{"id":79,"date":"2005-02-13T18:53:30","date_gmt":"2005-02-14T01:53:30","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=79"},"modified":"2005-02-13T20:51:12","modified_gmt":"2005-02-14T03:51:12","slug":"snooping-around-stratford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.port-kelsey.com\/?p=79","title":{"rendered":"Snooping around Stratford"},"content":{"rendered":"

CNR’s “Big” Shop<\/strong><\/p>\n

Driving through Stratford yesterday I went past the long abandoned (for railroad use anyway) CNR shops. Its been about 10 years since I have had a look at the place and was quite shocked to find most of it missing. A fire in September 2003 destroyed a good chunk of the building, and it looks like parts of it are being torn down. I am not sure what the fate of this structure will ultimately be, there is a sign there proclaiming all kinds of optimistic possibilities, but somehow I don’t think it will come to pass.<\/p>\n

Today I decided to grab my camera and go back and poke around a bit to see what I could find.<\/p>\n

I put on my “urban explorer’s” hat and found a way in. What I found was shocking, and breath taking at the same time.<\/p>\n

Below are some of the pictures I took today, keep in mind it was VERY cold, so forgive the camera shake…<\/p>\n

then…<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Stratford_shop_B_W.jpg\"<\/p>\n

now….<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Stratford-shop-Color_1.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Plenty more pictures, click on link below…<\/strong>
\n<\/p>\n

Its hard to grasp just how big this space is! Must have been an incredible place to be in when it was in use. There are 30 or 40 bays the length of the shop, each one with the rails still in place. The pits seem to have been covered over, all but one, which was full of ice! Unfortunately, I shivered a bit too much when taking that picture and just got a blur…<\/p>\n

Door. Both a man door and an engine door.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Engine-door_1.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Close up…<\/strong><\/p>\n

I wonder where the last guy who painted that door is today, or the other extreme, the guy who built it. I find I often think of stuff like that…<\/p>\n

\"Engine_door_close_up.jpg\"<\/p>\n

High hopes<\/strong><\/p>\n

Someone is an optimist. Its been my experience that the grander the ambition, the more likely the fire….<\/p>\n

click on image for larger view
\n\"High_hopes.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The door was open. Honest.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first impression is like walking into a cathedral, the size of the open space is immense! This picture was taken in the middle of the shop.<\/p>\n

\"Shop-inside-1.jpg\"<\/p>\n

What a toilet.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I wonder who was the first to…. never mind.<\/p>\n

\"Shop-inside-2.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Groovy pipe<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have no idea what this was for, there was a bend like this every 100 feet or so…<\/p>\n

\"Shop-inside-3.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Its always good to see the graffiti crowd has been here…<\/strong><\/p>\n

I wonder how many of these vandals’ grandfathers supported their families by working here for 12 hours a day.<\/p>\n

\"Shop-inside-4.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Various views of the inside…<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Shop-inside-5.jpg\"<\/p>\n

\"Shop-inside-6.jpg\"<\/p>\n

\"Shop-inside-7.jpg\"<\/p>\n

\"Shop-inside-8.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Engine entrance<\/strong><\/p>\n

There were two side entrances into the shop, both with simple double doors. An engine would drive in, or be pulled in, and the large 200 ton overhead crane would simply pick it up and run it down the length of the shop to an empty bay for work. Would have been a bit unnerving to have a full size steam engine flying overhead!<\/p>\n

\"Shop-inside-9.jpg\"<\/p>\n

A big pile of bricks<\/strong><\/p>\n

For some reason they decided to keep these inside, away from the other piles of bricks outside. Maybe they didn’t get along with each other…<\/p>\n

\"Shop-inside-10.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Engine entrance<\/strong><\/p>\n

Looking into the shop from one of the engine entrances. This small space would just fit an engine and nothing else! Don’t know if the punch clock and time card racks were put there after the railroad vacated the building or not.<\/p>\n

\"Shop-inside-11.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Frosty brown refreshment<\/strong><\/p>\n

They were all empty, I checked.<\/p>\n

\"Shop-inside-12.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Frosty white refreshment<\/strong><\/p>\n

I guess those railroad men weren’t bashful….<\/p>\n

\"Shop-inside-13.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Turntable pit ruins<\/strong><\/p>\n

The pit is still distinguishable although the deck is long gone. Engines would enter the yard along side of the shop and onto the turntable where they would be spun 90 degrees, from here they would enter the shop.<\/p>\n

\"Turntable-pit-1.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Hydrant<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Hydrant.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Low budget renovation<\/strong><\/p>\n

I guess when the last tennant of the building took it over they simply covered the entire thing with siding, covering up 100 years of “use”. A small piece of the original architecture is visible. Personally, I prefer the original.<\/p>\n

\"Old-door-under-new-siding.jpg\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CNR’s “Big” Shop Driving through Stratford yesterday I went past the long abandoned (for railroad use anyway) CNR shops. Its been about 10 years since I have had a look at the place and was quite shocked to find most of it missing. A fire in September 2003 destroyed a good chunk of the building, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.port-kelsey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.port-kelsey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.port-kelsey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.port-kelsey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.port-kelsey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=79"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.port-kelsey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.port-kelsey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=79"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.port-kelsey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=79"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.port-kelsey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=79"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}