Running Back to St. Jacobs (Part II)

As I mentioned in my last post, I had the chance to take some shots of the antique trains that are parked in St. Jacobs, a tourist town just north of Warterloo, Ont. I was in the area last November for a conference where I was giving a mental health presentation. In my first post, I focused my shots on the south end of the rail yard, which is situated behind a residential street, just a few blocks from the main street. Just a short block north on Isabella Street, there is another residential street that dead ends at the tracks. From this publicly available viewing point, you can get some shots of the north end of the yard, where there are a number of pieces of rolling stock near the maintenance facility. 

You have to be careful in this spot, because there are private residences and small businesses near the track. To be safe, I stayed on the road and used my camera's zoom, to respect private property.

I also took some shots from the edge of the railway's parking lot, so I could get a shot of this old Budd RDC car, numbered 6135, with a hasty WCRX operating mark stencilled in. The car appears to be used for storage at the moment. The car is still sporting its old Via colours, although I would assume at some point, the railway is going to change its colours to its crimson and grey scheme.  

The car, which is an RDC1 unit, was originally built in 1957 for Canadian Pacific and eventually made its way onto the Via Rail roster, where it served its final Via days on the railway's Vancouver Island operations, before that passenger service was shut down due to deteriorating track conditions. This car is not listed on the WCR website, so I'm assuming it's a fairly recent addition. Given its CP origins, a makeover in the maroon and grey scheme would seem fitting.

Before I get to the shots from the north end of the yard, I should add in one final shot I took from the south end. Although WCR is very much a CPR-styled tourist operation, it should be noted that it operates on the old CN Elmira Subdivision and it does roster one unit still in CN paint. In this case, the unit was already decked out in garland and lights for its Christmas runs. 

Sadly, every time I visit the WCR yard, this old GMD1 is hiding behind the MLW units. The engine, numbered 1012 (ex-CN 1437), is in the CN olive and yellow paint scheme, which predated the now ubiquitous wet noodle scheme. This railway appears to love heritage schemes. On its website, I noticed that the 1958-built unit was still in its CN safety scheme colours and numbered 1437 when it started pulling for WCR. At some point, it was renumbered and given the heritage CN look. I'd love to get a shot of this unit one day, as I do not have a single GMD1 shot in my collection. So close!

Moving on to the north vantage point, this unlettered six-axle heavyweight sat by itself, basking in the morning sun near to where I was standing. Upon close inspection of the photo, it appears this car was once lettered for WCR but seems to be undergoing some cosmetic work. It's still painted maroon, so I assume at some point it will once again sport some grey and yellow accents of the old Canadian Pacific scheme. I would imagine it will be relettered Waterloo Central Railway at some point. It's hard to track its history, as I couldn't identify it on the railway's website roster.

Toward to maintenance facility, I captured something under a tarp, which was partly shielded from my point of view by an old maroon passenger car. I'm not quite sure what they have under that tarp. I can see some safety rails at the end and some chains, but that's not a lot to go on.

Right beside the tarped-off mystery car, I got a peak at WCRX 79482, a caboose clad in a maroon vintage CPR scheme. Again, the CPR scheme might make you think this is a vintage CPR van, but it's actually one of 548 CN cabooses from the Pointe St-Charles shops in Montreal. This one was built in 1971. The last CN van built in Quebec was in 1977, according to the WCR website. I find it incredible that there were once nearly 600 of these vans plying the rails across CN's system. How times have changed. This caboose came to the tourist railway in 2007 in a red CN scheme. It was returned to its original number and repainted after 2021.

I hope you enjoyed this post, as it really is like strolling through a museum. I still have yet to see this railway in action, at least at a time when I have a camera with me. I did see it in action years ago when I lived in Kitchener-Waterloo, although I wasn't in the habit of taking train photographs at that time. 

From its origins as the St. Thomas-based Southwestern Ontario Locomotive Restoration Society to its incarnation as the Waterloo Central, this organization is succeeding in an area where a tourist railway has failed in the past. Its ambitious plans, meticulous attention to detail and determination really do seem like a blueprint for other tourist operations.

Possibly the next time in am in the Waterloo Region, I can figure out a time to actually catch these old antiques in action. That would be a treat.

The Ghosts of Bedell, Part II

As I mentioned in my last post, Bedell is an interesting spot on the Canadian Pacific Winchester Sub. It's an area that has rich history. Now, as much of its old infrastructure has been removed, it's also a testament to how railways have evolved. Small towns are rarely much more than a passing landmark to freight trains these days and Bedell is no exception. There are no diamonds here, the interlocking is long gone, the station is only visible in old photos and much of the former Prescott Sub connection has been removed.

