Angus Shops
by Michael Leduc
Canadian Pacific opened its famed Angus Shops in Montreal in 1904. There, CP built and maintained steam locomotives of various types. Also, passenger and freight cars were built and serviced at Angus. Diesel-electric locomotives were services and rebuilt at Angus.This is the history of Canadian Pacific Railway's Angus Shops, one of the best known railway works in Canadian history, the life of which spanned almost nine decades of the twentieth century.
The story begins with the chapter discussing its predecessor back shops, namely Hochelaga and New Shops of Montreal. These shops became over extended to a point where CP planned the construction of its huge Angus Shops plant. The railway began planning the new shops in 1902 in sufficient detail that construction contracts were let in November that year. At the start of 1904 the passenger erecting shops were occupied. By September the locomotive shops were in operation with the first locomotive out shopped that November.
This study encompasses the planning, construction and changes to Angus Shops over its almost ninety-year lifespan. The locomotive shops are discussed detailing many of the steam locomotives that the railway built at Angus. Further chapters discuss dieselization and the passenger and freight car shops. War-time efforts are presented highlighting the Valentine tanks that were constructed at Angus for World War II. After the shops were closed, the property was sold and transformed from the huge railway plant to a residential and commercial area. Housing developments sprang up and a new community arose. Part of the locomotive shops remain, albeit serving a new purpose. All these points are discussed in the closing chapters.