S3 timeline

[chrismears]

Hello. I am trying to learn more about the careers of the DAR's two S3 diesels #6560 and 6561. When the sw1200rs diesels arrived in 1959 were the S3's immediately removed from service?

The few photographs I have seen of them show them in freight service. Would they ever have pulled any of the mixed trains, like the M21/22?

Thanks.
/chris

[stem]

Our wiki doesn't have that much info except that they were replaced by 1959 when the SW1200RS came in:
http://dardpi.ca/wiki/index.php?title=DAR6560

Hard to find on our site, but the CPR MP14 forms also don't shed a lot of light except to show they'e no longer part of the DAR in 1965:
http://dardpi.ca/wiki/index.php?title=MP14FORMS

The link to the CPR Roster site doesn't give any detailed info either:
http://www.cprdieselroster.com/CP%206500%20Page.htm

The old CPR Diesel Roster only indicates "Units 6560-6561 built on MLW order number 4015." if that's any help at all:
http://www.trainweb.org/galt-stn/cprost ... s/6500.htm

We already had that and the SNs on their repsective pages though.

The best photos I ever saw of them are Gary Ness's photos in his books. He usaully had some great research done on every photo. I don't have the books with me right now. If you have them, take a look or even buy them from eBay or something:
http://dardpi.ca/wiki/index.php?title=C ... ic_Railway

If you run into some additional info on them, please come back and share!

[Paul Charland]

Hi All,

The two S-3s were purchased in the hopes they could handle the gypsum trains but they were a little too underpowered for the service. When the SW1200RSs arrived the two DAR S-3s were broken up with one being sent to McAdams NB and the other becoming the Kentville yard engine.

I moved to Greenwood NS in the summer of 1970. The next summer we took the RDC from Kingston to Kentville as that was the nearest Optician, it was a weekend and the S-3 was in the yard at that time. That was the one and only time I saw the unit but didn't get to Kentville on a regular basis until 1975.

Some "experts" might say I'm wrong, I've been told I couldn't have seen the S-3 in 1971, I must have moved to Greenwood years before that... what crap. The same "expert" has never been to Nova Scotia and untill only a couple of years ago was under the impression that the RDCs ended there run at Windsor Junction and passengers found their own way into Halifax!

The SWs were built and delivered to the DAR in 1959.

Paul

[stem]

That's very cool information Paul. I had no idea they were retained so late in the eastern system. They both died painfull deaths in the west only a few years after they were transplanted from the east.

You didn't happen to snap a few pictures of the old girl or even note her number at that time did you?

[mountainrail]

Re: S-3 use on mixed etc.
There is a picture of 6560 on the mixed (M-21) at Truro on Aug. 16,1957 in the book "Canadian Pacific Diesel Locomotives" by Dean & Hanna, so it was used at least some on that service. Also, I have the Truro CNR roundhouse dispatch books from April '58 to end of DAR steam, and on April 9/58 #6560 & 6561 took train #58 (freight) out, but did not come back until July 15, after which a single unit was on 58 about every second day until July 29; after that both units were on 58 nearly every day until Dec. 6. They never came back to Truro after that. I have a photo (K. MacDonald) showing both units on the gypsum train in Windsor on April 15, 1959.

It has always been my understanding that the S-3s were sent back to the CPR upon the arrival of the SW1200RS units in the spring of 1959.In the above mentioned book it says they were relettered CPR and sent elsewhere on the system when the new units arrived. From 1960 to 64 I made many trips to Kentville and spent many days in the Kentville yards, and there was no S-3 there. What happened after '64 I cannot say, as I moved to NB late that year and was not able to be around the DAR much after that.

Jim O'Donnell

[stem]

Wow. Precise information.You have a real treasure there with the dispatch books!

Without me having to look it up, #58 went from where to where?

Thanks as always Jim for your input.

[mountainrail]

Train #58 was the daily freight from Truro to Kentville, and the engines were dispatched around 4:00 AM usually. The mixed, M22, had its engines dispatched from the roundhouse at 8:30 AM each day.

I have picked out all the DAR entries from these dispatch books and compiled them into a chart, which I will try to post on the site. It makes for some interesting reading of the last year or so of DAR steam on the Midland branch.

Jim O'Donnell

[stem]

The reason I had to ask is becuase we don't have that train listed because we don't have a timetable on the site with that number train on it. I couldn't find it on either the 1951 or the 1961 timetables that we have on the wiki.

Would you also happen to have any schedules between those two years that we could add in to the wiki?

[downeastrailfan]

It is my understanding that the S3's left the DAR after the SW's arrived.

Jim: Do you have an email or phone number for Ken MacDonald? I've seen many of his photos in different publications.

[mountainrail]

I haven't seen Ken in several years, but here is his contact info:

Kenneth MacDonald
205 MacFarlane St.
Fredericton, NB
E3A 1V7

(506)472-9886

Ken took a great many DAR photos in the 50's and early 60's, as he lived in Truro at that time.

Jim O'Donnell