THE TRAIN WHISTLES HAVE BEEN SILENT IN THE LAST SIX MONTHS. In recent weeks there has been more activity, and the whistles are blowing again. The first trains were maintenance trains which passed quickly and seemingly at arbitrary times. During recent weeks, the customary sounds of a hundred years are now marking the middle of the night at 3:30 a.m.
The freedom of simply walking along the tracks or not needing to look out for the safety of myself and the dog has been replaced with the ordinary cautions. During the day, I now pass a long cautionary look east and west on the tracks before crossing them during my regular hikes. The rust which developed during the summer is still coating the metal, but the shiny steel is revealed these days.
It has been difficult to find any news about the train schedule, however. The Rail America website http://www.railamerica.com/RailServices/OVR.aspx simply states:
OTTAWA VALLEY RAILWAY (OVR)
The OVR operates 342 miles of track between Conistion to Smith Falls, Ontario with a Class I interchange with the Canadian Pacific at Sudbury and Smiths Falls, Ontario.
The OVR moves commodities including intermodal, forest products, and chemicals with approximately 70,000 cars per year.
The significance of whether or not trains are running on this route has to do with measuring the state of the economy in the region. This article from May 2009, when the trains shut down, condenses the matter of freight transportation and effects on the local economy:
Silence of train tracks reflects sluggish economy
http://www.emcalmontecarletonplace.ca/20090528/Business/Silence+of+train+tracks+reflects+sluggish+economy
In the last year the successful freight company has seen a 19 per cent reduction in traffic on their rails, which forced them to tighten their belts and pull their trains from the Ottawa Valley Railway (OVR) onto their own lines. This decision has meant the loss of 30 jobs within the OVR as the CPR trains represented 85 per cent of their business, according to a previous interview with an OVR spokesperson. Lovecchio couldn’t say if this decision was a short or long term move by the company, but did note that CPR responds to customer demand and right now the lack of demand has provided excess capacity on their own track lines.
I have sent an email to Rail America requesting information about the train schedule changes and will update here when I receive a reply.
Meanwhile, there is interest in using the OVR track system to facilitate transportation in the Ottawa Valley. Residents in the large rural communities or Renfrew County, Mississippi Mills and Lanark County rely upon their own vehicles and sparse bus runs to Ottawa, being the major urban center destination. People in these communities are discussing how commuter trains could allow more freedom of transportation.
Ottawa Valley towns banding together to keep trains on track
http://northbaynugget.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1657201
An online survey was also launched to gauge interest in a regular commuter service.
Harry Gow, the founder of Transport 2000 in Canada and a technical advisor for the project, told those gathered at Tuesday’s meeting the interest is definitely there. Out of an estimated 6,000 who commute regularly to Ottawa, more than 600 took the time to answer the survey, with the majority of them in favour of a regular train service.
Group pushes for Ottawa Valley commuter train
http://northbaynugget.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1657201
It is the threat to economic development for our regions and the commuter train which is the prime motivation for this meeting,” Ms. Donaldson said, stressing it is important to preserve the tracks and not just for the potential future of a commuter train.”It is very difficult if not impossible to sell an area to industry without rail,” she said.
Today no trains have passed. Evidently there is no regular schedule, however, the trains are running.
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THERE ARE A COUPLE OF WHITE MAINTENANCE TRUCKS on either side of Highway 60 at the intersection of the highway and the north/south tracks. Six men are removing the big yellow rail crossing sign at the west side of the farm. The sign and the signals have been there in one manner or other since the Ottawa Valley Railway was established in the pioneer days. The signals have been blinking and sounding on the usual schedule, without the expected rumbling that gently shaked the soil since the beginning days of Alderburn Farm.
