©2005 Glenn F. Cartwright
Photos by Robert Halfyard
Recent reports of ongoing planning for the 2010 startup of a new commuter train service from Montreal's Central Station to Mascouche via Repentigny (to serve the l'Assomption market), Quebec recalls the days when there was just such an electric commuter train traversing much of the same route, from Central Station to Montreal Nord. It is pictured below, about to stop at Ahuntsic, Quebec.
Train 164 was usually 10 to 12 cars long, and left Central Station at 6:55 AM Monday through Friday. (Note that the timetable is in Eastern Standard Time). The motive power was often two aging, CN class Z-4a, 2400 volt DC electric locomotives (like CNR 183 and 184)which the CNR had acquired in a trade with the National Harbours Board Railway in exchange for 7 steam locos in 1941. The 9 boxcab English Electrics (EE) had been built between 1924-1926 and because they had been originally used by NHB for freight switching on the waterfront, they had no steam generators on board to heat the old, heavy-weight, downgraded, former long haul coaches. As a result, while under way, the coaches had no heat in winter. Instead, the coaches were heated with steam in Central Station before the run, and remained warm enough until the train completed its round trip nearly an hour-and-a-half later..
Saturday's train service was considerably shorter and usually used a multiple unit such as that pictured here at Val-Royal station. Though these trains were relatively more modern (built in by Canadian Car and Foundry in 1952) and heated electrically they were not well patronized on Saturdays and usually a 3-car unit would suffice.
Leaving Central Station, the train called at Portal Heights (now Canora), Mount Royal (now Mont Royal), and swung east at EJ (Eastern Junction) onto the l'Assomption subdivision belt line to call at Boulevard (St. Laurent Boulevard), Ahuntsic (St. Hubert Street south of Sauvé), Sault-au-Recollet, St. Vital (St. Michel Boulevard), Pie IX, Ste. Gertrude, and Montreal Nord (Montreal North) about 6 miles east of EJ tower. At Montreal Nord there was a run-around track where the locomotives would uncouple, run around the train, and prepare to haul it in the opposite direction as train 165. There were few passengers on the outbound morning run (train 164), just as there were few passengers on the evening return (inbound) run (train 171). But trains 165 and 170, inbound in the morning and outbound in the evening respectively, were filled to capacity with standing room only. The fare was $0.25 as far as Pie IX and slightly more beyond. Zone fares were in existence even in those days.
In 1943 construction began on a belt line from Pointe-aux-Trembles Jct. in the east end through Montreal Nord to EJ (Eastern Junction) tower where it joined the Mount Royal tunnel line just north of Mount Royal. Passenger trains from Rawdon, Senneterre, Chicoutimi, and Cochrane Ontario could then use the Mount Royal tunnel to access the newly built Central Station which had opened on July 14, 1943. With the shift of these trains to Central Station in 1945, Canadian National Railways abandoned passenger service from Pointe-aux-Trembles Jct. to its Montreal East Moreau Street Station and all stations in between (Pointe-aux-Trembles West, East Montreal, Lakefield, Hector, Tetreauville, Longue Pointe (just east of Viau Street), and Maisonneuve (at Theodore Avenue)). The new belt line was electrified from EJ tower to Montreal Nord in 1945-46 and electric commuter train service began in 1946. There were never more than two round trips per day, one in the morning and one in the evening.
Electrical infrastructure on the line was serviced by self-propelled car 15824 pulling a line car.
This car has now been preserved at the Canadian Railway Museum at Delson, Quebec.
The opening of Montreal's rubber-tired Metro (line 2) on October 14, 1966 doomed train service to Montreal Nord as more and more commuters took the Metro part way. Although the Metro did not follow the same route, many used it to head north (the Sauvé Metro station was near the CN Ahuntsic station) and caught connecting buses home. The Metro's relatively comfortable and frequent trains proved to be attractive enough to cause the discontinuance of the Montreal Nord service and the last train ran on November 8, 1969. This final trip was marred when a rock was thrown at the train, breaking a window, and hitting a small boy.
It wasn't long before shelters and platforms along the way (and the wooden stairs to reach the elevated track at stops like Pie IX and St. Vital) were demolished. The brick station at Ahuntsic was eventually replaced with a bus stop type glass shelter for CN's (and later VIA's) remaining Chicoutimi and Senneterre trains. The catenary from Gohier to Montreal Nord was removed in 1968 though a short section remained in place from Gohier to the locomotive change point east of EJ tower to permit the switch to and from the electric haulers which continued to pull long distance trains through the tunnel. With the ultimate demise of electric hauler service this remaining catenary too was removed, and long distance trains were rerouted around the mountain avoiding both the tunnel and the need for a change of locomotives.
Ahuntsic then Ahuntsic now
Reference
Leduc, Michael (1994). Montreal Island Railway Stations CN & Constituent Companies. Dollard des Ormeaux, Qc: Michael D. Leduc Enr.
Glenn F. Cartwright, August 7, 2001
Revision 16. Last revised 2008/04/16
