Back in the Fifties a special treat was a trip by rail to Jean Talon Station.
The usual was was to walk, or take the 3B Somerled Autobus to Elmhurst Terminus at CPR Montreal West Station.
Purchase tickets to Jean Talon at the ticket wicket inside.
While waiting to be served, you could watch the Seth Thomas clock proportion away the day, 80 beats to the minute. Tick Tock
Competing for aural attention were the clicks and clacks for the six thru telegraph relays in the East bay window facing Westmount, and the louder chatter of the telegraph sounder cut in on the line at that moment.
As the train left Westmount, the station agent would use interior and exterior loudspeakers to announce it’s arrival, the destinations en route and on which track it would be entering the station.
The passengers boarding would migrate out to the specified platform.
( Track 1 at Montreal West once ran CLOSE to the station, with a platform on both sides. Milk and cream picked up en route by the trains inbound for Windsor Station used to be unloaded from the baggage cars just East of the station onto horse wagons, then, later, motor trucks for Elmhurst Dairy on Avon.
Old Track 1 was removed c. 1971, Old Track 2 become Track 1, old Tracks 3 and 4 becoming Tracks 2 and 3. )
Anyway, our train for Jean Talon, and other destinations, was to pull in on old Track 4 closest to Sherbrooke, the Tramways loop, and the La Salle Taxi stand which had a large orange and black illuminated rotating sign in the shape of a Lasalle Taxi roof light.
People descending from trains would often take a taxi direct, rather than boarding the 90 Lachine Autobus at Harley, or a streetcar or Autobus at Elmhurst, to quickly get to their homes in NDG, Montreal West, Ville St Pierre, Lachine and Lasalle.
Looking East towards Grand and Westmout, smoke could be seen over the crest of the grade, then the engine came into view.
Anticipation rose, along with the smoke.
A train ride!!! A big deal before wall to wall automobiles.
Steam Locomotives ran with their headlights extinguished in the day, back then.
The gate tender in his antique tower to the South of the tracks would ring his bell, then lower the gates two by two on Elmhurst.
The engine would ring its bell, and come drifting past, clang clang CLANG CLANG clang clang in a wave of heat, then the smell burning coal and warm oil, pulling right down, depending on the amount of head end traffic in the baggage cars.
The coaches would stop with a screech of metal shoes.
We boarded and were off!
Important, and impatient, just like the people going to Trois Rivieres or Quebec.
But, we were going only to Jean Talon, the next stop.
Round the curve back of Montreal West, under Westminster, over Cote St Luc Road, past Hampstead and under the Tramways at Decarie, speeding right along, smoke like a squirrel tail off to the side, telegraph poles flashing past, usually 36 to the mile.
All too soon we were stopping at Jean Talon, where there was an odd track construction.
The Main Line thru to Bordeaux was double-track and passed STRAIGHT through, a distance from the station building and platforms.
However, the station tracks diverged in a bow-like arc and passenger trains would pull into the bow close to the station on the West side off the Main Line.
Once the passenger trains had departed, the electric track switches were lined straight through so freights did not pass near the station at all, passing on the straight thru main tracks.
A novelty.
We would walk into the station, and be suitable impressed at the largeness and the grandeur compared with Westmount or Montreal West stations.
The station at Trois Rivieres was quite elegant back then when trains were THE way to travel.
( We won’t discuss the mess they made in Ottawa regarding THEIR lovely edifice right down town where a station should be. )
Moving the tracks OUT OF Windsor Station was a crime, too.
The next part of the trip to Jean Talon would include a ride on a Tramways Trolley Bus, another novelty, as the trolley busses ‘lived’ in that part of town and were all kept at the DeFleurimont/St Denis Car Barns.
Back home on a common old streetcar to Walkley and the 3B Autobus.
Part and parcil of an afternoon voyage to Jean Talon sixty years ago, before smog.
Thank You.
@Cdnlococo – Thank you very much for such a beautiful narrative!
@Cdnlococo: Wonderful to hear from you again! Thanks for the pic links. Will you please write a book? Seriously, I’m begging you!
