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VIA Pipeline

Accession number: 
1953.0068
Alternate Titles: 
VIA Pipe-Line
Alternate title
VIA Pipe Line
Alternate title
Products pipeline
Working title
Production Years: 
1953

Languages:

Film Properties: 
Holding Institutions: 

Library and Archives Canada: 16mm.
"The film explains in great detail the many steps involved in building a pipeline from Montreal to Hamilton, with a branch line to Ottawa. Covering 400 miles, the pipeline was built to transport gasoline, ferosene, and diesel oils from the Montreal and Clarkson refineries. The footage and narration cover the following steps: surveying; the bus gang; the bulldozers clearing the 50-foot path; the rotary ditch, - digger used to dig the trench; the backhoes used in swampy and rocky areas; the pipe-bending shoe; the line-up crew; the welders and x-ray and air pressure safety tests applied to the welds; the cleaning machine; the wrapping machine; burying the pipe and the cosmetic work done to areas where the pipe was laid. Special sections are reserved for 3 of the 18 water crossings involved - Rivière-des-Prairies; Lake of Two Mountains and the Trent Canal. Drilling, blasting and special wrappings for the pipe are all explained in each situation. Another section is devoted to crossing the QEW in Toronto without disrupting traffic. Also covered is the building of the pumping station in Cornwall and storage terminals in Port Hope. Footage includes shots of the downtown cores of Montreal, Cornwall, Kingston, Ottawa, Toronto, Oshawa and Hamilton. Ottawa footage also includes the jet fighter squadrons taxiing and taking off from Uplands Airport. The film emphasizes the company's safety precautions, the well trained crews, the use of modern equipment and the care taken to cover over any damage to farm-land and urban areas where the pipeline passed."

Bibliography: 

Crawley Films, Free Films: Sources of Free 16mm Sponsored Films in Canada Compiled and Published by Crawley Films (Ottawa: Crawley Films, April 1969): 37.
"On the pipe line industry."