Last glimpses of CSX? I hope not

Lambton County 2017 Part I

For a railfan continually frustrated by a lack of success in Ottawa, I was thrilled to enjoy some good luck along the CSX Sarnia Subdivision on a recent trip south to visit family in the Sarnia area. My family was staying at my sister's house. My sister and her husband own a two-acre property that backs onto the Sarnia Subdivision. I was determined to catch something along the subdivision while spending the week there.

One afternoon, as my daughters were napping, I took a walk to the back of the property, which I often do when I'm there. The railway is not separated by fencing or anything else. What's more interesting is that the right-of-way barely crests over the surrounding land. It is almost level with surrounding properties, at least near milepost 64.2, which is where my sister lives (MP 64.2 is actually the Rokeby Line level crossing).

As I was making my way to the back of the property, I thought I heard a distant horn but as I waited for it to repeat itself, I heard nothing. I began walking back to the house when I heard the familiar horn much louder. It was the unmistakable sound of the train crossing Rokeby. I raced to the back of the property and set up a fair distance from the tracks, as I wanted to get a wide shot.

This is what I saw. Two GP38-2s, one in the older CSX paint and one in the newer container logo scheme, emerging from behind trackside scrub.

I find it an incredible anomaly that a railway still operates though an area with no barrier whatsoever. For a railfan that knows the rules, this is a great advantage. Clear sightlines!

Here's a closer shot. The sun was high and bright, which made the shots a little tricky, but nothing that a little photoshopping couldn't solve.

This (above) might be one of my favourite shots from the last year. This is old-school railroading that reminds me of my childhood. No fencing, no signals. Just one track, controlled by track warrants. However, unlike the trains that I saw on this line in my youth, the trains using this stretch of the sub are sadly very short and one-dimensional.

Still, this was the first time I caught a train on this subdivision since 1991. I took as many shots as I could, just so I could savor the moment. Here's a shot of 2799 heading into the cover of spruce trees that line the tracks at the back of my sister's property.

True to my recent vow to document rolling stock a little better I took a photo of the train's tank car consist. This was pretty much the entire consist, sadly. The majority of the load was liquid carbon dioxide coming back to Sarnia (CSX also transports liquid oxygen south of Sarnia along this line, which goes just past Sombra at present). I wasn't able to read what the final tank car was carrying.

The best part of this spot on the line is you can walk right up to the right of way and get a dramatic shot like this (no end of train device!). I was happy to get this image because it gives you an idea of how small the CSX operation has become outside of the Chemical Valley.

Most of the railway's business outside the valley has dried up. I wonder how long it will be before the line outside the valley is abandoned or possibly sold off to CN, which operates the parallel (and extremely busy) St. Clair River Industrial Spur, which extends all the way to the Bickford Line, where it serves the Terra nitrogen products plant.

The reason I will savor this meet is because I can imagine what the fate of this line will be under Hunter Harrison's leadership of CSX. Given that many of the customers along this line have dried up (Dow Chemical, Polysar, Ethyl and several others are long gone) while new prospects don't seem to hold out enough promise to justify any further investment in this line.

There are many ideas for what should happen at the Dow Chemicals and Ethyl sites in the valley, nothing has happened yet. There is a bioproducts industrial park taking shape at the old Polysar site and a cogeneration plant at the old Dow site, but the spurs into these old sites are basically not in use.

CSX still has business in the valley, as it serves the Esso, Shell and Suncor refineries, but aside from these jobs, there is little else to sustain the sub. The south end of the sub has been abandoned from just south of Sombra to Chatham, which forced the City of Chatham-Kent to try and find an operator to serve the agricultural customers on that end of the line. After several years of searching, no operator has been found.

Surprisingly, the tracks on the abandoned part of the sub still seem to be in good shape, or least in the Port Lambton area, anyway.

Even as far back as 2005, there were rumours that CSX was going to turn over the majority of the Sarnia Sub to CN, although this has not happened. I wonder now if the site of CSX trains through my hometown will be a thing of the past.

Old stone milepost 63 at Emily Street in Mooretown on the CSX Sarnia Subdivision.

If so, I'm glad I was able to capture some images of this railway, whose history stretches back generations, and several predecessor railroads, in Lambton County.

Guest Post: Riding the rails with Sarnia's little-known short line

Beachburg Sub readers are by now familiar with the photo contributions of my brother Marc, who lives in Sarnia. Recently, Marc and his children had the unique opportunity to take a tour of a small Sarnia short line railway's operations first hand. What follows is his account of this incredible behind-the-scenes look at a busy railway in action - Michael

Sometimes it’s not what you know, but who you know. 

