The Chemin de fer terminal de Montréal (formerly the Montreal Terminal Railway, but many of the staff supported Québec separatism and insisted that the railroad name should be in la langue française, which the Parsons Vale Trust had absolutely no problem with) was a joint property of the PV&T & LT&L – and is now a separate railroad subsidiary of the trust – operating freight lines in Québec and Ontario, and, via their St-Jean-sur-Richelieu shops, maintaining all of the Alco & MLW power on the Parsons Vale system.
For the first century of its existance, it was a nondescript terminal railroad giving the PV&T and LT&L access to Montréal and the surrounding suburbs, but it gained fame near the end of the 1950s by continuing to operate steam until it was forceably dieselised by the PV&T after the 1962 merger, then by obsessively sticking with Alco power (including ¾’s of the existing Alco DL-109 multipurpose locomotives) for many decades after Alco & MLW went out of business.
TdM History
Note: TdM North is the TdM lines northwest of the Saint Lawrence; South is, obviously, not that.
- 1850
- Montreal and Southern Railway founded.
- 1864
- M&S converted to standard gauge from 5" gauge.
- 1871
- M&S purchased by the LC&T.
- 1880
- MTRR formed by merger of Montreal and Southern Railway with PV&T and LT&L terminal services.
- PV&T and LT&L locomotives pooled for operation of the line.
- 1885
- built Brossard to Marieville (including trackage rights on the Central Vermont from Richelieu to the outskirts of Marieville)
- 1886
- built Boucherville to Victoriaville
- started construction of a bridge over the Saint Lawrence at Verchéres
- 1889
- built the MTRR South mainline from Boucherville to Verchéres
- … and MTRR North from the Verchéres bridge along the north side of the river west to Hawkesbury, Ontario
- 1895
- extended MTRR South from Brossard to Ormstown, with a branch to Saint-Louis-de-Gonzague
- 1902
- built branches from Repentigny to Rawdon & Saint-Jérôme
- 1909
- Electrified the Marieville branch, thanks to spring flooding on Riviere Richelieu washing out the MTRR bridge and subsequent trackage right on the Montreal & Southern Counties Railway.
- 1912
- 600 VDC electrification of Montréal-Est & Brossard to Delson.
- MTRR 5-8, 700-hp steeplecabs, purchased for freight operations on the newly electrified Brossard to Delson segment.
- 1915
- built Plattsburg branch (with trackage rights over Delaware & Hudson and its subsidiary Napierville Junction.)
- 1918
- Canadian Northern electrification, 2400VDC Montréal to Cartierville.
- MTRR electrifies (@2400VDC) from Saint-Lambert to Iberville.
- 1930
- PV&T electrification reaches Saint Albans.
- MTRR extends their Iberville electrification down into the United States to meet the PV&T electrification (giving electrified routes to both Portland, ME and Boston, MA.)
- MTRR Electrification converted to 3000VDC (2400 between Gare Central and Saint-Lambert) to match parent PV&T’s electrification.
- 1938
- MTRR 101-107, 2-8-2 steam, purchased.
- 1940
- MTRR 300-306 transferred from LT&L.
- 1946
- MTRR 201-203 transferred from PV&T (101-103).
- 1961
- Merged into PV&T
- 1962
- Dieselised.
- 1964
- Transferred the section of subdivision Hawksbury that went along the Ottawa River through Oka to the Kanehsata'kehró:non after purchasing the ex-CNoR line from Grenmont to Rodgerdale. The TdM continued to operate this line on contract until the Kanehsata'kehró:non decided to stop subsidizing passenger service in 1998.
- 1966
- MTRR North, and the eastern half of MTRR South, electrified to complete the LT&L’s Ottawa<->Québec electrification.
- 1970
- Officially renamed to the (previously unofficial, but almost universally used) french version of the name – Chemin de fer Terminal de Montréal.
- 1988
- Leased the balance of the (now dieselised) Montreal & Southern Counties, only to abandon it as uneconomical in 1996.
more-or-less compete TdM locomotive roster (1913-1961)
Most of the motors and diesel locomotives on the TdM were assigned by the PV&T or LT&L, but, particularly from the late 1930s on, most of the steam engines were owned directly by the TdM.
| Number(s) | Class | Type | Acquired | Disposition | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1-2 | e44 | B-B steeplecab | 1909 | retired 1958 | assigned to Delson-Marieville |
| 3-4 | e44 | B-B steeplecab | 1909 | retired 1944 | assigned to Delson-Marieville |
| 5-8 | e44b | B-B steeplecab | 1912 | retired 1958 | assigned to the Montréal-Est switching district |
| 9-10 | e44b | B-B steeplecab | 1912 | retired 1958 | assigned to Delson-Marieville |
| 11-13 | s6 | 0-6-0 | 1910 | retired 1952 | |
| 14 | s6 | 0-6-0 | 1910 | retired 1962 | |
| 15-19 | s6 | 0-6-0 | 1911 | retired 1947 | |
| 20(first) | s6 | 0-6-0 | 1915 | retired 1938 | |
| 21-24 | s4 | 0-4-0 | 1915 | retired 1947 | |
| 24 | s4 | 0-4-0 | 1915 | retired 1939 | |
| 31-33 | s8t | 0-8-0t | 1917 | retired 1962 | |
| 101-110 | sr8 | 2-8-2 | 1938 | retired 1962 | renumbered to 354-359 immediately before being retired |
| 111-117 | sr8 | 2-8-2 | 1938 | retired 1946 | ex-LT&L; replaced by d44b’s 1101-1106 |
| 1001-1002 | d44 | Baldwin VO-660 | 1944 | to PH&W 1955 | |
| 1011-1013 | d44a | Alco RS-1 | 1941 | to LT&L 1950 | locomotive swap for 2-8-2s 111-117 |
| 1101-1102 | d44b | Alco RS-2 | 1946 | retired 1962 | traded in for MLW RS-20’s |
| 1103 | d44b | Alco RS-2 | 1946 | retired 1976 | rebuilt as RS-2m #371 1966 |
| 1104 | d44b | Alco RS-2 | 1946 | in service | rebuilt as RS-251 #375 1966 |
| 1105-1106 | d44b | Alco RS-2 | 1946 | retired 1962 | traded in for MLW RS-20’s |
| 201 | sr10 | 2-10-0 | 1946 | retired 1955 | was PV&T 101 |
| 202 | sr10 | 2-10-0 | 1946 | retired 1958 | was PV&T 102 |
| 203 | sr10 | 2-10-0 | 1946 | retired 1962 | was PV&T 103 |
| 20(second) | Ω | 4-6-0+0-6-4 | 1958 | stored 1962 | finally sent to the historical fleet in 1998 |