So what is there to see in Bedell these days? Well, in the last few years at least, there was a fair amount to see, to be honest. The Canadian Pacific has been very busy reshaping the Winchester Sub, which connects Montreal with Smiths Falls. The double tracks have been slowly merged into a single track governed by modern signalization. Bedell retains some extra trackage, as the railway still makes use of passing sidings, but most of the old remnants of the Bedell rail yard have disappeared. 

The image above is a shot I took in February last year as maintenance of way crews continued their work in the area. Much of the consist was parked on the South Prescott Spur. The caboose, which had the modern CPR letting on it, seemed to be the crew breakroom, where they could escape to a warm place and get out of the howling winter winds. You can see the smoke rising the smokestack, indicating that there is something cooking or running inside the old car. The earliest photo of this caboose I could find was from 2004, meaning it's been assigned to engineering services for nearly two decades.

This shot above shows you a hint of the gondolas on the South Prescott Spur. The entire consist was being marshalled around by a flatbed truck equipped with flanged wheels for use on the rails. I was disappointed to see this. It would have been cool to see one of CP's old MoW locomotives on point, possibly with some old multimarks on the long hood, but it was not to be.

What's also striking about this image is the fact that so many old ties were piled up in the area. In the several times I have been to Bedell in 2020 and 2021, the amount of rail ties was pretty impressive. It seemed like this was the spot where many of the old ties were dumped. The shot below was taken in July 2020. This pile was just the tip of the iceberg.

I haven't been to Bedell in more than a year to see what it's like these days, but seeing those cabooses when I did was incredibly gratifying, especially for someone who is old enough to remember when trains still had cabooses. I remember the debate when railways unions pressed their cases about the issue. I still have a pin somewhere that says "Trains are safer with a caboose." It was given to me by a Teamsters union representative that was pleading its case at a Sarnia mall in the 1980s.

When you drive through Kemptville these days, you wouldn't know you were in a railway town. The last remnants of the old Prescott Sub were lifted shortly after I took this photo in 2014. In fact, you won't find that old industrial building anymore either. It's all been razed. Nothing but a flat expanse of development land for sale. 

Despite the removal of much of the infrastructure at Bedell, it still remains one of my favourite spots to sit trackside. Go there in the summer and listen to the sound of the wind swishing through the trees. It's a very peaceful spot. Catching a train there is tough, given the decreased frequency of traffic, but the newly installed modern signals will give you some clues. You can see these signals safely from the Bedell Road crossing, which might be able to let you know if you will be waiting an entire afternoon or whether you might be in luck. 

You see? Progess isn't so bad.

Cabooses of Ottawa (2003-2022)

Since I began blogging in 2013, I have had a few moments where I was able to take in CN operations at Walkley Yard in the city. This is a tricky task, as the yard is largely inaccessible. At the end of Albion Road, there is a gravel access road where a few businesses retain civic addresses, which makes the road a grey area. I do not go down the gravel access road, as it seems to me to be trespassing. However, I have had occasions in the past to see that CN has made use of several cabooses, which provide for a little bit of interest in an otherwise dull railfanning city. 

The cabooses CN has made use of have varied in quality and origin. Given that CN largely stopped using cabooses by 1990-91, it makes the stories of the cabooses in use in Ottawa over the years that much more interesting. Mostly, the cabooses have been used for backwards movements or shoving movements, where the train's conductor needs a safe platform to observe what's ahead on the tracks as visibility from the engine is restricted at the rear.

CN 9106 (ex OCR 9106, ex Devco 9106)

In 2013, it was hard not to see this caboose from the end of Albion Road. It was parked in plain view, not far from the old maintenance building in the yard. It did not appear to be in active service.

By the time I started taking photos near Walkley, like this shot in 2015, the old caboose was a mess of graffiti and broken windows. You can just make out the marking of CN 9106 below the Devco Railway script above. But, upon closer inspection, the 9106 number was once followed by OCR, which is blacked out in this image. That means this caboose predated CN's operations and was used prior to 2008 by the former Ottawa Central Railway. I found this image online from 2003, which gives you an idea of how long it was used in the area.The Devco part had been painted over long ago, but the car retained its green and yellow Devco colours, if you don't count the abundance of graffiti.

This caboose is an AAR M930 class wide vision cupola caboose, which was a common van used by many Class I and regional railroads right up until the industry discontinued the use of these cars. This common caboose was built by International Car Co. from the early 1960s until the mid-1970s. They were in service until the end of the caboose era. CN also made a number of these cabooses at its shops in Montreal.

This caboose saw service on OCR and CN until it was taken out of service at some point in the early 2010s, at which point it sat in Walkley Yard and was left to the vandals. It's a shame that it was not preserved, as it probably saw a lot of service on the Devco Railway, the Cape Breton coal carrier that served the island's remaining coal mines and Sydney's interantional shipping piers between the late 19060s before that railway ended operations officially in 2001.