I’m a causal rail enthusiast, with a rekindled interest in the local Sarnia rail scene. As mentioned by Michael in previous posts, our family has a long rail history, going back three generations. My career took me into the aviation field, but my young son brought me back to watching trains. My son and I often take a break from the family’s weekend errands, and visit the Sarnia Via Rail station to watch the action in Sarnia Yard. We’re lucky to see so much on this busy line. Forgive my lack of proper terminology and my photography shortcomings…I’m not expert. I’m just a dad who likes to take his kids to see the trains.

SW1200 1511 arriving to meet the kids with bell ringing! Background is Imperial Oil, one of Sarnia’s biggest refineries. I like the silhouette of the engineer shown here.

A family friend knew my son was obsessed about trains, and she kindly offered to arrange a tour of her company’s facility: Sarnia’s little known, but very busy short line railroad: VidalStreet Industrial Park Inc. (VIP).

Arial view looking west at the VIP site. Note the rail storage yard, bottom center (red arrow) Part of the Lanxess and Cabot site to the left (blue arrow). Imperial Oil above and to the left of VIP (yellow arrow), along with a few smaller refineries. St. Clair River (and Michigan) shown above Imperial (white arrows).

VIP operates on the former Fibreglass Canada site in Sarnia’s Chemical Valley. Fibreglass closed its doors in 1991, leaving 600 people out of work, and an abandoned 30-acre site. I remember it being a huge loss for Sarnia at the time. A group of Sarnia businessmen bought the site in 2005 and started the VIP short line railway.

1201 being refurbished. It was a former CN unit. Photo from VIP. Switcher No. 1007 is also in the fleet, a former Dow Chemical unit. Dow operated a large site in Sarnia for many years on the CSX Sarnia Subdivision.

VIP has three SW1200 engines: 1007, 1201 and 1511. They have three spurs: one servicing Imperial Oil, one connected to the Canadian National yard, and one servicing Cabot Carbon and Lanxess to the south. They are not connected to CSX’s lines, but are able to service these customers through the CSX/CN interchanges.

Riding in the cab of 1511, looking South towards Lanxess and Cabot Carbon. Servicing Cabot is a dirty job, as shown on top of the cab. Carbon-black dust from hopper loading makes for dirty engines. My son commented: “Daddy, the engine needs to go to the wash-down!”

VIP services local industry in several ways: They took over much of the shunting from CN: assembling, storing, and delivering consists in and out the CN yard. They have a large storage yard, holding 700 cars. They also offer trucking, warehouse and transload services. Cabot and Lanxess do not have much rail storage available on site, and use VIP to hold, deliver, and retrieve empty cars on a daily basis.

Ready for our ride! Lanxess site in the background. Among many other products, Lanxess is the world’s sole producer of food-grade butyl rubber, used for chewing gum. Check out the old crossbucks!

It was a great morning to see the Chemical Valley from behind the scenes. Our tour started at Kenny Street in Sarnia, continuing though VIP’s yard, through a section of Imperial Oil, and past the St. Andrew St. level crossing. We stopped short of the CN yard, and headed back. The train’s horn startled the kids!

Looking north along the swampy line. Heavy rain has flooded many areas.

Approaching the St. Andrew St crossing, with your friendly VIP guide standing guard.

It was a short tour, but a great experience for all of us. I haven’t been on an engine since I was a kid, when a friendly CP engineer in Banff took time from his break and let me and Michael come see inside the engine. (It was an SD40-2 towing a disabled Via F unit - Michael)

My three year old was excited beyond belief. We are lucky to have a friend who went the extra mile for us.

 

Thanks to my brother Marc for contributing this first-hand account of the VIP operations in Sarnia. Please feel free to leave a comment to let him know what you think. 

Postcard from Chemical Valley

This week, I am starting a new and likely occasional feature on The Beachburg Sub. I plan to offer a single photograph and tell the stories attached with that single image. I am doing this for a few reasons. One, I have a number of photos that don't really fit in with any particular theme. Second, I feel like this format allows me to roam a little bit and tell some stories that I am not always able to explore in more regularly structured postcards.

So, with that, here is my first postcard, from beneath a bridge in Sarnia's Chemical Valley.

This shot, taken last Dec. 22, was shot beneath a bridge that carries Vidal Street above the CSX Sarnia Subdivision. You can see the shadow cast by the overpass in the shot. The road you see, partially in shadow, is the former stretch of Vidal Street, which once crossed three CSX tracks via a level crossing. That crossing would often produce traffic headaches as CSX trains would often block the crossing as they shunted cars in and out of the Dow Chemical refinery.

