Fresh perspectives in Stratford

Last summer, I was in Stratford to visit family and take in a show at the Stratford Festival. While there, I was able to carve out some time at the town's train yard to capture some images of the local freight operations. With a little help from those who are familiar with CN and the Goderich Exeter Railway's moves, I was able to catch several freight trains and some yard action. 

Here's a post featuring some GEXR freight movements on the Goderich Subdivision after leaving the yard.

CN's presence in Stratford is quite noticeable. It has a large maintenance yard where it keeps all sorts of supplies for track repairs. Of course, the Guelph Subdivision is hardly a speedway these days, but CN has still clearly invested in a maintenance operation here. I would say that it is much more extensive than what GEXR had in place when it was the sole leaseholder on the Guelph Subdivision.

 

This is the first shot I grabbed of an incoming CN local, which originated in Kitchener, as it came to do some yard work and move on further west to St. Marys. I took this shot because I wanted to capture a glimpse of the overall operations in Stratford, including the maintenance yard. You can see piles of ties to the left as well as a few structures. 

 

The local was led by an old GP9 and GP38 in the safety stripes scheme. It looked like 9555 was due for new paint, for sure. The train was a pretty typical consist of covered hoppers mainly, which is common in this yard. 

 

As the crew assembled the consist it would need to go west into St. Marys, I made sure to make my way to the Niles Street crossing, which allowed me a chance to get a different type of shot. As I have mentioned before, I am on a mission to capture new and different railway images. I could have easily taken shots from the station platform, as I have done many times in the past, but I wanted something different. 

 

Even though this angle was on the shadow side of the train, I though the angle of the tracks in the yard would give me a unique perspective of the train in its entirety. I thought this shot was more satisfying than an image of a long line of blank grey covered hoppers. Some of those hoppers were destined for the cement operations in St. Marys, which are served by CN.

 

Speaking of different angles. 

 

 

On my first day in Stratford, the yard was quiet but I did catch GEXR's local power at an odd angle in front of the Masterfeeds elevator. I was told this track is one of the last remnants of the old roundhouse complex that was once in place to service the steam engines of the Grand Trunk and the CN.

 

I could have gotten a much closer view, but I decided it would be cool to capture a shot of the long string of steel coil cars and the brooding summer sky in the image as well. I think this shot gives you a much broader picture of local operations.

 

That is a brief summary of my first days trackside in Stratford, I'd be curious to read your thoughts about how to capture different railway images. In two of these shots, the train or engines that were my main focus were actually quite small relative to the overall frame. Do you have your own ways of keeping things fresh while trackside?