CN 79834 (ex Ottawa-L'Orignal 2000, ex OCR)

This caboose was in active service as late as 2013 in the city. It was a curiosity by any stretch, mostly because of its odd paint job and the even more curious inscription "Millennium" that was once stencilled onto the left side of the van. It disappeared from Walkley Yard years ago, but was used for shoving moves on the Vankleek Spur as recently as 2020, as per this webpage. The car was built at the CN Point-St-Charles shops under the same number it bore through its later years of service with CN.

The car was sold to the Ottawa-L'Orignal Railway in 1996. The railway, which operated between Glen Robertson on the Alexandria Sub and Hawkesbury, was then bought out by the Ottawa Central, which continued to use the van until 2008 when CN bought OCR and a host of other assets, which meant this old caboose was back with its original owner.

Here's a 2013 shot of an Ottawa crew assembling a train on a Sunday morning, with the old Millennium caboose behind the engine.

These days, the old warhorse is back where it started, used for shoving moves in the Montreal area. It's interesting to speculate what happened to this van. When was it repainted from its original CN colours to blue? How did that paint scheme disintegrate? To be honest, it looks like the paint on this car was applied with roller brushes. I would love to know the story behind its unique appearance.

The only mystery I managed to solve was that the caboose was numbered OLOR 2000 when it was owned by the Ottawa-L'Orignal Railway, which would explain why it was called the Millennium caboose. Maybe someone on the railway had a sense of humour? 

DAWX 79872 (Ex CN 472000 boxcar)

This caboose, which was a former CN caboose, was in storage in Walkley Yard for years. The company that owns it is D.A. Walmsley and Company. It was attached to an RDC9 unit, also owned by DAWX. Sadly, both of these cars were subjected to arson, the RDC unit just recently. There isn't a lot of information about DAWX online, although a picture from locomotive and railway car rebuilding company IRSI in Moncton, New Brunswick provides a clue. This photo shows an old CP RDC, owned by DAWX, being rebuilt at the facility. The company clearly has railway holdings. I have not been back to Walkley Yard in a number of years, so I'm not sure what is to become of its torched RDC unit here or what happened to its previously torched ex-CN caboose. The only information I could find about this caboose is from the Bytown Railway Society, which lists some of its history in this document. From this document, I learned this old caboose was actually a converted boxcar. That's about all I could find. How these cars came to be stored in Walkley Yard is a mystery. I can imagine there would be better places to store cars where the security was better.

GTW 79047

The most recent caboose to ply the rails here is this relatively fit looking Grand Trunk caboose, which has been used on the Arnprior Turn of late. You don't have to look too hard online to find photos of this van in various CN yards across its system in Michigan (ex-GTW territory), Ontario and Winnipeg. It has seen a lot of yard duty, judging by the photos I have seen in various rail photo forums.

Since crews here have to do a fair bit of backward moves on the Smiths Falls Sub to Federal, not to mention on the Vankleek and former OLOR, it's not surprising that CN would want to have one of these old warhorses around to make things easier for the local crew. It certainly has provided a fair bit of excitement among railfans in the area who are making the weekly run to Arnprior a regular spectator sport of late.

Many of us bemoan the lack of variety on today's modern railways. CN's continued use of cabooses in this region certainly gives local railfans one tiny thing to brag about that those along the mainlines cannot claim.

Next stop: Glencoe

On a March trip to see family in Southwestern Ontario, my brother and my nephew were nice enough to take me on a road trip to some of their favourite haunts, including some great spots trackside. You see, my nephew is a railfan for sure. His interests are quite varied, but he does love sitting trackside watching trains, which makes me proud to be his uncle.

So with that in mind, the three of us set off down county roads toward a small town in Middlesex County called Glencoe. This town in situated in the middle of some prime farm land and boasts of a beautiful old Grand Trunk station, which still sits trackside on the Canadian National Chatham Subdivision. Like many other small rural towns, the passenger trains no longer call at the large old stations. Glencoe is no exception as the Via Rail trains between Toronto and Windsor make use of a tiny trackside depot.

We waited for the expected 10:05 a.m. arrival of Train 72, which was bookended by a pair of P42s on either end. P42 905 was the engine on point leading the train east toward Toronto. The Via station here is quite spacious when compared to Wyoming's station, which is even smaller. The shot below, from 2017, gives you an idea, for comparison's sake.

