Factually, the "5095" does not represent the locomotives that were in daily use on the line for the greater portion of the "Golden Era" of Grand Beach.  Somebody in the Park's beaurocrats  dreamt that up. 

     True, the 5095 did make runs to Grand Beach, but it was not the locomotive that ran to the beach on a regular basis.  It did run to the beach on a sporadic basis during the later years of the railway operation.  but it does not factually represent the earlier, beautiful locomotives that had been in regular service on the Grand Beach, Victoria Beach run, when the Canadian Northern Railways (CNoR) owned and operated the resort.

        The "5001" was in regular service to Grand Beach from the beginning of train service to the beach in 1917, until the the line was abandoned in the early 1960's.  The "5001" was a superb locomotive, and as my father used say,  "It ran like a well oiled sewing machine."  It was one of the first locomotives assigned to regular daily use to Grand Beach.  It was a small "Pacific Type" locomotive with a wheel configuration of "4-6-2".  (The number 4 designates the 4 pony wheels at the front of the locomotive.  The number 6 indicates 6 main driver wheels, and the number 2 designates the 2 idler wheels under the cab.)  The locomotive shown above is a Canadian Northern Locomotive number "702", an exact "replica" of number the "5001". 

     The "5001" was built in the U.S.A. by the Baldwin Locomotive Works.  Other locomotives of the same class that ran to Grand Beach were numbered "5002" and "5003".

        The engine "5095" was a also a small "pacific" type locomotive, and was very similar to the "5001", but it was not a Canadian Northern Railway locomotive, but rather one inherited from the Grand Trunk Railway when the railways amalgamated in 1918 to form THE CANADIAN NATIONAL RAILWAYS (CNR).

        The 5095 had a "vestibule" (closed cabin)  cab, which was warmer in the winter, but not nearly as cool in the summer.  It did not run to Grand Beach until after the amalgamation of the railways in 1918.  It too, like all other steam locomotives that ran to Grand Beach was "hand fired".  The maximum tonnage for the locomotive was determined by the grade that existed north of Beaconia to what is now Lakeshore Heights and Sunset Beach.  Thus, the maximum train length was limited to 20 coaches and a baggage car. 

     On a busy day such as the "CATERER'S" or the CNR. picnics, the railway ran 10 or more trains from Winnipeg, at 20 minute intervals.  Within a few hours more than 50,000 people would detrain and spend the day at the beach. Starting at 6:20 pm, the same passengers would begin their return to Winnipeg, again at at 20 minute intervals, with the last train leaving Grand Beach at 10;20 pm, arriving at Union Station at exactly 12:00 PM (Midnight). This last train was always called the much loved "MOONLIGHT".
 

During the "Golden years" , there were no roads, hydro,  or telephones.  The only method of communicating with the rest of the world  was via the railway telegraph line with an operator using "morse" code and clicking on a  telegraph "key".

     My father, Joseph (Joe) Guarino, (Click here - to meet him) was a young locomotive fireman during the construction of the Grand Beach railway line during 1912 to 1917.  He was employed by the Canadian Northern Railways, (CNoR) who originally bought the land and built the line into Grand Beach and operated it as a resort during its early formative years.  My father made many trips on the 5001.  As with most of the steam power of the era, It was a low steam pressure type, and carried only 200 lbs of steam pressure per inch, in its steam boiler. 

     Enginemen preferred the "5001" because unlike number "5095", it had an open cab,  thus was much cooler on hot summer days.  And, it just ran better.

      In his later years (1939-45) Dad was one of the regular Locomotive Engineers on the Grand Beach - Victoria Beach run.  As a small boy, I made many trips with him on these vibrant steam engines. It was a "wonderful experience" that I will never forget. 

        My father was first called to work by a by a young "call-boy" who came to our home, riding a bicycle. Telephones were non existent, so this was the method by which engine and train  crews were called to work.  My father then "signed" the call boy's order book, indicating that he had received his "call" to report for work.  He had to report for work at the Fort Rouge round house two hours before the time he was required to leave there to make the short run to the Union Station on South Main Street in Winnipeg.

       We would first go to the Fort Rouge round-house, where the engine was already prepared for the run.  While my father checked over the engine, and the supplies that were necessary for the run, he always placed me on the brakeman's seat just ahead of the fireman's, on the left hand side of the engine cab.  It was a great location, where I  had a great view of the track ahead, through a small glass door that opened onto the cat walk along the side of the engine's boiler.

        First. we ran as an engine alone along the "hi-line" from the Fort Rouge round house to the  Union Station.  The line parallels the Red River and crosses above South Main Street.  It was an exciting ride.  At the Winnipeg Union Station, we backed onto our train, and the car "knockers" (carmen) connected the air lines to enable braking for the entire train, and the "communication lines" which ran through every coach in the train to the locomotive.  It was the method that the conductor and trainmen used to communicate with the engineer and fireman in the engine cab, while the train was running.

        Next, they conducted a brake test.  Dad would set up the air brakes on a signal from a carman, stationed at the rear of the train.  After the brakes were set, the carman walked forward right to the cab of the engine and "yelled" at dad "All working", meaning that the brakes on each passenger car were operating.

        The Conductor always came right up to the engine and give dad his running orders (on special forms from the train dispatcher).  They both went over these "running"  orders and finally Dad would sign the Conductor's copy to indicate that they had received them. The conductor went back the station platform to work with the Station Master in helping passengers come aboard our train.  Up on the locomotive, we waited to hear the Conductor shout "ALL ABOARD".  Then he would immediately go up into the vestibule of one of the coaches and give two long pulls on the communication cord.  That was our signal to "start". 

     When we received those two loud shrill whistles in the engine cab, Dad would pull the large "Johnson Bar" towards himself, and then gradually open the "throttle.

