Steam's final winter in Owen Sound, part 2
CPR preamble on operations before the first diesels appeared
What was the situation with the CPR’s steam operations at Owen Sound before diesels arrived in 1954?
We’ll dive into the Canadian Pacific’s pre-diesel era, exploring 100% steam operations in the autumn of 1953—before steam’s final winter of 1958-59.
In Part 1, we examined the Canadian National side of the harbour:
Now we’ll turn our attention to the Canadian Pacific
The first diesel-electric locomotives appear on the CPR at Owen Sound in March 1954. As with our CNR analysis, we’ll wind the clock back to the autumn of 1953 to get our bearings on pure steam operations.
(Eight months before Dayliners claim her assignment, Pacific 1263 heads southbound morning train 706 at Orangeville in February 1956 - Bob Sandusky photo)
The time table excerpt below shows the CPR has a similar passenger train pattern to the CNR at Owen Sound—a morning train out, afternoon trains in and out, and a late evening train in (all daily except Sunday)
From a daily (except Sunday) turnaround way freight lifting grain loads upgrade to G5 Pacifics powering passenger runs, the CPR’s Owen Sound operations were pure branchline steam—until diesels arrived.
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