It was fun to watch the Via pull up to the Glencoe station, especially since my nephew rarely sees Via Rail trains, as the Sarnia Via service leaves early in the morning and its return trip arrives late. So he never gets to see them. In this case, Glencoe is a conditional stop for Train 72 and only pulls in to the station when there are passengers to pick up. On this day, there were.

The previous day's snow squalls left a faint trace as we watched the engineer eyeball the train's positioning at the station, to ensure the passengers had access to the right car. I've never seen that happen before. After a few minutes, the train was moving again, complete with horn, which my nephew found incredibly loud so close. P42 914 was on the tail end as the train passed by the old depot and the preserved CNR caboose.

When the train had made its way east and out of site, we decided to check out the old train station and caboose, which were remarkably well preserved and cared for, which was encouraging to see. The station itself was built in 1904 in the Queen Anne Revival style. The station, which served Grand Trunk, was actually just the latest version of a station for the rural town, as the Great Western Railway built its first log cabin depot in 1854. The next station was built in 1856 and another was built in 1900. The town, which sits on a once busy main line into Windsor, has relied on railways for much of its history.

Given that the station is so well preserved, the first thing you might find curious is that it is not sitting parallel to the CN Chatham Subdivision track. Judging by the new foundation that my brother noticed, the building seems to have been shifted from its trackside location to a spot more suited to its community function, on the corner of the town's main street and McRae Street.

Looking inside the structure, you can clearly see the original features have been maintained. The men's and women's waiting rooms are still intact while the stationmaster's office is still in place. The tin ceiling and hardwood floors are still in place, as they were for much of the station's history. It's a remarkably intact station and has been recognized for its preservation.

 

The caboose outside the station is in great shape too, although you could see a bit of wood rot among the slats near the cupula, which is to be expected when an old wood-framed car is left in the elements. Still, it's clear that the car has been recently repainted and cared for by dedicated volunteers. I was a bit disappointed that there were no markings, logos or any other identifying information on the car.

I couldn't find much on this old car, although some older photos show that it was once covered over with plywood sheets before those sheets were pried away and the original slats repainted. If only they would put an old CNR maple left logo on that car and some markings, it would be just about perfect.

All in all, it was a fun stopover to see the old train station and learn a little about this small town of 2,000 people in southern Middlesex County.  It's clear that history matters here, symbolized by the old train station.

RMEO Part II: Two cabooses, two stories

This is the second in a series of posts profiling some of the more interesting pieces of rolling stock on display at the Railway Museum of Eastern Ontario in Smiths Falls. Read the first post in this series here.

At first glance, this CP caboose resembled the centre-mounted cupola cabooses I remembered from my childhood. Of course, most railfans would recognize this car as being quite a bit older, since the cupola is mounted off centre and is clearly clad in tongue-in-groove wood. But as I neared this old caboose, I noticed something was not as it should be.

And this closer look confirms it. Expecting to see the slated wood finish, I discovered this old caboose was actually clad in plywood. It made me wonder why. So I did a little digging.

It turns out this caboose, CP 437169, was built in 1945 at Canadian Pacific's Angus shops in Montreal. The museum's website mentions that the car was actually constructed with plywood, instead of tongue-and-groove slats, due to ongoing materials rationing that was a result of Canada's war effort. Let's put this aside for a moment. We'll come back to it.

The museum's site also stated that the car, over the course of its career, went through 3-4 paint schemes before finally undergoing its final transformation in the CP multimark livery. The car served in Eastern Ontario before being retired by the railway in 1990. Upon its retirement, it was donated to the museum.

Below is the view you get when you walk into the car. You can see the interior is made of slated wood with a bench, desk, bed, stove, kitchenette and the cupola off toward the other end of the car. All in all, not a bad setup. The museum has done an excellent job of maintaining the interior of this old van.

Below is a sister caboose to the one above. Numbered 437169, this car was also made in Montreal at the Angus shops and was retired in 1990 after serving in the Eastern Ontario region. If you compare this side profile with the side profile of the caboose above, you will see they are identical, but for the paint. The museum's website states that this car was originally built with slated wood and then sheeted over with plywood sheets at some point in its history.

If you look closely, you can see the nailing edge on the end of the car.

So the question remains, which story is correct? I can't imagine that one car would have been built with plywood while the other was made with slats. The interior of the yellow caboose shows that its interior was clearly made of slated wood, which leads me to believe that it too was re-sheeted at one point.

The next question is, why were these cars re-sheeted? Scanning a few websites, the best answer I found was that the railway found it was easier to maintain these cars with a plywood veneer rather than maintaining the slats. The one unintended consequence of this cost-saving measure, however, was that the exterior sheeting actually contributed to the slats underneath rotting, which compromised the structural integrity of the cars.

Penny wise, pound foolish? Maybe.