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- Railway Crossing sign near the Golf Course Road
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- Farmstead is north of tracks, east is Renfrew
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- Rail crossing sign
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- Train Crossing sign
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- Track no Trains
HISTORY
Renfrew County … By the late 1800s, two railroads were built to link communities throughout the Valley. …
C.P.R. (Canadian Pacific Railway) Passenger Train crossing Mississippi River Bridge at Carleton Place, Ontario, 1900
NEWS and COMMENTARY
North Bay Nugget: Ottawa Valley Railway lays off 30
BLE: Ottawa Valley Railway stuck in middle
104.9 myFM: Petawawa Mayor Frustrated Over Silent Railway
The Daily Observer: Train traffic cut in area, Renfrew County council learns
Ottawa SUN: 2 hurt as Ottawa Valley rail train derails: Accident near Mattawa spills 20,000 litres of fuel into Ottawa River
Ottawa Citizen: Diesel spill from derailment won’t affect Ottawa water supply, officials say
LINKS
Transport Canada: Section 9: Signs & Road Markings Railway Crossing Sign
Railcan: … Ottawa Valley Railway (OVR) is a division of RaiLink Canada Ltd., a federally-regulated railway. …
RLK RailAmerica (images):
In the journal
The soil is drying, there are mechanical upgrades, animals are awakening in the warm weather, last year’s hay is coming off the fields and is going to feed them. Nearby the rapids are running in the Bonnechere River and in the Ottawa River. Historically, lumber is moving to the mills. and maple syrup is dripping into pails from the thawing tapped maples.
Equinox fields
Montreal Gazette: Vernal equinox, not weather, marks the start of spring
“As spring prepares to bloom at 8:07 p.m. Tuesday, Montrealers gazing out on lawns entombed in snow and ice may be forgiven a touch of skepticism.”
CBC: Vernal Equinox Marks the Beginning of Spring
Spring officially arrived in Canada Monday after the warmest winter on record.
National Geographic: News: Vernal Equinox 2009: Facts on the First Day of Spring
“… In the Northern Hemisphere spring officially begins at 7:44 a.m. ET on Friday, March 20, 2009—the vernal equinox, or spring equinox …”
Scienceworld.Wolfram.com: Vernal Equinox
… The date (near March 21 in the northern hemisphere) when night and day are nearly the same length and Sun crosses the celestial equator (i.e., declination 0) moving northward. …
Science Daily: Spring is Aurora Season
“… What are the signs of spring?…)
Family Education: Vernal Equinox Quiz
“… The vernal equinox marks the beginning of spring. Find out what else you know about this extraterrestrial event! …”
Identify the Alder tree
Among the maples, oaks, apple trees and birches I have been able to identify the tree that inpired the name of the farm. This is strictly a case of not seeing the forest for the trees. The Alder tree is abundant on the property since the original forests burned and replenished over the centuries. Or so I understand now that I have come to know that an Alder is a kind of birch tree. There is a grove of hardwood trees and many alders near the house: they are evident among the birches while branches are still bare.
When the Alderburn Farm was first populated the local bridges were made of Alder which stands harder with the application of water which rushes from the mountains to the Bonnechere River and its tributaries. Hardiness is one of the characteristics of the alder: settlers who used all of their resources to make homes and foster life from the raw landscape may have taken inspiration from the tough, reslient tree.
REFERENCE:
The Canadian Encyclopedia: Alder
(Alder TREE or shrub of genus Alnus of BIRCH family.)
The Spiritual Element of Trees: Alder
(In folklore the Alder is known as the “King of the Water”)
Nearby, across the Ottawa River, the E.B. Eddy plant stands vacant and ruined. It’s business moved to the United States where it produces matches today. The company was important in the households of the early settlers, as E.B. Eddy invented and produced handy matches that could be carried easily and would “strike anywhere”, replacing flint and innovating basic fire utility in Canada since 1851. Their motto was “Eddy Quality”. They produced the ubiquitous paper matches in books starting in 1928.
The sulphuric odours were distinctive when the plant was operating and billowing smoke covered the skies over the Ottawa River.
E.B. Eddy plant on the Ottawa River
From “Notes on the History of Renfrew County”
The first phospherous friction match was invented by Dr. Charles Sauria in 1831 at the College D.Darc Dole (Jura). Canadians were also dependent upon such crude methods of making fire: in the earlier days flint and steel were used.