SAQ has recently vacated this building. If we have to suffer with a government-owned liquor monopoly (and we shouldn’t HAVE to), then shouldn’t it at least be incumbent upon that monopoly to serve the public by saving landmark buildings and not abandoning them? It’s not as if SAQ will ever lose money.. they should put their massive, monopoly profits to good use.
Oh thank you CDNlococo! What a lovely story!
Agree with you about the sad decisions made with regard to Windsor Station and the ideally-located station in Ottawa, just opposite the Château Laurier and kitty-corner to the Parliament Buildings.
Todd, as I’m involved in community associations in Villeray just east of Parc-Ex, we were atop of discussions between the city, Loblaws and Parc-Ex community associations. The original plan for this historic building and the beautiful esplanade was to transform the station into something for community use – perhaps a library on the ground floor, and offices for community groups in the small offices on the mezzanine. The first commercial occupant of the station building was an Indigo bookstore – I guess a “cultural” vocation was some kind of compromise. This failed – the Indigo was always full of readers, but few purchased books – yes, it should have been a LIBRARY. So it became an SAQ outlet. Originally it housed the online ordering but that was moved so it became a normal SAQ branch. Taking over the whole station made this underused for the area, though indeed there should be an SAQ – as long as the monopoly continues and the Loblaws can’t sell a full range of wines and spirits – right next to the Loblaws and the métro so people can pick up a bottle of (decent, not dep) wine with their groceries.
Now I think Loblaws is planning to market crappy throwaway garments in the space – although there is no shortage of shops selling precisely that in the immediate area.
The whole thing smacks of deceit. And indeed it behooves SAQ to provide a branch in that highly-populated neighbourhood – the people shouldn’t have to walk or drive to the Jean-Talon market area or to Rockland centre to pick up a bottle.
The one positive aspect of the whole thing is the very popular square in front of Loblaws. It is a focal point for people congregating in the neighbourhood: old Greek guys, South Asian ladies in saris in front of the rose bushes, kids kicking round soccer balls. Very pleasant on a summer evening, in an otherwise grey zone.
This is still a beautiful building, and I agree with Maria that it should have been a library or cultural centre of some kind. The light that comes in those windows is so beautiful and serene! However, it was bought and renovated by Loblaws when they built their store next door, and neither Indigo or the SAQ could afford the rent. Loblaws is going to put a Joe Fresh (their made-in-China answer to the Gap) outlet there in the fall, with vertical banners running up either side of the building…
SMD, yes indeed it was bought by Loblaws, but there was an agreement about sharing the space with community associations. I remember this clearly – this would be worthy of research for spacingmontrealers and urbanism students. Please interview Parc-Extension community groups about this. It was a bit of a swindle, as (as far as I can remember- I have a good memory but won’t swear to anything) Loblaws agreed to share this space while gaining access to this northern Montréal heritage site. They did do a beautiful job of restoring it, but beauty is not the only aspect of restoration – it also implies function, and fitting into its neighbourhood.
The other aspect is that the SAQ (being a government monopoly) must be relocated and not simply closed. Vincent Marissal has written about this in La Presse, and there are references to the local newspaper Le Progrès de Villeray.There are nearby premises that could house an SAQ for neighbourhood people. Cheers!
In the meantime, the Parc-Ex library is located in a ghastly bunker a couple of streets north of there, with terrible access.
I too vaguely recall that there was some sort of agreement made in exchange for permitting Loblaw’s to build in that area. Don’t recall the details though…. The Indigo store was a gem, but it was sorely out of place in the neighbourhood (as was a massive SAQ in my opinion). This may be the most ethnically diverse neighbourhood in all of Montreal – not too obvious what kind of large-scale commercial activities would fit in! There definitely is a need for some space for the eclectic cultural mix.
The square itself is nice enough, but the area itself needs a bit more attention – particularly with regards to the traffic circulation. I think that access to private cars should be prohibited on the section of Hutchison North of Jean Talon. Improving pedestrian access to the area (and not ticketing them for jay-walking!) would be a big improvement…..