 

This last shot was my attempt at framing the above caboose next to a backdrop of the station. I shot this image in the area between the passenger waiting rooms and the railway express office, which was in a separate structure, although both were connected by the same roof.

 

I have to say that I have always been fascinated with old rolling stock being dressed up in contemporary railway liveries. I found this car in the Sarnia rail yard and was amazed that a car so old was repainted in the wet noodle paint scheme. The wood CP caboose in the multimark scheme appeals to me for the same reason. I was drawn to it immediately. I think it's the mixture of railways past and present that makes these cars unique.

 



Caboose survivors

It's an increasingly rare sight to see cabooses in regular service on today's freight railways. I've been lucky since starting this blog to see a few in service here in Ottawa. You might remember my earlier posts, which featured images of CN's former Devco caboose. Then there is the ever popular so-ugly-it's-interesting Millennium caboose. Both of these can be found in Walkley Yard most mornings, before the CN local leaves for the day.

Last fall, I caught up with two CSX bay-window cabooses on the end of the CSX Sarnia Subdivision and mentioned them fleetingly in a post. Going through my work from last year, I realized that I hadn't really delved into the story of these two bay window survivors much.

 

This was the site Oct. 13 of last year when I was taking photos at the end of the Sarnia Subdivision. At the end of a string of tank cars and covered hoppers, two CSX bay window cabooses were hitched together. One of them, CSXT 900027, I had never seen. It was painted in a safety scheme. The other caboose, which still wears its Chessie colours, was a little more interesting, since its side windows were still largely visible, even though they had been welded shut. Here's a closer look at the Chessie caboose. These crew cars have been a fixture on this subdivision for decades.

 



It was hard to make out the car's numbers, since the numbering had faded and I didn't want to venture off the access road. Both of these units are obviously used for shoving moves when the caboose leads the train. This requires a crew member to be posted on the caboose platform to keep an eye on the route ahead. You will notice in the above photos how the doors to each caboose are blocked, with No Trespassing signs posted. I've seen some railfan photos from this yard with people inside these old cabooses, posing for photos out the windows. That would explain the windows now being welded shut, although it's hard to tell from this image of the Chessie caboose whether the bay window is indeed boarded up, welded, or simply dirty.

Here's a shot, below, of a bay window in its prime, travelling through Corunna in 1991. It is hitched to an ex-Louisville & Nashville high-cube boxcar.

The CSX caboose in the yard was no doubt a former Chessie caboose, but finding earlier photos of it were tough. Here's a shot of another CSX caboose with the same livery, in regular revenue service. I searched through a few sites, but found only a few shots of this particular caboose. This shot shows this unit in service as the last CSX train out of Wallaceburg makes its way north toward Sombra.

The CSX Sarnia Subdivision has hosted both cupola-style and bay window cabooses over the years. They were used in revenue service into the early 1990s, well after CN stopped using its cabooses in the area. Up to the end of the caboose era, the Sarnia Sub featured Chessie System-painted cabooses, which makes the appearance of a CSX-caboose on the line a bit of a rarity. For more on these cars, check out my post, Cabooses on the CSX Sarnia Sub.

Just for fun, I thought I'd add in a shot of two CSX GP38-2s making their way into the yard, with a crew man watching from the end of the long hood. I caught these two at the end of my short visit to this yard in October. These two units came hustling into the yard at quite a clip before screeching to a stop amid a collection of other geeps.

The Bedell Saga: As I mentioned last week, I am delaying the final post in my Bedell, Ontario series, due to computer issues, which are being resolved as we speak. I have all the photos from my Bedell adventure on my ailing computer. Unfortunately, I was unable to transfer copies the images to my back-up drive in time. I am told that it's a video card issue, and have been told my files should be safe.

Attention Ottawa train watchers: I have noticed that several Ottawa train watchers have been curious about when they could possibly catch elusive CN freight action in and around Ottawa. There's particular interest in the Arnpior local, which passes through Bells Corners. Thanks to some observant readers and other contacts, I have pieced together a schedule of CN freight assignments around Ottawa, which I will share in an upcoming post. Stay tuned.

Passing siding: I will be parking this blog on a passing siding next week, as I will be visiting family in southern Ontario. I hope to return to Ottawa with lots of new photos to share in the coming months. I plan on shooting CN, CSX and Goderich-Exeter action.

CP Rail's Windsor Rail Yard in 1991



I only visited Canadian Pacific's Windsor rail yard twice, but neither time disappointed. As readers know from past posts, my grandfather worked for CP for forty years, many of them in this yard. He first took me to this yard when I was very little (possible three years old) and took me aboard a locomotive to show me how it worked. The second time he took me, I was a teenager. It was the summer of 1991, on a very hot dry day. The visit did not disappoint.