In 1851 Ezra Butler Eddy began manufacturing matches in Hull, Quebec. He painstakingly dipped splints by hand. This was the beginning of wooden matches in Canada today*
*1961 publishing date
RESOURCES
Outouais Heritage WebMagazine: E.B. Eddy Match Factory, Hull
Canadian Museum of Civilization: The E.B. Eddy Residence
Matchcover Glossary: Eddy Match Company
The New York Times: April 28th 1900:
( … The insurance men are busy making calculations as to the losses in the great Ottawa and Hull fire … )
Lumber Kings and Shantymen By David Lee
( … A history of logging and life in the Ottawa Valley in the 19th century. The legend of the rough and rugged lumberjack… )
Bushwacker Wilderness Adventure: The Disappearing Match by Boris Swidersky
( …The matches were made in a shack at the rate of ten boxes a day; the boxes were made by local women in their homes…. )
The 23rd of February marks the 100th anniversary of the famed Canadian aircraft, The Silver Dart. Under the auspices of chairman Alexander Graham Bell and the Aerial Experiment Association, the Silver Dart was flown by J.A.D. McCurdy in Baddeck, Nova Scotia. He became known thereafter as the first pilot to fly in the British Empire.
The Silver Dart airplane was made from bamboo, wire, and fabric, and had a 50 horsepower watercooled engine.
Of local interest, the Silver Dart was tested at the nearby Petawawa Royal Canadian Air Force base, where it was the first Canadian aerial military experiment. It crashed in high winds on its fifth flight on August 2nd,
NEWS:
Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management:
Graham Bell’s Latest Triumph
Today, the foremost thing with the powers of the world is navigation of the air, either by balloon or heavier-than-air machines
There was an attempt on February 23rd of this year to re-enact the original flight, but high winds postponed the event
Cape Breton Post:
Pilot says Silver Dart flight rivals space shuttle trip
“We’ve had sold-out events and we’ve had interest from all over the country.”
The Chronicle-Herald: Silver Dart Flies Again
Replica of famed craft to re-enact first flight a century ago
CBC: Winter Weather Cancels Silver Dart flight
A snowstorm has forced organizers to cancel a flight meant to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of aviation in Canada
CBC: Government Pledges 3 Million
Poor weather may have kept the Silver Dart replica grounded in Baddeck, N.S., on the 100th anniversary of the original plane’s first flight, but it seems to have found a permanent home.
RESOURCES:
CBC Archives: Silver Dart makes aviation history
(… The plane was called the Silver Dart, and had been built by the Aerial Experiment Association, a group of like-minded aviation enthusiasts dedicated to creating a “practical aerodrome.”… )
Canada Aviation Museum: A.E.A. Silver Dart
( … It was repaired for display at the Canada Aviation Museum. )
Purchase a replica model:
EasyBuiltModels since 1932: Silver Dart D-90
Trillium Balsa
( … This is a Static Display model for intermediate modeling skills… )
Manufacturing technology which was emerging in sophisticated Britain, Europe, and America during the Industrial Revolution was beginning to turn around the ways of ordinary working life everywhere, and arrived with immigrant labourers eventually in wild Canada.
Candles made from tallow with cotton wicks were an economical practical choice then as they are still today. A rural househould such as Alderburn Farm would inventory many candle-making supplies, including forms for molding, candle boxes for storage, and flint and steel apparatus for lighting the candles.
The settlers brought lamps and other basic needs with them from their Great Britain former farms when they arrived in the middle of the 19th century. Certainly there were lamps available as part of the ordinary local feed store stock to burn animal fats. Alderburn Farm sourced some of its fuel for lamps from the rendered deadstock fat.
Kerosene was invented by Abraham Gesner of Nova Scotia and was patented in 1846. The new process innovated economical fuel supply and later replaced the common coal and whale oil fuel supplies of the beginning of the 19th century.
Kerosene lamps that were recently introduced as a fuel innovation product in about 1850 became part of the basic farm tools that illuminated the darkness of the outbuildings and house. Carriages and early motorized vehicles used kerosene and naptha lamps.
Dietz classic beacon kerosene lamp
Coal gas lamps were becoming a new municipal standard in a few large Canadian towns beginning in about 1840. Regionally, Ottawa, and Toronto, Ontario and Montreal in Quebec were in the fuel avant garde. These lamps required diligent care which was provided by the Lamplighter, a town employee who maintained the street lamps and ensured that they were lit in the night and doused during day. He would also serve as a kind of security guard, as he knew his way around the town and its residents.