Regarding Smoke.
Firemen on steam locomotives were admonished to keep smoke to a minimum inside the city to mollify residents near the track.
However, when it was necessary to raise and keep steam pressure up on a locomotive or otherwise stall for the lack of steam, Firemen would fire coal at the rate required to do so.
In the following view CP 5114 is climbing the steep grade Northward from Hochelaga Yard and is approaching Angus Shops which were situated just to the North and East of Rachel.
The first three cars on the train are stock cars for handling livestock such as horses and beef to the local abattoirs, the second car being a veritable antique from c 1912, old even then,
In the second view another train is now on the flat above the Hochelaga Hill and is passing Angus Shops on the left, the roofs of the shop buildings are visible to the Left.
The smoke from the fire required to pull up from Hochelaga to Angus can still be seen drifting in the distance.
To the right on the siding are more stock cars at the abattoir located there which added their own bouquet to that part of the East end.
The photos were taken in 1959.
Thank You.
Also worth mentioning: the inspired insertion of the entrance to Parc metro station in what used to be the station’s gentlemen’s smoking room: the marriage of the lovely belle époque train station and the thoroughly modern (80’s) metro station below.
In the sixties, my little brother and I used to cross through the CP station every day, four times a day, on our way to and from school (St. Francis). We always took a drink from the fountain burbling continously beneath the beautiful carp(?). It was a ritual, of course, we drank whether or not we were thirsty, a childish baptism or communion. In the days before Christmas, an evergreen that seemed to go on forever would be erected in the front of the building and lights would be strung up its length. I remember standing in the early darkness of December and staring at the different coloured bulbs reflecting red and green across the snow.
Now we get to watch Loblaw’s turn it into a pit. Progress, Montreal style.
11 comments
Back in the Fifties a special treat was a trip by rail to Jean Talon Station.
The usual was was to walk, or take the 3B Somerled Autobus to Elmhurst Terminus at CPR Montreal West Station.
Purchase tickets to Jean Talon at the ticket wicket inside.
While waiting to be served, you could watch the Seth Thomas clock proportion away the day, 80 beats to the minute. Tick Tock
Competing for aural attention were the clicks and clacks for the six thru telegraph relays in the East bay window facing Westmount, and the louder chatter of the telegraph sounder cut in on the line at that moment.
As the train left Westmount, the station agent would use interior and exterior loudspeakers to announce it’s arrival, the destinations en route and on which track it would be entering the station.
The passengers boarding would migrate out to the specified platform.
( Track 1 at Montreal West once ran CLOSE to the station, with a platform on both sides. Milk and cream picked up en route by the trains inbound for Windsor Station used to be unloaded from the baggage cars just East of the station onto horse wagons, then, later, motor trucks for Elmhurst Dairy on Avon.
Old Track 1 was removed c. 1971, Old Track 2 become Track 1, old Tracks 3 and 4 becoming Tracks 2 and 3. )
Anyway, our train for Jean Talon, and other destinations, was to pull in on old Track 4 closest to Sherbrooke, the Tramways loop, and the La Salle Taxi stand which had a large orange and black illuminated rotating sign in the shape of a Lasalle Taxi roof light.
People descending from trains would often take a taxi direct, rather than boarding the 90 Lachine Autobus at Harley, or a streetcar or Autobus at Elmhurst, to quickly get to their homes in NDG, Montreal West, Ville St Pierre, Lachine and Lasalle.
Looking East towards Grand and Westmout, smoke could be seen over the crest of the grade, then the engine came into view.
Anticipation rose, along with the smoke.
A train ride!!! A big deal before wall to wall automobiles.
Steam Locomotives ran with their headlights extinguished in the day, back then.
The gate tender in his antique tower to the South of the tracks would ring his bell, then lower the gates two by two on Elmhurst.
The engine would ring its bell, and come drifting past, clang clang CLANG CLANG clang clang in a wave of heat, then the smell burning coal and warm oil, pulling right down, depending on the amount of head end traffic in the baggage cars.
