cars
were wooden coaches which contributed to the death toll. While the CPR blamed the engineer of the troop train and
demoted him, the coroner's jury soundly blamed the CPR for laxness in operations including the lack of a Station Protection Signal. An overworked locomotive (2518) hauling ten passenger cars and known to be a poor steaming engine contributed
to the disaster. (Note: Pronounced Almont, silent e). Bud Laws Collection

The Carleton Place Subdivision is now part of the Trans Canada Trail. Last train was VIA #2 Canadian 1/15/1990

L.B.Chapman at Stittville.

This shot is taken at beautiful downtown Stittville, mileage 13 on the Carleton Place Subdivision.

Bill Linley took this shot of me hooping up orders to regular freight train #90 which ran from Smiths Falls through Carleton Place to Ottawa West. This was on Dominion/Canada Day 1965, my first year of employment as an operator.

The train order signal at Stittville was only a 2-indication signal, red and green, meaning 'stop for orders' or 'proceed, no orders'. But if we only had train orders that did not restrict the train, a yellow flag by day or a yellow light by night had to be taken out with the train orders by the operator hooping the train, to let them know that they didn't have to stop. But holding 2 train order hoops and the flag sometimes got a little squeamish, so we'd often jam the yellow flag into the cracks in the
wooden platform.

That motorcycle on the platform was my transportation for the first year of my employment as an operator on the Smiths Falls Division. The town's real name is Stittsville, but a typo in an old employee's timetable meant that the error was carried on for years and years, until a short time before the line was ripped up. Abandonment between Bells Junction and Carleton Place
was on January 15,1990.

Bruce Chapman

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Old Time Trains © 2020

CPR Carleton Place Subdivision

Number 556 engine 2518 on wye at Carleton Place. Other train is 563 to Brockville. Bruce Chapman Collection

G2 2518 with No. 556 from Chalk River drifting to a stop at Stittville (CPR spelled it wrong!) station in Stittsville, Ontario. Baggageman ready to handle express or, just getting some fresh air! Mother and child waiting for someone arriving on the train or, just watching it. No date or caption unfortunately. The open cab is not a clue since 2518 retained its open cab
until the end unlike other G1 and G2 class engines. Bud Laws Collection

Another undated photo of 2518. This time dropping downgrade passing the mile board for Nepean (behind train) about
Mile 9 on the Carleton Place Subdivision...this looks like #556 coming in from Chalk River about noon. 2518 was the
engine involved in the infamous Almonte wreck 12/27/1942 when a fast moving 13 car troop train hauled by 2802 a heavy
4-6-4 passenger engine rear-ended No. 550 a local passenger train stopped at the station which did not have an SPS signal, killing 39 (more died later in hospital) with 150 injured in one of the worst wrecks in Canadian history. The last three cars
were wooden coaches which contributed to the death toll. While the CPR blamed the engineer of the troop train and
demoted him, the coroner's jury soundly blamed the CPR for laxness in operations including the lack of a Station Protection Signal. An overworked locomotive (2518) hauling ten passenger cars and known to be a poor steaming engine contributed
to the disaster. (Note: Pronounced Almont, silent e). Bud Laws Collection

The Carleton Place Subdivision is now part of the Trans Canada Trail. Last train was VIA #2 Canadian 1/15/1990

L.B.Chapman at Stittville.

This shot is taken at beautiful downtown Stittville, mileage 13 on the Carleton Place Subdivision.

Bill Linley took this shot of me hooping up orders to regular freight train #90 which ran from Smiths Falls through Carleton Place to Ottawa West. This was on Dominion/Canada Day 1965, my first year of employment as an operator.

The train order signal at Stittville was only a 2-indication signal, red and green, meaning 'stop for orders' or 'proceed, no orders'. But if we only had train orders that did not restrict the train, a yellow flag by day or a yellow light by night had to be taken out with the train orders by the operator hooping the train, to let them know that they didn't have to stop. But holding 2 train order hoops and the flag sometimes got a little squeamish, so we'd often jam the yellow flag into the cracks in the
wooden platform.

That motorcycle on the platform was my transportation for the first year of my employment as an operator on the Smiths Falls Division. The town's real name is Stittsville, but a typo in an old employee's timetable meant that the error was carried on for years and years, until a short time before the line was ripped up. Abandonment between Bells Junction and Carleton Place
was on January 15,1990.

Bruce Chapman