Here in the country, the Chimney Watcher made rounds and would keep alert to the safety and comfort of neighbours. A chimney without a plume of smoke during the night and for more than a half-day in winter could mean that the occupants are in trouble and so the near neighbour community would be alerted to lend assistance.
William Walker: The Sky Watcher
Black rolls the phantom chimney-smoke
Beneath the wintry moon;
For miles on miles, by sound unbroke,
The world lies wrapt in its ermine cloak,
And the night’s icy swoon
Sways earthward in great brimming wells
Of luminous, frosty particles.
As the chimney was the main utiliity structure inside nearly every rural house, the local municipalities assigned someone to inspect the chimneys to ensure that they were safe. This fellow climbed a ladder, which was required by the homeowner, to the roof where he would sit and make his inspection. He was known as the Chimney Viewer.
Electric light had meanwhile found its way to major centers in Canada, beginning with the town of Pembroke and the forward-engineering Pembroke Electric Light Co. Ltd., which boasted a comprehensive downtown electrical lighting system 1884. Soon later, near cities of Ottawa (1887) and Toronto (1889) which had been experimenting with the innovation technology committed to utilitarian sets of electric street lamps. However, at the farm, electricity eventually arrived in the modern 1950’s. A wide range of lighting fixtures were installed and replaced over time from candles and hanging kerosene lamps to the wide range of today’s efficient lightbulbs that are employed here today. Was the house wired first or were the outbuildings upgraded to promote efficiency of farming operations? Given the notion of drive for technology for work that neatly underpinned every aspect of life in that decade, it was most likely the barn that was first wired, followed by the house, and then the sheds.
Coal and coal oil were the dominant commercial resources for fuel that were available in the middle century. During the early years it is most likely that the farm was supplied with coal until inexpensive and safe kerosene became the preferred choice for lamps at the farm when ready supply and prices warranted the significant change.
Speculation:
It is unlikely that the original settlers at Alderburn Farm, who lived here in about 1850, used whale oil in their lamps, which was the leading fuel of the beginning of the 19th century. Since the property apparently didn’t continually maintain a wood lot, then coal would have been the readily available practical choice for heating the house and burning the original chimney cooking fire.
The freight train that passed below the yard on the regional Central Canada Railway was moving coal from the east and west coasts via the national railway. Coal in steady quantities dropped from the cars and perhaps this was sourced for use in the house to supplement the main supply.
Apart from common tallow candles, I expect that there were also beeswax candles from the supplies of local apiculturists that may have been used for special occasions because of their charming natural textured appearance and warm honey fragrance.
REFERENCE:
A Heritage of Light: Lamps and Lighting in the Early Canadian Home by Loris Shano Russell, Janet Holmes
University of Toronto Press,2003
Canadiana: 20029056578 ISBN: 0802037658 : $70.00
(The nineteenth century opened in the flicker of tallow candles and closed in the glare of Edison’s electric lamp… )
The Canadian Encyclopedia: Lighting
( … The open flame continued to be the only source of domestic lighting until the incandescent light bulb was introduced in the 1880s. )
The Magic Lantern
(… Until the early 19th century, the only … oils of vegetable or animal origin.)
Petroleum History Society: Preserving history of the petroleum industry in Canada
( … During the decade preceding Confederation, the Canadian oil industry was born …)
Science.ca The Best Source for Canadian Science: Abraham Gesner
Geochemistry and Geochronology
( … Gesner coined the name kerosene for the lamp oil he perfected by 1853, and patented his processes in 1854.)
How Capitalism Saved the Whales by James S. Robbins
( … The first step that led to saving the whales was made by Dr. Abraham Gesner, a Canadian geologist. In 1849, he devised a method whereby kerosene could be distilled from petroleum.)
RESOURCES:
SirLampsAlot
(These volumes illustrate and price over 1800 lamps and are great references for collectors.)
World Lighting Links: Antique and Historic Lighting Resources|
(… This is a categorized index of some of the best lighting sites on the Internet today.)
Canadian Tire: Kawartha moose lamps
The middle of winter has rolled fiercely past, leaving high hills of firm snow and roaring plows behind. It is brutally cold outside as the barometer rises and the winds fly in from the north. Anyone who lives around Renfrew County can expect these blasting freezes.
The river and fields have been frozen for several months and are now beginning to thaw as witnessed in puddles and visible straws of hay and soil patches in the snow and ice on sparkling sunny days.
