Some thoughts on the Ottawa Electric Railway's Central Experimental Farm transfer trolley

Farm transfer trolley | Library & Archives Canada, PA-126776

Last week I bought a copy of Building Canada's Farm: An Illustrated Guide to Buildings at the Central Experimental Farm, written by Richard Hinchcliff and Patrica Jasen, and published last year by Friends of the Central Experimental Farm. The Farm is an Ottawa landmark, and one of my favourite places in the city to visit. When I saw the book at the local Coles over the Christmas holidays I knew it was for me. The book doesn't disappoint, and I highly recommend it. 

The Farm once came with a streetcar

Being a streetcar-guy, an added Farm bonus is that it was serviced by an Ottawa Electric Railway (OER) trolley line from 1908 to 1929. The federal government wanted to promote the Farm and have more people visit, so in 1908 they ponied up around $40,000 for the OER to run and operate a double-track line into the Farm.

Apparently ridership numbers were never great, and in 1924* the OER stopped running streetcars all the way into the Farm. They didn't terminate all service, and kept a stretch of track that ran along the Farm boundary paralleling Carling Avenue so they could provide service to the new Civic Hospital that was being built nearby. The OER also put in a loop near the hospital at the end of that stretch of track so the streetcar wouldn't have to drive down into the Farm in order to loop around for the return trip. So, now if you wanted to go into the Farm you'd need to get off at the hospital loop, and transfer to a small trolley** that could take you into the grounds. In the end though, there wasn't enough ridership to keep even the transfer trolley going, and its service was discontinued in 1929. And that was that for streetcar service into the Farm.

The mysterious Farm transfer trolley

You see the little, four-wheel trolley in the lead photo? That seems to be the only known picture of the Farm's transfer trolley. Building Canada's Farm, as well as the books Ottawa's Farm: A History of the Central Experimental Farm, and Ottawa's Streetcars: An Illustrated History of Electric Railway Transit in Canada's Capital City, all present that photo when discussing the transfer trolley. Although it's an interesting picture, I'd like to see some that have a few more details than what it shows. 

For awhile I've been thinking about building an HO-scale model of the vehicle. It would be powered by a NWSL Stanton drive I bought a few years ago. Given the trolley's small size, it should be possible to use some of the classic trolley model building techniques for its construction. However, I'm interested in getting more information on the trolley before getting started.

They say third time's a charm, and Building Canada's Farm is the third book I've seen that picture in, so I decided to contact the Friends of the Farm to find out if they had access to any more information about the trolley. They put me in contact with one of the authors, who generously provided a scan of the photo, as well as a little more information and a link to a brief related article they ran in their newsletter back in 2011. The article filled in some more information about the line, but the scan gave me some important clues about the trolley's possible identity.

Car 51, is that you?

The book Ottawa's Streetcars has some information about the Farm line and its transfer trolley, but it's scattered throughout, and the book has no index, so I spent some pleasant time searching through its pictures and text for applicable material. After pondering that information a bit, and cross-checking with the OER vehicle roster in the back of the book, I'm thinking the trolley in the photo might be OER Car 51. I can't be conclusive just yet, but clues are pointing its way, or towards similar cars in its lineage.

Left: Farm transfer trolley image sliced from PA-126776; Right: Car 51, Library & Archives Canada, PA-176783

Here are some clues and points of similarity:

1. That photo of Car 51 appears on page 144 of Ottawa's Streetcars, and the caption notes: "The car was in shuttle service between this point [Holland Junction] and the Experimental Farm". The caption also notes the photo was taken "in the early 1920s." I think these two statements may indicate that in the early 1920's, prior to the abandonment of service into the Farm's grounds in 1924, Car 51 may have been used for the entire Farm route when ridership numbers had dwindled to a level that no longer justified using a modern streetcar to service the line. Then in 1924, Car 51 became the transfer trolley, and was limited to running from the hospital loop down into the Farm's grounds. 

The OER's vehicle roster notes that Car 51 was still in service up until 25 September 1927, when it was converted into a grinder hauler. There's no exact date attached to the transfer trolley photo (PA-126776) other than it was taken sometime between 1924 and 1929. So, it's possible the transfer trolley photo is of Car 51, and later in 1927 another car was used on the line until it was closed down in 1929.

This stitched together story is speculation on my part, and would benefit from verification against original source material.

2. The cars in both photos are single truck, four-wheelers.

3. Both have six windows.

4. Both have dome roofs. Also, the clerestories, roof-top access ladders, and trolley pole connections appear the same.

5. Both appear to have the same type of front bumper, although in the Car 51 photo, the vehicle has elaborate safety scoops on the front and rear.

6. Both appear to have the same horizontal stripe under the windows.

Does a ghostly '5' appear in the red box?

And finally point 7, the admittedly weird ancient-aliens, reading-too-much-into-too-little part :-)

I think I see a very faint number 5 inside the red box in the image on the left. You'll have to enlarge the image, and squint your eyes a bit, to see it. There might be a number 1 beside it too.

There are a couple of problems with this observation. First, the pixels that appear to form a 5, and maybe a 1, could be simply just artifacts of digitization, which is the interpretation I'm leaning towards. And second, the number appears in an odd location. From the photo of Car 51, it should most likely be centred beneath the windows, not off to one side.

Although I have my doubts about the ghostly 5, I mention it merely for completeness, and entertainment value :-)

Now, none of this adds up to a conclusive argument regarding the identity of the Farm's transfer trolley, but it does provide a more concrete starting point for a model of a certain trolley, operating at a certain time, in a certain place. However, I now have a good photo (which includes a figure to give some scale) of a vehicle that bears a strong resemblance to the transfer trolley, an entry in the OER roster that tells me it was 28' long, and a note in Ottawa's Farm states that its colour was likely green.

However, over the 5 years the transfer trolley service ran, there could have been several different types of trollies used on the line, so any model probably won't be the definitive statement on what was actually used. We'll likely never know. 

*1924 or 1922?

The streetcar article in the Friends of the Farm newsletter implies that the OER stopped running streetcars all the way into the Farm in 1922; however, Ottawa's Streetcars says it happened in 1924. The article was published in 2011, the book in 2006, and the article says it was written with information provided by a third generation OER trolleyman. So, maybe it was 1922, which makes this year the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the Farm's transfer trolley service. 

**A Jigger of Trollies

One last thing. Apparently what I've been calling the transfer trolley was know colloquially as the 'Jigger', because of the motion the passengers were subjected to as it ran. It's noted in Ottawa's Farm that, "as it [the Jigger] rolled over the rails it rocked from end to end - a soothing motion for tired workers at the end of the day." The caption attached to PA-126776 describes the trolley as, "The "jigger", the small streetcar loved by the Farm staff for its comforting motion...".

I find it a little strange that something called the Jigger was considered to have a soothing and comforting motion that was loved by Farm staff who rode it. Merriam-Webster tells me one definition for jigger is: a mechanical device usually with a jerky reciprocating motion. The application of the English language is a many splendored thing :-)