with resized (smaller) photos. Today's visit is to the Grand River & Northern Lake Erie, or as it's known locally, the Erie Northshore. This road is held jointly by the Elora Gorge & Eastern, 55%, the Grand Valley, which is owned outright by the EG&E, at 35%, with the remaining 10% in the hands of Gern Industries, the line's major shipper. The line runs from an interchange with the Toronto, Hamilton, & Buffalo at Port Maitland, Ontario, to an interchange with the Grand Valley at Cayuga Junction in South Cayuga.
Mainstay of freight operations since the early '20s are engines 630 and 632, copys of the USRA Light Mikado, built by Athearn. Shop forces at Lowbanks have altered the tenders with built-up coalboards and added canvas sunshades to the cab windows. Other than the variations in the appliances ordered from the builder, the pair are as true to the original USRA design as you're likely to find.
Here are the two with a train of mixed freight picked up from the TH&B interchange. They've just passed the Port Maitland operation of minority owner GERN Industries Ltd., and have their train well in hand. A mere 20 or so miles distant, they'll be down to a crawl on the long upgrade to Cayuga Junction.
While the Mikes soldiered on, often augmented with locos from the two parent roads, management was never entirely satisfied with their tractive effort. Help, in a permanent fashion, finally arrived in 1958 with the purchase of two pairs of RS-11s. While intended to replace the steamers, an upsurge in carloadings resulted in all six locos being kept busy. Normal practice was to doublehead each mike with a diesel on general freight, while the remaining pair of hood units handled coal trains.
Here, in an undated photo, the 604 leads two sisters past the Lowbanks station. The photo is likely pre-1962, as a close inspection reveals a loaded hopper at the receiving pit of the coaling tower (extreme right). The road's two mikes remained in service until late 1961.
Lead unit 604 and unshown sister 602 are from LifeLike (Proto-No-Thousand). They're the original ones with the single powered truck (that ran like crap) and the handrails cast as one piece with the walkways. They've been cosmetically upgraded and had their motors removed. Alone, the pair make the the two mikes look like real workhorses. The 606 and 608 are from Atlas and are very close to stock appearance. They do doublehead very nicely with the Mikados.
I hope everyone's enjoyed this visit to the Erie Northshore. I'll be back in a week or so with another installment of "Now and then...".
Wayne
Mainstay of freight operations since the early '20s are engines 630 and 632, copys of the USRA Light Mikado, built by Athearn. Shop forces at Lowbanks have altered the tenders with built-up coalboards and added canvas sunshades to the cab windows. Other than the variations in the appliances ordered from the builder, the pair are as true to the original USRA design as you're likely to find.
Here are the two with a train of mixed freight picked up from the TH&B interchange. They've just passed the Port Maitland operation of minority owner GERN Industries Ltd., and have their train well in hand. A mere 20 or so miles distant, they'll be down to a crawl on the long upgrade to Cayuga Junction.
While the Mikes soldiered on, often augmented with locos from the two parent roads, management was never entirely satisfied with their tractive effort. Help, in a permanent fashion, finally arrived in 1958 with the purchase of two pairs of RS-11s. While intended to replace the steamers, an upsurge in carloadings resulted in all six locos being kept busy. Normal practice was to doublehead each mike with a diesel on general freight, while the remaining pair of hood units handled coal trains.
Here, in an undated photo, the 604 leads two sisters past the Lowbanks station. The photo is likely pre-1962, as a close inspection reveals a loaded hopper at the receiving pit of the coaling tower (extreme right). The road's two mikes remained in service until late 1961.
Lead unit 604 and unshown sister 602 are from LifeLike (Proto-No-Thousand). They're the original ones with the single powered truck (that ran like crap) and the handrails cast as one piece with the walkways. They've been cosmetically upgraded and had their motors removed. Alone, the pair make the the two mikes look like real workhorses. The 606 and 608 are from Atlas and are very close to stock appearance. They do doublehead very nicely with the Mikados.
I hope everyone's enjoyed this visit to the Erie Northshore. I'll be back in a week or so with another installment of "Now and then...".
Wayne