 

I wasn't there more than a few minutes when yard switcher 1621 whizzed by with a CP multimark-equipped cylindrical hopper trailing behind (see below). You can see an autorack and an old CP Rail caboose on the track behind. This was right around the time when the multimark was fast becoming a memory on CP's locomotives and rolling stock. This GP9 looks like it is due for new paint soon.

 

In many ways, CP's Windsor yard is very much like CN's Sarnia yard. Both yards feed international tunnels and both have a wide variety of rolling stock making its way across the border. In the case of the Windsor CP yard, there were fewer tank cars than in Sarnia, but there were some oddities like a centre beam lumber car (left, below). These were a rare site for me (although they are more common in Ottawa). You can also see the difference between two GP9s below. 1619 looks like it is next in line for new paint sans multimark while 8226 is fresh with new paint.

Here's a better look at 8826, without the multimark, but with a much fresher coat of CP's famous red paint. You get the idea of what a dozen or so years of harsh summer sun does to a locomotive's paint job (left).

I've included this photo before in Favourite Train Photos #1. This old Alco relic was just coming off the turntable after receiving service in the roundhouse. As this was happening, my grandfather was talking to his old co-workers, many of whom were quite happy to see him again. One mentioned that they really needed someone with his expertise around the yard again. Other than the fact that this is my only roundtable shot in my collection, I like this image because you can see a rare open-air autorack in the background. These autoracks were nonexistent in CN's Sarnia yard at the time. You can also see Detroit's Renaissance Center in the background, which gives you an idea how close this yard is to the Michigan border.

In 1991, CP's Michigan Central rail tunnel to Detroit had not been expanded to handle larger rail cars, although a few years later, it was expanded to accommodate autoracks. This tunnel still failed to accommodate double stack container trains, which left CP with a massive competitive disadvantage compared to CN's St. Clair Tunnel in Sarnia, which was completed in 1994. This disadvantage has yet to be resolved, although there are hopes that a new rail tunnel will be built to give Windsor and Detroit a fully functional rail tunnel that is able to handle modern rail operations.

For the purposes of a rail fan, having a yard crowded with cars that were queued for the rail ferry was a good thing. There was no shortage of traffic when I visited, including this train, headed by SD40 5744.

Here's another shot you've seen in an earlier post, Relics on the rails. I included it because I wanted to feature the entire set of photos from that day. I had more at one point, but I have lost those prints. You can see the Renaissance Center, a boxcar and a CP Rail flatcar behind this St. Lawrence Railroad boxcar, sitting just outside the roundhouse. Also, check out those axles! I was very lucky to have such access to these areas of the yard that would have otherwise been out of bounds for me.

I don't have many shots of CP Rail trains in my collection, which is what made that trip to the Windsor yard such a treat for me in 1991. It's a great memory I have of my grandfather, one which continues to fuel my fascination with railways.

Favourite railway photos #2

This is the second installment of my favourite train photos series. In this post, I chose photos from the first year of this blog that I particularly like but wasn't able to use in my posts. I used the word "railway" in the title, since one of the photos isn't of a train, but of an old station. You can check out the first installment of this series here.

Okay, let's get started. The first shot is of the ceiling of Ottawa's old Union Station in downtown Ottawa,. The ceilings in this station were inspired by the Roman baths in Caracalla. I loved this shot because it shows three of the arched windows in the station's old waiting room. You can't help but stare at this magnificent ceiling when you enter this room. My family paid a visit to this magnificent old building during Doors Open Ottawa last summer. I like this shot because it shows quite a few of the architectural features of the old station. To read about this old station, check out my post from last year.

This shot below was from last September. This is long shot of a northbound O-Train crossing beneath the Young Street pedestrian overpass on Ottawa's Capital Railway. I like this photo because it was one of the first times I realized that you don't need to fill your entire frame with a train in order to achieve a dramatic railway photo. This was something I didn't realize when I was younger. I really like the light in this image as well as the colour of the foliage that lines either side of this line. You can also just barely see a red signal beneath the overpass. Lots going on in this photo. It's similar to a shot I used in my post from last fall, but I like the framing of this one much better. It makes me wonder why I didn't chose this shot in the first place. To read about the latest on this line, check out my post about the Capital Railway from last fall.



The story behind the next shot is interesting. I meant to use it as a basis for a post, but for whatever reason, I never did. This is a shot taken Aug. 10, 2013 in Markham of one intermodal train passing by a parked train, which is waiting for a clear signal to proceed. The shot itself isn't all that special, but I like the fact that I had to really hustle to get this shot. I had to park along Woodbine Avenue and wait on the sidewalk of an overpass to catch a train. Fortunately, I didn't have to wait long as an intermodal train came roaring eastward toward the overpass. After grabbing a few shots, the train stopped as I heard another one making its way on the opposite track. Two for one! It was a lucky moment for me.