The overpass was built in the early 1980s to ease traffic flow and deal with safety concerns. The map below shows where I took the photo and gives you an idea of the track alignment. The old road just above the one labelled 33 is the former stretch of Vidal Street which once passed over the CSX tracks at a level crossing.

Fast forward to today and the old stretch of Vidal Street is part of a ghost town. The Dow Chemical refinery is long gone, having been closed in the early 1990s. In its place, all that is left is a vast expanse of concrete, old settling ponds, a few rail spurs and a small cogeneration plant. There has been talk of a business park on the old Dow site, but very little has happened here since most of the old refinery was dismantled.

That means this stretch of the valley remains pretty quiet, especially along the rails. CSX still uses some of the tracks here to park tank cars or queue them up before delivering them to other chemical plants further down the line. The image I took makes it look like the tank cars are parked on the main line, which is what I thought when I took the photograph. But the map shows you that this is not the case.

I vividly remember crossing these tracks when I was a child and often having to wait for the Chessie System painted geeps to clear the crossing long enough for my frustrated parents to drive by. Of course, as a kid, I was happy to sit in the back seat and watch the trains ply the rails. Sometimes, we would catch a glimpse of Dow Chemical's orange SW locomotive, which performed switching duties on the refinery's tracks.

Last December, when I visited this spot, I hoped I could catch something happening,  but this was all I was able to capture. I'm not a fan of photographing stationary cars, but in this case, the image sparked a flood of memories of busier times.

Catching up with the neighbours

On Aug. 18, I found myself with a few hours to take in some big-time railway action in Sarnia, where I was treated to two feasts. One was the movement of a mixed freight heading toward the Paul M. Tellier Tunnel beneath the St. Clair River. The other was a full-fledged interchange between CN and its Sarnia neighbour, CSX.

After happening across the tunnel train from a cul-de-sac abutting the yard, I moved on to Sarnia's Via Rail station, to catch what I could. There, I noticed another railfan sitting on the platform and two CSX GP38-2s idling a few tracks over. The other fan seemed absorbed by something on his phone, so I didn't bother him.

The shot beneath is the one of the best from this meet, with CN locomotives bringing a string of cars into the yard for the two CSX GP38s to pull back to CSX trackage. This meet all started with the second photo (below). Here's an earlier shot of another Sarnia interchange train.

Above: CN GP9 7270, slug 223 and GP38-2W 4761 pull a string of tank cars and covered hoppers into Sarnia Yard, where they will then be taken off to CSX trackage into the Checmial Valley and beyond.

 

It all started with some pretty standard shots of these geeps idling. The lighting was tricky given the time of day (late morning). This was the best vantage point, since every other shot bleached out the sky. You can see the signal bridge to the right. All those tracks are due west toward the St. Clair River Tunnel and various turnouts including the Point Edward Spur, the CSX/CN interchange points and the CN St. Clair River Industrial Spur. I had planned to wait for a few minutes to see if something else was going to happen, when I heard a sound coming from the west. I then headed down toward the signal bridge.

But not before I snapped a quick shot of all the stickers on the geep. The sticker below the number board read "ECO TRANS K9 APU equipped." That means this was a rebuilt unit, complete with fuel efficient components and emission reduction components built in. You can see from the flashing beacon that these units are also equipped from remote control. The yellow arrow at the edge of the hood says "STEP."

Details, details. There was an interchange consist making its way into the yard. I had to hurry to the edge of the platform to catch this train. I was happy to see the GP9 working with a slug. Another GP38 was helping out as well. You will recall I posted some photos of this train in an earlier post, More relics on the rails.

I was able to use my camera's zoom to catch the conductor throwing a switch. You can also make out the engineer on the phone with the yardmaster, no doubt. You can also make out the engine's exhaust. This shot also captures a sliver of the old Sarnia roundhouse in the background.

I then ditched the zoom and started to frame for some wide shots, to catch more of the train. This shot below turned out pretty well. You can see the engineer controlling the GP9 with a belt pack while the conductor stays by the switch (Please see comments below). You can also see the Family Lines System hopper (third car) entering the frame. The hopper directly behind the locomotives was obviously a Family Lines hopper, although the paint was obviously removed at some point.

CSX's interchanges with CN were once much more plentiful. At one point, CSX had much more to offer. The CSX Sarnia Subdivision was once a vital link between CP's Windsor Subdivision (in Chatham) and CN's Strathroy Subdivision. This meant that oversized rolling stock like high-cube boxcars and autoracks were once routed between Chatham and Sarnia via CSX. While CP had a rail ferry service on the Detroit River like CN did for the St. Clair River, a great deal of autoracks and oversized boxcars, with auto parts, were nonetheless routed through Sarnia via CSX.

