Reclamation Yard - London, Ontario

Here is a tag from a car going to the Reclamation Yard, London

I recently was asked a few questions about  routing of scrap from the Reclamation Yard here in London. I never really paid much attention to were the metal went after we shoved the old equipment into the reclamation yard. But here is some of what I do know. There is a lot I have forgotten about the sand pit as we called it.

I on occasion worked the 0800 day yard in the late 1970's and 1980's that spent the day switching the Reclamation yard. I was on the spare board most of that time either as a brakeman or engineman. So my trips to the pit were spotty. I never worked the job regularly as it was a gravy job that the old timers always got. The job was called the sand pit job. I was told that before it became the Reclamation yard it was a sand pit operated by the CNR. I never really followed were the scrap metal went once it was cut up but I don't think any went to Zubick's scrap metal or London Salvage which is next to the CN yard office, at least by rail. They may have trucked some metal there. We did pull out loads of scrap metal in gondolas once the cars were taken apart. They all left on trains destined to Toronto. At Toronto the cars may have been sent to Hamilton or who ever offered the best price for the metal. 

Purchasing scrap metal from CN was done at the office inside the scrap yard. At one time my wife's uncle Bill Ball (late 1950's and 1960's) was the guy you dealt with. He liked his drink and the bigger the bottle that pass his way the better the price one paid for a load of scrap.

A lot of metal left by truck but I am not sure were it went. I know anyone could go there and buy scrap metal. I purchased a diesels engine air tank for the going weight price for use with my air compressor (I also sprayed automobiles on the side back then). There was a lot of waste such as wood from the outside braced wooden boxcars that was loaded into gondola's and sent to the Paris pit. Train 585 handled this chore which was our local night road switcher.

At one time the wood was sold to the public. Growing up in the west end of  London during my early years, many of the homes were built by Europeans after the war. My parents home was one of them. Not having much money this wood was a great deal. I can remember being in friends basements and seeing the CNR logo on the floor joists and also garages that did not get painted as the boxcar red was still in good shape. I would not be surprised to find renovation work showing some of the boxcar heritage.

The sand pit job was not a hard job. One began by gathering the cars required for cut up and shoving them into the yard. Basically down a long track through the middle of the yard where they cut up the cars by torch. We would then look for Walley the yard supervisor to find out what was coming out that day and if more gondolas or scrap cars would be required. Sometimes we had an afternoon spotting of more cars to be cut up.

There was a yard at the back with maybe 5 or 6 storage tracks. We normally put the gondolas there. We also move cars that were to be saved from cut up there. These cars maybe were already sold or held for speculation. One long tack and a shorter one were located near the middle of the yard which were the cars are torched. They just kept pulling the cars down with their equipment. No problem if there was a derailment, they just cut them up were they sat. There was a scale on the longer track. This long track was also used as the London yard "top end" switching lead. While working as an engineman cuts of cars of 40-50 would put me up to the office. Their was a derail so that kept the switching engine out of were the men were working.

While I was going through some of my papers from the pit I noted I had a yard checklist from the pit and also a tag off one of the cars that was scrapped...enjoy...George Dutka  

Check list from the pit.