Throwback Thursday - Celebrating 100 Years in Style

GO 550, an F59PH-2 produced by GMD in 1990, is poised to push its trainload of passengers westward towards Peterborough on July 05, 1992.  The occasion is the 100th anniversary of the establIshment of the village of Havelock.  Just peaking over the top of the locomotive is the roofline of the Havelock station, still in use at this date as a company service facility.

By Peter Mumby.

The Ontario and Quebec Railway was chartered by Canadian Pacific in 1891.  The intention was to build a line from Toronto to Perth, Ontario through such locations as Peterborough (Peterboro in CP parlance), Tweed, and Sharbot Lake.  At Perth, connections with existing trackage would create a Toronto to Montreal mainline by way of Smiths Falls.  In 1892 a division point yard was established, along with an adjacent village, at Havelock.  Although division point status disappeared with the loss of the steam locomotives and through passenger trains it was designed to serve, the yard still exists today.  With abandonment of the Glen Tay - Tweed section in 1971 and the Tweed - Havelock segment in 1988, the yard now sits at the end of the Havelock Subdivision, a branchline operated out of Toronto's Agincourt yard.  The proximity to the Nephton Subdivision and its mining operations at Nephton and Blue Mountain account for the continued use of the Havelock yard.

This yard is literally the focal point of the village of Havelock with trackage on one side of the Trans-Canada highway and the business section overlooking it from the other side of the road.  No wonder, then, that when the centennial of the village rolled around in 1992, a railway theme was central to the planning.  A GO Transit locomotive and three cars were procured, and the general public was treated to round trip rides between Havelock and Peterborough, with the equipment operating in push-pull mode.  The western terminus was the former CP/Via station facility near downtown Peterborough.

In the attached photo, GO 550 is preparing to shove the first train of the day westward towards Norwood and Peterborough.  Lending a little class to the festivities are CP business cars Assiniboine, Mt. Royal, and Lacombe.  The date was July 05, 1992.