Throwback Thursday #1 - Stelco Steel Train at Waterford, ON

B&O GP38 #4806 leads the southbound empty Stelco steel train over the CASO at Waterford, ON in the summer of 1983. Uncredited slide, author's collection.

My sister tells me that a lot of radio stations these days are doing “throwback Thursdays” wherein they play golden oldies hits from bygone years, and suggested I try it as a theme for my blog. I like the idea and dug through my slide archives for some interesting material to use for this and future throwback Thursday photo discussions.

For the first one, I thought I’d select a rather oddball shot: here we have B&O GP38 #4806 leading a train over a large bridge. Where are we – somewhere on the Chessie near Lousiville? In the Kentucky coal fields? On the ex-Pere Marquette in Michigan? Nope, we are in Waterford, Ontario, in the heart of southern Ontario’s agricultural belt stretching between Windsor and Fort Erie. But the sharp-eyed observer will realize that Chessie had trackage rights on the CASO (NYC/PC/CR) mainline under the bridge, not over it. So what we have here is Chessie system power on a TH&B freight on a CP bridge. Clear as mud?

Let’s give the scene some context: In 1980, Stelco completed its’ massive new greenfield steel mill at Nanticoke, ON, on the shores of Lake Erie (known as Lake Erie Works, LEW for short). Stelco’s other facility, in Hamilton, was equipped with sophisticated rolling equipment that could apply several finishing treatment processes to coiled steel. Given the proximity of one mill to the other, transferring slabs from Lake Erie Works to Hamilton (Hilton Works) made economic sense when Hilton Works was short on steelmaking capacity, or LEW has excess. Thus, a shuttle train (known simply as the “steel train”) was established to move newly-cast slabs from LEW to Hilton works. The train was a joint venture between the TH&B and CN, operating in 10-week blocks on a 60/40 ratio between CN and TH&B. I’ll discuss CN’s routing in a later post, but suffice to say it was a fair bit simpler than the TH&B route.

Which brings us back to our topic photo. The west end of the TH&B reached as far as Waterford, connecting to part-owner road NYC (later PC/CR) not far from where the photographer was standing. CP, co-owner of TH&B until a buyout of the CR portion in 1987, still owned the old Lake Erie & Northern former electric line that once ran from Port Dover to Brantford and was in fact basically parallel to the TH&B line at Waterford. To permit operation of the steel train, a connecting track was built to link the two branchlines into a through route for the steel train, providing almost daily service on what was otherwise a lonely piece of railroad. Hence, under TH&B routing, a circuitous route from Hamilton took the steel train west to Brantford and then south to Waterford where it jumped to the old LE&N tracks which crossed over the CASO on the large bridge in the photo. From here, the train continued south to Simcoe; CP still did not have a complete route to LEW among its’ subsidiary lines, so a deal was struck to utilize trackage rights over the east-west  CN Cayuga sub (“air line”) between Simcoe and Jarvis. At Jarvis, the train made a move to connect to CN’s north-south  Hagersville sub for the final few miles to the steel mill.

We can approximate the date as June or July 1983 (uncredited slide, no date given) since an agreement struck in 1984 allowed the train to operate between Waterford and Hagersville over the better-maintained CASO (and from Hagersville to LEW over CN trackage rights). This allowed the abandonment of the remaining lightly travelled LE&N trackage south of Brantford; the abandonment of the TH&B’s west end was only a couple years away, when a landslide at Cainsville in 1989 gave the line its' death knell. 

But we still haven’t answered why Chessie power was on the train this day. As a small road, TH&B’s limited roster was often insufficient to handle the volume of freight it generated, particularly when a unit acid or phosphate rock train could purloin any spare units from the Chatham street shops and keep them occupied for hours. The road had a long history of borrowing engines from its’ co-owners, particularly towards the end of its’ independence. To railfans, this was often a treat as it would bring locomotive types to the area not otherwise seen in Canada. Thus, in 1983, a number of Chessie system units were found on TH&B trains, perhaps officially leased by the road, or as run-through power supplied by the parent roads. Either way, it added a splash of colour to the already interesting operation. Increasing CP influence in the 1980's also contributed CP units to the TH&B motive power pool, often MLW products such as RS18's and C424's. 

Postscript: Sadly, almost nothing remains today of this scene today. The steel train stopped running in its’ last rendition in late 2008 after the economic recession and other economies of scale no longer justified operation of the train. Likewise, abandonment and the wrecking crew eventually came calling for the CASO, the TH&B’s west end, the LE&N track, and the CN Cayuga sub. What little remains from this scene is in fact the bridge itself: it remains as part of a hiking trail.

So here you have it: Chessie System power in Waterford, ON, on a TH&B train on LE&N tracks hauling CN flatcars – how’s that for interesting?!

Cheers,

Peter.