The coaches would stop with a screech of metal shoes.
We boarded and were off!
Important, and impatient, just like the people going to Trois Rivieres or Quebec.
But, we were going only to Jean Talon, the next stop.
Round the curve back of Montreal West, under Westminster, over Cote St Luc Road, past Hampstead and under the Tramways at Decarie, speeding right along, smoke like a squirrel tail off to the side, telegraph poles flashing past, usually 36 to the mile.
http://dewi.ca/trains/montreal/pix/a005_13.jpg
All too soon we were stopping at Jean Talon, where there was an odd track construction.
The Main Line thru to Bordeaux was double-track and passed STRAIGHT through, a distance from the station building and platforms.
However, the station tracks diverged in a bow-like arc and passenger trains would pull into the bow close to the station on the West side off the Main Line.
Once the passenger trains had departed, the electric track switches were lined straight through so freights did not pass near the station at all, passing on the straight thru main tracks.
A novelty.
We would walk into the station, and be suitable impressed at the largeness and the grandeur compared with Westmount or Montreal West stations.
The station at Trois Rivieres was quite elegant back then when trains were THE way to travel.
( We won’t discuss the mess they made in Ottawa regarding THEIR lovely edifice right down town where a station should be. )
Moving the tracks OUT OF Windsor Station was a crime, too.
The next part of the trip to Jean Talon would include a ride on a Tramways Trolley Bus, another novelty, as the trolley busses ‘lived’ in that part of town and were all kept at the DeFleurimont/St Denis Car Barns.
You had to go look for the Trolley busses.
http://www.sfu.ca/person/dearmond/phono/Montreal-Photos.htm
http://transit.toronto.on.ca/images/streetcar-4753-22.jpg
http://transit.toronto.on.ca/images/streetcar-4753-23.jpg
Back home on a common old streetcar to Walkley and the 3B Autobus.
Part and parcil of an afternoon voyage to Jean Talon sixty years ago, before smog.
Thank You.
@Cdnlococo – Thank you very much for such a beautiful narrative!
@Cdnlococo: Wonderful to hear from you again! Thanks for the pic links. Will you please write a book? Seriously, I’m begging you!
SAQ has recently vacated this building. If we have to suffer with a government-owned liquor monopoly (and we shouldn’t HAVE to), then shouldn’t it at least be incumbent upon that monopoly to serve the public by saving landmark buildings and not abandoning them? It’s not as if SAQ will ever lose money.. they should put their massive, monopoly profits to good use.
Oh thank you CDNlococo! What a lovely story!
Agree with you about the sad decisions made with regard to Windsor Station and the ideally-located station in Ottawa, just opposite the Château Laurier and kitty-corner to the Parliament Buildings.
Todd, as I’m involved in community associations in Villeray just east of Parc-Ex, we were atop of discussions between the city, Loblaws and Parc-Ex community associations. The original plan for this historic building and the beautiful esplanade was to transform the station into something for community use – perhaps a library on the ground floor, and offices for community groups in the small offices on the mezzanine. The first commercial occupant of the station building was an Indigo bookstore – I guess a “cultural” vocation was some kind of compromise. This failed – the Indigo was always full of readers, but few purchased books – yes, it should have been a LIBRARY. So it became an SAQ outlet. Originally it housed the online ordering but that was moved so it became a normal SAQ branch. Taking over the whole station made this underused for the area, though indeed there should be an SAQ – as long as the monopoly continues and the Loblaws can’t sell a full range of wines and spirits – right next to the Loblaws and the métro so people can pick up a bottle of (decent, not dep) wine with their groceries.
Now I think Loblaws is planning to market crappy throwaway garments in the space – although there is no shortage of shops selling precisely that in the immediate area.
The whole thing smacks of deceit. And indeed it behooves SAQ to provide a branch in that highly-populated neighbourhood – the people shouldn’t have to walk or drive to the Jean-Talon market area or to Rockland centre to pick up a bottle.
