Manitoba and Saskatchewan Coal and other notes.
Robert J. Sandusky
I first saw this operation in May 1960, visited it several
times in 1960 and then again in March 1964; all that while it was in
operation.
At Taylorton there was also a defunct Western Dominion Coal Co. at the
west end of the M&S operation. Two locos from WD made it over to
the M&S operation but by then it was called Great West Coal.
The M&S operation was switched with 6947 in 1960, with 3522 as spare
power. No. 6166 was retired prior to 1960 but was painted up to look
nice.
In 1964 3522 was doing the switching and the run to Bienfait while 6947
was spare power. I don’t know if 182 participated in that job.
By the way, the M&S power also switched the nearby Dominion Briquette
Co. in 1960. Jim Lanigan and I rode 6947 there for a few hours and it
put quite a few cars into that plant. (The M&S engineer was a Joe
Keltika whose work chums gave him the nick name ‘ Joe Tea Kettle’.)
In 1960 the derelict leftovers of the WD Coal operation consisted of
418 (2-6-0 ex CNR 418, exx McArthur 23, blt. CLC 1914). It was scrapped.
In their loco shed one found 107 (2-8-0 ex TH&B 107 and out of service
for months), 706 (2-8-0 ex- DSS&A, up on blocks and long dead) and
in the centre bay 182 (RS-1, ex-Great Northern and very much serviceable).
In a separate, open-sides shed was 3070 (B+B diesel ex- Andy Merrilees
conversion to diesel in 1951. Originally Cornwall electric loco 9 and
2 previous electric railways prior to that). By my 1964 visit 182 was
switching the Great West Coal loader and lettered GWC. As well in March
1964 3070 had been moved over to the M&S operation and was stored
in the loco shop, serviceable. This imaginative creation later went
to Manalta Coal at Sheerness, AB and was left derelict there after the
CNR branch to Wardlow was taken up in the later ‘90s. It is now
in the Reynolds Alberta collection.
The mish-mash of motive power on these mines has always been a challenge
to keep track of, with so much second-hand power about.
