Another GWWD Fan Trip

Photographer Mark Perry very kindly scanned seven slides from his collection that feature a fan trip in 1983, probably from the Winnipeg NMRA convention that I talked about in my previous post.

The photographer isn’t marked on the slides. In fact, they have no markings other than the Kodak “July 1983” stamp, which I believe marks when they were processed, not when they were taken.

The slide below shows the Greater Winnipeg Water District Railway yard in St. Boniface in Winnipeg, Manitoba. There are a LOT of interesting details here.

Note the strings of ore cars on the left side. At the time, the GWWD hauled gravel for Supercrete from a pit at or near Ross, Manitoba. Wikipedia says this stopped in 1992. I took some photos of a few of those cars on my visits to Winnipeg. I think the majority have been scrapped.

Also note the grain elevator past the ever present St. Boniface water tower. These elevators are gone.

The yard is fenced now, and the engine house and the station building, both in the distance, still exist.

This slide was taken just southwest of the diamond where CN crosses the GWWD (or the GWWD crosses the CN, your choice). It’s facing northwest and you can see the GWWD yard, water tower, and grain elevator from the previous photo in the distance, with the Supercrete facility closer. There’s a wye on the left, past the station wagon.

The CN track comes off the St. Boniface spur and allows CN to service the Shell bulk terminal, as well as Lafarge, the owner of the former Supercrete facility.

I believe the above photo shows a view looking south-east. They are passing through the Supercrete facility, which was very close to the GWWD yard. I believe the rock train is on the east/south leg of the wye. I think we are looking at the tail end of the train as it is returning to the yard, and maybe the crewman is setting the switch so the rock train can come off the wye.

It looks like the excursion train met a rock train somewhere. Clayton from the RailsMBSK group said the train went to mile 30, which would be Monominto, so maybe that’s where this is.

I’m told this is Richland siding, a stub siding.

There’s lots of rock ballast!

Here’s the rock train on the main, featuring GWWD 101 for power. I can see that 103 is powering the excursion train.

The NMRA convention members are riding the caboose, as evidenced by the name tags on the two gentlemen on the rear. The GWWD crewman must be having a good time!

Here’s one final photo, showing the GWWD yard at a different time.

It’s a slightly different view than the one earlier in the post, and you can see the train geeks are wandering through the yard. There’s a locomotive in the engine house that wasn’t there before, too.

Thank you very much to Mark Perry for allowing these to be posted here.

Just One More Thing

Eric Gagnon shared this public timetable for the GWWD a while ago. It is effective June 16, 1969 and shows the thrice-weekly train leaving Winnipeg at 9 AM, arriving in Waugh at 12:07, and returning to Winnipeg by 5:37 PM. That’s pretty fast for a mixed train – an average of around 30 MPH!

Also check out this marketing book on Supercrete. Very interesting!