I liked my shots from the overpass, but I wanted something else. So, when I heard the other train coming, I ran the length of a parking lot that was next to the railway right of way. When I reached the end of that parking lot, I made my way through a hole in a fence into another parking lot, which lead to a frayed fence. I stepped through the fence and proceeded down a weed-choked embankment so I could get a close-up shot of the trains. The problem I encountered when I walked down to track level was that the weeds were so thick, I couldn't actually see the approaching train. You can see some of the weeds and trees in this shot, which were unavoidable. This was all I could catch of the lead unit, CN 5622, as it hustled by.

But, I was pleased with the shot because it had two trains in it, some beautiful blue sky, a few clouds and some movement. For a train-starved Ottawa resident, this is about as good as it gets.

The last shot was snagged last October in Sarnia along CSX's Sarnia Subdivision. Catching this Chessie System bay window caboose, which was hitched to a CSX-painted bay window caboose, was a great catch, since these cabooses were rare 15 years ago when I used to regularly photograph trains on the sub. They are still in use on this sub for shoving movements, making them pretty rare survivors. Seeing this old relic still in use and in relatively good shape brought back great memories for me. Read about my adventures chasing cabooses here. 

Once again, I find it's not usually the photos that I value as much as the stories attached to them.

Winter railroading in Ottawa

Winter has unquestionably arrived in Ottawa, which has allowed me to correct a longstanding gap in my railway photograph collection. Searching through my images the other day, I realized that I had but one winter railroading photograph. With that in mind, I lugged my camera into the arctic air to get some shots of the most Canadian of scenes: trains trudging through the snow.

The first shot, which I grabbed this past week, was Via Rail No. 33 arriving at Ottawa Station from Montreal, with P42 910 leading an all-Renaissance consist. The long shadows in the morning light, combined with the restricted vantage points around the station, made this shot tricky. I wasn't thrilled with it, but I do like seeing the exhaust from the locomotive in the crisp winter air. There wasn't much activity at the station at this point, so I didn't stick around.

On Dec. 7, I made one of my periodic visits to Walkley Yard to see if there was anything interesting to shoot. My daughter accompanied me for the first time, although she was busy watching Barney in the back seat. I did find several of these tank cars in the yard, which were a nice surprise. This tank car, Procor 50265, upon closer inspection, has a marking reading "Fluid Recycling Services" painted over on the left side. As to what fluids it carried, I'm not sure. I dug around a bit online but didn't find anything conclusive. Maybe a reader knows more than I do.

I also spotted CN's two local cabooses side by side near CN's local offices. I've shared photos of these two cabooses before, but never together. From what I've noticed, the former Devco Railway caboose never seems to move from this spot in the yard, which makes me wonder if it's operational at all. The old millennium caboose seems to be the unit of choice. The graffiti on the Devco caboose makes me shake my head. How bad is security in this rail yard?

I've shared photos of this old RDC unit before. I'm lucky that there is a service road running the length of the east end of the rail yard, which allows an excellent vantage point of this old gem. I noticed some interesting light and the cloud movement as I drove by, so I took a quick photo and was quite happy with the result. I wanted to capture a shot of this old unit, hooked to a former CN caboose, in a way that makes it look as though it's moving.

The best thing about shooting in the winter is the overgrown weeds in the yard are gone, which allows me to get a full shot of the RDC, complete with the old trucks and undercarriage. One of the small perks of this arctic weather.

More from Walkley Yard

This past weekend, I took a quick trip to Walkley Yard and managed to catch the CN crew assembling its local. The trip ended up being a good chance for me to tie up some loose ends and address some issues brought up by my readers. You can see the local below, being pulled by GP38-2W 4800 with the conductor walking alongside the consist early morning Sunday, September 8th. A couple of points to mention. The first is the RailBox boxcar to the left of the local with the original paint scheme. The second is that the geep is in the safety scheme. I'm amazed that whichever locomotive is assigned to Walkley is usually in this scheme.

As the local crawled toward my vantage point, I managed to catch one of CN's two cabooses in service in Ottawa, this one trailing directly behind the geep. The caboose, numbered 79834, is a curiosity for a number of reasons. The most obvious point is its truly awful paint job. The second point is the word "MILLENNIUM" stenciled on the right side. Doing a little research, I found out that this car was built in 1976 and was a CN caboose originally. It became part of the Ontario L'Orignal Railway (OLOR) in 1996. The car, numbered OLOR 2000, became part of the Ottawa Central when the OCR's parent company bought the OLOR in 2000. When the OCR was purchased by CN in 2008, the caboose reverted back to its original CN 79834 numbers. The paint job was obviously not a priority. Here's a shot of the car in its OLOR days. The CN has one other caboose in use in the city, which you can see here.

