The Ogden Locomotive Shop - Apr 2006 Doug MacKenzie.

26 April 2011

Historic Calgary Rail Yard Ends Era

Calgary Alberta - Ogden, the Canadian Pacific rail yard that created an economic engine for a young Calgary and spurred the city's growth, is losing the repair shop that started it all.
 
Beginning in August, locomotives and rail cars will no longer be overhauled and rebuilt at the facility.
 
"It's the end of an era," said Jerry Thompson, who represents 154 employees at Canadian Auto Workers Local 101. "Ogden shops has been there for 100 years."
 
The transition will be finished by May 2012, a century after ground was first broken at the Ogden site.
 
Creation of the Ogden yards "was easily the most important single contributing factor to economic growth within Calgary before the oil boom of the 1950s," historian Max Foran has written. "With the establishment of the Ogden facilities, Calgary achieved its dream of becoming a major railway centre."
 
Ogden History
 
CPR chose Calgary over Medicine Hat for a large western facility for steam engine repairs. The shops, comprising 12 buildings, were built in 1912 on 85 hectares.
 
The shops employed more than 1,400 men in the early part of the century.
 
During both world wars Ogden shops became a munitions factory, manufacturing heavy naval guns.
 
The Ogden site was considered one of the most important elements in Calgary's economic development prior to the 1945 oil boom.
 
Of the 154 affected workers, most with more than 25 years experience, some were offered packages, a handful were given the option of transferring to Winnipeg or Toronto, while the rest will move to the Alyth yard in Inglewood, said Thompson, vice president of the Pacific region for local 101.
 
There are about 20 other employees at the yard who aren't affected by the move, which was part of the latest contract negotiations with the CAW.
 
Canadian Pacific has been contracting out operations at Ogden to Paris-based Alstom SA, a builder of locomotives, high-speed trains, and ships, for the past decade.
 
"There are other facilities in place across our network that can do the necessary mechanical work on our locomotives and rail cars," CPR spokesman Ed Greenberg said, adding it was important for the company to work with the affected employees. "It's just part of the ongoing review that our company does in terms of ensuring we're responding to the needs of our customers and continuing to maintain our locomotives and railcars in a safe manner."
 
While the company is considering other options for the 85-hectare site, which sits between Ogden Road and Barlow Trail in the city's southeast, Greenberg says no decision has been made. Those could include a training facility and engineering services.
 
Thompson said as part of the agreement, Canadian Pacific can't use the site for the same work now being done there, so it can't be leased out to another company.
 
Ogden is the last of the CPR's "back shops," he added. These are facilities where major overhauls and repair work is done. Sites in Montreal and Winnipeg have already been re-purposed.
 
That's because as locomotives become more complicated, companies that build them essentially send out new parts if there's a problem, Thompson said. As well, the company leases out a number of its rail cars.
 
"They actually want to get out of the repair business," he said of CPR, pointing to the 20 and 25-year warranties that accompany new locomotives. "Under the work service agreement, (the companies) say, Here's an engine, give us the old engine back."
 
"They're not doing as big repairs as they used to."
 
Canadian Pacific is building a facility in Toronto that will be able to lift engines in and out of locomotives, and can also do that in Montreal, Thompson said.
 
Yards such as Alyth are considered "running shops," which means they do more minor repairs.
 
Local historian Harry Sanders said communities such as Ogden and Millican grew up around the yard as places for the workers to live.
 
"It shows what a major source of employment it was, creating whole neighbourhoods, and for generations," Sanders said.
 
While the CPR had initially considered building the yard in Medicine Hat because of the low cost of natural gas, Sanders said, Calgary's location, a promise to build a streetcar line to the facility, and power from Calgary Power's Horseshoe Falls won out.
 
He said when the yard opened in March 1913, there were 12 buildings and 1,200 men worked there. Today, there are 175 employees.
 
Thompson said those at Ogden are split about the move, with the half offered buyouts pleased with the turn of events and the half not, less so.
 
Moving from Ogden to Alyth will also be a different quality of life, he added, with work taking place outdoors instead of inside, along with weekend and night shifts, which weren't an issue at Ogden, which operated five days a week.
 
While Calgary won't lose any train traffic with the move, Thompson said, "it will be quieter for the residents of Ogden."
 
Kim Guttormson.