The preserved combine from the Carillon Grenville train on the St. Denis family’s original farm near Chute à Blondeau. . (Omer Lavallée, C.M. collection courtesy of Ron Ritchie) The Canadian Northern did make an unsuccessful attempt to preserve the locomotives and cars. From the end of operations in 1910, the locomotives and rolling stock lay derelict. At about the outbreak of World War I, a Montreal scrap dealer by the name of Diamond purchased the rolling stock. Most of the equipment was barged down the Ottawa River to Montreal where it was scrapped. Two combination car bodies were sold for use as farm storage sheds. Eugene St. Denis, a farmer whose land faced the Ottawa River at Chute à Blondeau, bought the body of one passenger car. It is possible that Mr. St. Denis bought the second body as well. The cars were taken across the river during the 1914-15 winter. There is photographic evidence that both cars were in existence until the 1920s or 1930s. One of the cars, an arch-roofed one, has disappeared but the other one, with a clerestory roof survived. About 1963, the St. Denis farm was expropriated as the waters of the Ottawa River were being raised by the construction of Hydro-Quebecs Carillon dam. The family moved to a new farm about five miles from St. Eugene, Ontario and brought the car body with them. The body was purchased by the National Museum of Science and Technology in Ottawa (now called the Canada Science and Technology Museum) where it is now stored out of public view. It is the oldest known piece of passenger equipment in Canada. What contributed to its survival was Mr. St. Denis perhaps accidental foresight in covering the entire roof with sheet metal and boarding-in the clerestory.
Posted on: Sat, 15 Nov 2014 01:18:43 +0000
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