In a recent post, I took some shots of an old RDC and old CN caboose that were parked on a wreck track. I was asked about the car that was hitched to the RDC. I made sure to go back and take a proper shot of the car. As suggested, it appears to be a steel coil car. I'm not sure what it was doing attached to the RDC and the former CN caboose.  

Finally, I submit for your approval, a CSX waffle-side boxcar. This time, I am reasonably sure that I am correct in identifying this as a waffle side car, given that it has vertical slats and horizontal notches. There was a string of cars like this in the yard on the weekend. Can you see the hasty plywood repair made to the car? Seeing a few CSX cars in the yard made me nostalgic for the old CSX Sarnia Subdivision. I have to get back there and get some new shots on that line.

This weekend in Ottawa, folk legend Gordon Lightfoot will play a set to close out the Ottawa Folk Festival. I have bought a ticket since I grew up listening to Lightfoot's music. I look forward to hearing the Canadian Railroad Trilogy live. Should be fun!

Ottawa's Walkley Rail Yard

Ottawa's Walkley Yard is a strange place these days, with only a bare minimum of activity happening. Since CN's acquisition of the Ottawa Central Railway in 2008, there has been a noticeable drop off in freight traffic in the region. With the O-Train service suspended for the summer, due to the $59-million renewal of the existing 8-kilometre Capital Railway, the commuter trains also sit silent in the mostly empty yard. I dropped by on the civic holiday Monday (Colonel By Day in Ottawa) just to see what was there, and the trip did not disappoint. When I drove to the end of Albion Road, where the CN office sits, I saw this former Devco Railway caboose, sitting near the locomotive shop, badly in need of a paint job. As you can see, security in the yard is minimal at best, which explains the graffiti on the caboose, including its windows. The caboose has been around since the Ottawa Central days. It is still used by CN for the same purpose, mainly shoving moves.

Just east of the caboose, I saw the lone CN locomotive currently assigned to Ottawa, GP38-2W 4807, still clad in the CN safety scheme, albeit just barely. Getting photos from a service road was tough since the weeds in the yard have not been trimmed this summer, which tended to obscure the locomotive's trucks. Seeing the old geep in the safety scheme was cool. I have always liked that scheme.

The Walkley Yard was constructed in 1955 by the National Capital Commission to replace the Canadian National's rail operations in central Ottawa. This was part of a plan to rid the centre of the city of its rail lines as part of a Paris-inspired urban redevelopment plan. The yard eventually housed Canadian Pacific's freight operations, which were moved in the 1960s from its old Ottawa West Yard, near the Prince of Wales rail bridge on the Ottawa River. In the past decade and a half, CP sold off its local trackage to the City of Ottawa while the Ottawa Central was sold to CN as part of a larger package of short lines. When you factor in the loss of heavy industry in Eastern Ontario, the end result is a mostly empty rail yard, which describes Walkley these days. These cars below were the sum total of rolling stock in the main yard on the holiday.

But as I drove down the service road, I saw something on the margins of the empty east end of the yard. I drove toward the odd site, but not before I took a few snaps of interesting rolling stock on a spur, which included a transload facility called Rideau Bulk. You can see a Wisconsin Central boxcar to the right of the TTX (Railbox to me) waffle-side boxcar.

A little further east of that spur, I saw these interesting relics at the edge of the yard. Sitting on a dead-end wreck track was former CN caboose 79872 and former Budd RDC numbered 6002. Doing a little research, I learned that both have been left at Walkley since 2007. The cars are lettered DAWX, which means they are owned by David A. Wamsley & Co., a private company that owns and sells rail equipment. I was only able to find a few scant mentions of the company online and a few photos, so I invite readers to share what they can find about this company and these cars. At one point, there was another RDC on the same track, but that unit has since been refurbished by Via. From what I can gather, this remaining RDC is a former piece of Via equipment (numbered 6002) and is a RDC9. Notice that the caboose's door has been left open.


Another view of the RDC, below.

And a view of the end.

 

Here's another shot of the caboose and its markings. There are photos of other CN cabooses out there, but I was unable to find a shot of this one in its prime. 

 

As I left the yard, I saw one lonely ballast car (filled). It looks as if the car has been modified. Behind it, one of the city's water towers.

And one last shot of CN 4807 before I headed back home.

This visit proved to be the highlight of my holiday Monday. Now that I know how to get around the yard a little better, I am going to make a habit of checking it out every once in a while, even if there is only a handful of things to shoot. In Ottawa, you have to take what you can get!