Hiking the lots here at the farm is a fantastic privilege as few people are any longer attached to the property and so there is litle activity apart from essential farm tasks when a truck or other heavy machinery comes out. The fields stretch out into the west where the corral is and the iron train bridge spans the gully below a green conifer and hardwood forest. The route is from the house near the road where the property bisects from fields to hills and mountains, and down to the Bonnechere River in the middle of the south fields. There it is absolutely quiet but for the cows that moo at dusk at the old farm across the river, when it’s feeding time, or a dog from the distance. The original residents of the farm, who lived in the house and worked at the corral would walk as I do each day and perhaps several times in the course of a working day. Or rather I may be walking as they did, and with a lighter day load than theirs ever was.
Undoubtedly there was work to do from sunup and into the evenings in order to maintain the farm, its machinery and stock as well as the animals before considering the tasks of keeping the roof on the house and the warmth inside. Farmers worked six days a week and spent Sunday with social activities: there would have been cherished personal time with family and friends.
Leisure time may have been spent at playing hockey on the frozen river. They may have tried their hands at Lacrosse in admiration of the Hurons or the Algonquins in their sports. The days, getting shorter, would inspire them to stay out later and sleep sooner after coming inside.
One can imagine easily that winter was especially long for the farmsteaders who found comfort in their warm fires and entertainment in meeting around a table and playing games. No doubt the Candlemas candles were burning brightly around the kitchen and in the lower rooms in February. Crokinole is one inside game that would have brought action to the kitchen and distraction from the winter outdoors. Played vigorously after the day’s labours of tending to the cattle twice and the horses in the stable, and household food-making then and a hearty dinner as the evening darkened around the farmstead.
Lee Valley crokinole board
I have played Crokinole in a cheerful church basement only where they like to keep tradition. Not so much a board game really, rather it is a kind of small physical sport.
Today we have playing cards and chess and checkers in the typical Canadian house board game stack. Manufactured games are available readily, and a child can become enthralled with xx or xx as their parents did.
Children of the day relied upon their imaginations considerably when playing, much as children do today. They used materials that were at hand to create their toys and games. Some of the handy materials were rope, wood,
Other popular past-times of the day were toys and games which are familar to children and parents today:
- checkers
- chess
- cribbage
- playing cards
REFERENCE:
Canadian Design Resource: Crokinole This website is replete with quality design and unique products.
( …The result is a truly Canadian Game – curling for fingers.)
TradGames.org:/Squails-Krokinole
( …There is some considerable debate concerning the origin of this game.”)
Nationmaster Encyclopedia/Crokinole
The London Free Press: The Wayne Gretzky of Crokinole
Purchase a crokinole board:
SEARS 3-in-1 Crokinole Board (Currently not available)
LEE VALLEY Deluxe Crokinole/Checker/Chess Board ($129.00)
(… she loathed the game as it had intruded upon almost every parlor.)
Mr. Crokinole game boards and accessories
Other games and toys:
Royal Ontario Museum: 100 Years of Play
Today was Groundhog Day. The tall black oaks, willows and alder trees drew sharp shadow lines on the snow under the sun.
Wiarton Willie from Bruce County and the other celebrity groundhogs in north america saw their shadows on this bright blue sky day. None of the local farm groundhogs made an appearance from their ice and snowy lairs however and so there was no fanfare about them here. The holiday takes place on February 2nd, just between the Winter Sostice and the eagerly awaited Spring Solstice.
Today is also the Celtic Imbolc which celebrates fertility and weather divination or it is Christian Candlemas when the feast of Mary’s purification is sometimes honoured with a candle procession,. It is the end of Yule, or Christmas. It is a day for counting candles at nearly the end of the winter inventory, and for clergy to bless and distribute needed candles to keep the light against the last dark winter nights. Followers of tradition may burn a candle in each window or in each room on the night.
Candle flame in the dark winter night
The holiday anticipates Spring in about six weeks. The original homesteaders here may have known this little Scottish rhyme to mark the day:
If Candlemas Day is bright and clear,
There’ll be two winters in the year.
I checked the cupboards and drawers and found a pretty good supply of candles against the cold and storms, though none are wanted on this temperate winter night.
