Re: [cpsig] Re: President Roosevelt's Train Trip to Birch Island, Canada in 1943

  • From: "John P.H. Morgan" <morcomp@xxxxxxxx>
  • To: cpsig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sat, 01 Aug 2009 18:04:43 -0400

At 01:59 PM 31/07/2009, Dave wrote:

The passing track was south of Birch Island station now I got it because Birch Island Station was on a curve and it was single track at the station

While the track at the station was indeed single, the AER station in 1930 was at mile 72.68, a little over 200' south of the curve. The north switch of the siding was about 500 feet beyond the end of the curve.

The AER freight shed and section house were on the curve at its north end. I believe that the freight shed may have been the original "station" at Birch Island, since we know that the station shown in the 1930 plan book was built sometime between 1928 and 1930 and the dimensions of the freight shed closely match estimated dimensions from a photo of the original "station" at Birch Island that I obtained from the CPR archives. Depending on when the last AER station at Birch Island was removed, this smaller freight shed may have become the "station" at Birch island again. That would make sense since it was on the landward side of the tracks at the foot of Bay of Islands Road, while the second AER station was on the wrong side of the tracks with no road access (although a modern plot plan of Birch Island shows what might be an unopened road allowance off of Rainbow Ridge Road to the approximate location of the station.) In any case I digress.

So the presidents train would detrain at the station .Then run south to the mainline for storage with the armoured car would make sense to leave it on the main line and the regular traffic run around the train via the siding.

According to Keith, the train was parked on the main the entire week and the switches were spiked. Don't forget that FDR was confined to a wheelchair. Detraining the president was not a simple matter of setting down a step and having him walk out of his car. Keith's report of a dedicated ramp and dock for the President makes the most sense in light of the physical layout at Birch Island and the President's mobility limitations.


John Morgan (VA3EBT)
Algoma Eastern Railway website
http://www.magma.ca/~morcomp/aer.html
A northern Ontario ghost railway.


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