        We were on our way!.

     It was exciting to pass over Portage Avenue East, and then the railway bridge over the Red River.  We next ran along the Main line, over Archibald St. in St. Boniface until we came to Beach Junction.  The switch was set for us by a "block tender" to go on to the Victoria Beach Subdivision. 

     Our first stop was West Transcona, which was merely an old box car with a cinder platform.  Usually, there were many people waiting to get on our train.  Yes!  almost all of them were railroad workers who worked in the Railway Shop in Transcona. and were on free "passes".

        On occasion, we had to meet a train coming from Grand Beach.  For example, on a Saturday or Sunday, a train left Grand Beach at 6:40 pm.  while we left Winnipeg at 6:25 pm.  so naturally, we had to meet somewhere.  Usually the dispatcher would set the meet at Libau, where there was a small station and a passing track.

         After the stop at West Transcona, we ran directly to Grand Beach.  At Grand Beach, after the campers got off the train, we backed up to Grand Marais and let the Grand Marais passenger off.  There was a switch and a "wye" at Grand Marais, along with a water tank and a coal dock.  While passenger got off the train, the head end trainman walked ahead and lined the switch to head towards Victoria Beach.   Then on signal , we would pull ahead slowly until the rear of the train passed the switch.  The rear trainman then lined the switch back for Grand Beach, got back on the rear of our train, and signalled us with a "high ball",  that he had got on the rear of the train, and we were on our way to Victoria Beach.

        The railway always had a permanent yard master stationed at Grand Beach for the entire summer.  The yard master that I remember best,  was named "Shorty Westcott.  His regular job in Winnipeg was as the general yard master in the Winnipeg Terminals Railway behind the Union Station. This area is now known as "The Forks" in Winnipeg. 

     During the summer season, Shorty, his wife, his son Druval and a niece "Jo"  lived in a converted box car cottage just south of the old ice house

      The rail yard at Grand Beach could hold more than 300 railway coaches, and contained about eight long storage tracks, running from the 'wye" at Grand Marais to the station at Grand Beach.  There were numerous switches, so the coaches could be switched from one track to another.  In addition, there  was a house track which ran along the side of the old ice house to a loading platform near the store and butcher shop which were located on its north end.

      There are tens of thousands of gondola car loads of cinders from the CNoR  round house area in Fort Rouge under the sod and lawn which the Parks have placed in the old station and train storage yard area of Grand Beach.   The cinders came from the Fort Rouge round house.  When hostlers cleaned the fire boxes of the steam locomotives, there was an abundance of cinders, which were collected in gondola like rail cars.  The railway sent these out to Grand Beach to establish a good solid fill for the very low (and marshy)  area between Grand Marais and the station area at Grand Beach. 

      I remember the cinders very well because being black they became very hot in the summer.  Walking on these hot cinders as a young bare foot boy, is an experience that I will never forget.  As kids, we became acclimatized to it and the soles of our feet became tougher.

        From Grand Marais, the train ran to Victoria Beach, making stops at Hillside Beach, and Albert Beach, and with a "whistle" stop at a "boy scout" camp platform at what is now East Beach.  and another that was right next to the present Belair Community Store.

        The Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) was incorporated in 1899 after the amalgamation of two small Manitoba grain transporting branch lines. It was  built up over the next 20 years by its principal promoters, William Mackenzie and Donald Mann, to become a 16,093 km transcontinental railway with lines connecting Montreal to Vancouver and was Canada's Second Transcontinental line. 

      The Canadian Northern Railway System was mainly assembled by connecting small regional railway lines than through the construction of a line across Canada.

        In 1896, Mackenzie and Mann had acquired the charter of the Lake Manitoba Railway & Canal Company. The first line built by the Canadian Northern under this charter was from Gladstone to Lake Winnipegosis by way of Dauphin. They then obtained running rights southwards from Gladstone to Portage-la-Prairie over the Manitoba and Northwestern Railway. 

     Operations began in 1897, with the name "Canadian Northern" being adopted two years later.

        Mackenzie and Mann then turned their attention to the east, and began construction of the Manitoba & Southeastern Railway. This line ran initially from St. Boniface (across the Red River from Winnipeg) to Marchand. This 45 mile line, opened in 1898, paid its way by hauling firewood to Winnipeg. Further construction of the Manitoba & Southeastern, combined with the acquisition of short lines, permitted the Canadian Northern to reach Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay), Ontario in 1902.

        By 1905, a line was completed between Winnipeg and Edmonton. In 1908, surveys of the Rocky Mountains of the west were undertaken. It was decided to build a line through Yellowhead pass, and to follow the Fraser River to Vancouver; this was completed in 1915. During this period, the railway completed construction of the Lake Superior gap between Port Arthur and Ottawa via Capreol, while building a line between Toronto and Sudbury.

        Freight service between Toronto and Winnipeg started in 1915 and, later, passenger service between Quebec and Vancouver. A new passenger terminal was built in Montreal, requiring the construction of a 3 mile tunnel beneath Mount Royal to access it.

        The Canadian Northern Railway had been built as inexpensively as possible, with plans to make improvements to the line later, as passenger and freight traffic developed. The railway was taken over by the Canadian Government in 1918 after a period of financial difficulty.

        Originally, MacKenzie and Mann planned to develop a  beach resort at Oak Point on the western shore of Lake Manitoba.  However, after deliberating for several years, they changed their plans and decided to build the line to The Grand Marais Point. (That westerly, rocky section of Grand Beach that points directly north towards Ironwood Point).  Grand Beach was closer to Winnipeg, and the three mile long stretch of white sand seemed more suitable.

        IT WAS A FORTUITOUS CHOICE FOR MANITOBANS.