Since the new CN rail tunnel opened, CSX's operations in this area have been reduced to servicing local chemical plants along its trackage in Sarnia and St. Clair Township, as the transfer work dried up. CSX also discontinued rail service in Chatham-Kent recently, cutting off several of its agricultural customers there. The southern end of this line is now in limbo, and the move to halt service effectively severed the CSX Sarnia Subdivision from all but the CN Strathroy Subdivision as its link to the North American rail network.

CSX's line still counts a number of industries on its line, such as Imperial Oil, Lanxess, Suncor, Shell Canada, the former Ethyl Canada site (developing business park), Nova Chemicals (formerly Dupont Canada site in Corunna), Ontario Power Generation (soon to be closed coal plant), Terra International (formerly C-I-L), and Methes Energies Canada (biomass fuel plant at former Chinook Chemicals site). Not all these sites have rail service, but there appears to be more than enough demand to keep the line going in a limited capacity for some time.

So this interchange will remain a fixture, much to the delight of train watchers like me, although what the future holds might depend on what development there might be along the CSX rail line. For example, at one point, Shell Canada was planning to build a massive refinery south of the soon-to-be-shuttered Ontario Power Generation thermal generating station, but those plans were scuttled several years ago. The line also counts the former Dow Chemicals site as a potential customer on its line, although its future use as an industrial park depends on what industry can be attracted to the site and how much of it might need rail service.

To be honest, I am surprised CSX's local operations have not been sold off to CN. The remnants of this line must still be too profitable to abandon right now.

Updated: A few surprises from the past year

As Beachburg Sub approaches its anniversary, I have been combing through photos of my adventures and came across a few shots that could only be described as surprises that I had yet to turn into grist for the mill. So, here goes.

The first shot was taken Dec. 23, 2013 in Sarnia. It was the product of lucky timing. I was shooting trains around Sarnia yard when I heard the whistle of an approaching train. To my surprise, a CSX local came curling around the Lambton Diesel roundhouse into the yard. I knew that CSX and CN had a few interchange points when I lived in Sarnia, but in the pre-Internet era, I never knew where these points were and when the interchanges happened. Standing on the platform of Sarnia station that morning, I was lucky enough to get a shot of two CSX GP38s pulling their interchange traffic into the yard, just in front of a few CN yard locomotives. I was happy with this shot because it captures the look of the two railways, a bit of the Chemical Valley and a small piece of the roundhouse.

On the same day, I drove past a CN CargoFlow facility where a string of hopper cars was waiting to be loaded. One car caught my eye, because it had a mysterious logo on it that I had not seen since my teenage years. It was simply labelled "North American," which had me intrigued. So I took a photo of the hopper and went about researching what it was. Seeing the CNIS reporting marks, I assumed it was a CN car, which was correct (see note in italics below).

The car was painted in an early incarnation of CN's International Service scheme. Most cars with the CNIS reporting mark now look much like all other CN rolling stock, with the exception of the reporting mark. However, from what I can find online, the railway used the "North American" logo in place of the wet noodle the early 80s for its CNIS cars. From what I gather from a few message boards, these marks are for accounting purposes. This old scheme is not terribly common these days, as most CNIS cars have been repainted with the wet noodle look, but a few of the old North American cars are still obviously kicking around.

UPDATE: A blog reader pointed out to me that the North American logo in fact belonged to the North American Car Co., which leased cars to major railways. So, while I was partially right that this car was a CN hopper, I was also off the mark on a few points above. Thanks to blog reader Nicholas for pointing this out.

This past summer, I made my first trip to Ottawa's Walkley Yard, only to find it almost completely empty, save for a few pieces of rolling stock. Far off in the east end of the yard, I spotted two cars pushed up against some bumpers that stood out. As regular readers know, Walkley Yard is home to an old CN caboose and RDC9, both belonging to DAWX. I have taken quite a few photos of these two relics, since they are parked right next to a service road, making them easy photo subjects. On this day, the sun was shining brilliantly, making the old RDC look even more compelling.

This past September, I made an early morning visit to Walkley Yard, needing a little break away from a hectic house. I was greatly surprised to catch CN's local assembling in the yard, which made for a number of great photos. I kept my distance on the service road, since the engineer and conductor were likely wondering who I was. I'm pretty sure the CN crews in Ottawa are not used to spectators. I was pleased with the shots I took that morning, since they captured a number of cool items, including an old RailBox boxcar, the old CN Millennium caboose and few others interesting pieces of rolling stock. Also, you can see the conductor in this shot, which was a bonus. Such is the state of freight trains in Ottawa these days that this shot comprises an incredible score to a local train watcher.