The one positive aspect of the whole thing is the very popular square in front of Loblaws. It is a focal point for people congregating in the neighbourhood: old Greek guys, South Asian ladies in saris in front of the rose bushes, kids kicking round soccer balls. Very pleasant on a summer evening, in an otherwise grey zone.
This is still a beautiful building, and I agree with Maria that it should have been a library or cultural centre of some kind. The light that comes in those windows is so beautiful and serene! However, it was bought and renovated by Loblaws when they built their store next door, and neither Indigo or the SAQ could afford the rent. Loblaws is going to put a Joe Fresh (their made-in-China answer to the Gap) outlet there in the fall, with vertical banners running up either side of the building…
SMD, yes indeed it was bought by Loblaws, but there was an agreement about sharing the space with community associations. I remember this clearly – this would be worthy of research for spacingmontrealers and urbanism students. Please interview Parc-Extension community groups about this. It was a bit of a swindle, as (as far as I can remember- I have a good memory but won’t swear to anything) Loblaws agreed to share this space while gaining access to this northern Montréal heritage site. They did do a beautiful job of restoring it, but beauty is not the only aspect of restoration – it also implies function, and fitting into its neighbourhood.
The other aspect is that the SAQ (being a government monopoly) must be relocated and not simply closed. Vincent Marissal has written about this in La Presse, and there are references to the local newspaper Le Progrès de Villeray.There are nearby premises that could house an SAQ for neighbourhood people. Cheers!
In the meantime, the Parc-Ex library is located in a ghastly bunker a couple of streets north of there, with terrible access.
I too vaguely recall that there was some sort of agreement made in exchange for permitting Loblaw’s to build in that area. Don’t recall the details though…. The Indigo store was a gem, but it was sorely out of place in the neighbourhood (as was a massive SAQ in my opinion). This may be the most ethnically diverse neighbourhood in all of Montreal – not too obvious what kind of large-scale commercial activities would fit in! There definitely is a need for some space for the eclectic cultural mix.
The square itself is nice enough, but the area itself needs a bit more attention – particularly with regards to the traffic circulation. I think that access to private cars should be prohibited on the section of Hutchison North of Jean Talon. Improving pedestrian access to the area (and not ticketing them for jay-walking!) would be a big improvement…..
Regarding Smoke.
Firemen on steam locomotives were admonished to keep smoke to a minimum inside the city to mollify residents near the track.
However, when it was necessary to raise and keep steam pressure up on a locomotive or otherwise stall for the lack of steam, Firemen would fire coal at the rate required to do so.
In the following view CP 5114 is climbing the steep grade Northward from Hochelaga Yard and is approaching Angus Shops which were situated just to the North and East of Rachel.
http://www.canadianrailwayobservations.com/2010/05/glenyardmemories.htm
The first three cars on the train are stock cars for handling livestock such as horses and beef to the local abattoirs, the second car being a veritable antique from c 1912, old even then,
In the second view another train is now on the flat above the Hochelaga Hill and is passing Angus Shops on the left, the roofs of the shop buildings are visible to the Left.
The smoke from the fire required to pull up from Hochelaga to Angus can still be seen drifting in the distance.
To the right on the siding are more stock cars at the abattoir located there which added their own bouquet to that part of the East end.
The photos were taken in 1959.
Thank You.
Also worth mentioning: the inspired insertion of the entrance to Parc metro station in what used to be the station’s gentlemen’s smoking room: the marriage of the lovely belle époque train station and the thoroughly modern (80’s) metro station below.
In the sixties, my little brother and I used to cross through the CP station every day, four times a day, on our way to and from school (St. Francis). We always took a drink from the fountain burbling continously beneath the beautiful carp(?). It was a ritual, of course, we drank whether or not we were thirsty, a childish baptism or communion. In the days before Christmas, an evergreen that seemed to go on forever would be erected in the front of the building and lights would be strung up its length. I remember standing in the early darkness of December and staring at the different coloured bulbs reflecting red and green across the snow.
Now we get to watch Loblaw’s turn it into a pit. Progress, Montreal style.