Still Standing: Glimpses of the Goderich Exeter Railway

It was a mixed blessing for railfans when Canadian National took back control of its Guelph Subdivision in 2018. At that time, its 21-year lease with shortline operator Goderich Exeter Railway expired, meaning that the GEXR railway had been severed from its London-Guelph-Georgetown operations and was forced to continue operating mainly on its Goderich Subdivision between its namesake town and its junction with the Guelph Sub in Stratford, Ontario. It also retained its Exeter Subdivision, which diverges off the Goderich Sub at Clinton and goes to Centralia. Stratford continues to act as the home base for this railway, which now shares the rail yard with Canadian National. GEXR's main customer base is agricultural, as well as the salt mine at the Goderich port on Lake Huron. 

GEXR has had three owners in its history. RailTex was its first owner when it began operations in 1992, followed by RailAmerica, which purchased the railway in 2000. Genesee & Wyoming, the shortline holding company with operations across North America, took over the railway in 2012 when it bought out RailAmerica. GEXR was initially known for its green GP9s that were named after Shakespearean characters, a nod to its base of operations in the Festival City.

Earlier in July, I paid a visit to family in Stratford and caught a few glimpses of the GEXR in its hometown, although the yard was largely quiet when I initially visited. Still, you can pretty much always find a few orange G&W painted units parked up against a bumper in the middle of the yard.

On July 20, after two days of watching really interesting CN action in the yard, I made my way back to the station, but it was quiet. There was a train coming from the east on the main line, but my time ran out waiting for it. I made my way across from the station to get shots from an adjacent street. In this shot, three G&W units, all GP38-2s, were sitting in the yard. The three roads represented were Goderich Exeter, Huron & Eastern (Michigan road) and the old Southern Ontario Railway. The SOR is another former G&W shortline in the Hamilton-Norfolk area whose trackage was brought back into the CN fold. Although all the units look alike, there is some interesting shortline heritage here in this shot.

Here's a shot that gives you some clues as to how it is for GEXR these days. On the final afternoon when I visited, the yard was largely empty. The hopper cars are the most common sight on the Goderich Sub these days, given the various crops and fertilizers that make up its freight services. Besides the hoppers, which are also used to serve the Godrich salt mine, the railway uses tank cars for servicing the salt mine as well. The coil cars are for CN customers on the Guelph Sub.

Which brings me to an interesting shot my brother took when he was in Goderich in June. He likes to snag images for me when he can, which is greatly appreciated. Take a close look at these tank cars.

You can see a box atop tank car TILX 220285. The key to understanding what is in that car is the material placard in the bottom right corner, which reads 3257. The placard tells us that this tank car is carrying an elevated temperature material, which would explain the box atop the car, which is used to maintain higher temperatures, I'm guessing. Since this car was parked in the Goderich yard, just up the hill from the salt mine, it's a safe bet that this car was carrying molten salt, which is listed as one of the common products carried in these special tank cars. 

Molten salt, unlike salt at room temperature, is a liquid and can be used in the industrial production of magnesium and aluminum. It can also be used in nuclear power generation. There are a number of other applications. I'm not sure what this car's contents would be used for in this instance, since I wasn't sure if it was an inbound or outbound car. Someone with a better knowledge of the salt mine might be able to shed further light on this.

My brother also caught the GP9 Goderich yard switcher 4001, which has been up in Goderich for years, which would explain why it has never been repainted in the G&W colours. At one point, this engine had its former road name painted on the side, but that has since been patched over.

Back to Stratford in July. When my family was staying in the city, we rented an AirBnB home just down Birmingham Street from the GEXR Goderich Sub trackage leading to the yard. My first day in the city, I caught a glimpse of a southbound train heading into the yard, although I was too late to catch it with any photo. Later during my visit, on my way back from the yard, I caught another southbound train on my way back to our AirBnB and managed to snag a quick photo through the front windshield. That's the old Southern Ontario Railway geep in the lead, pulling a long string of covered hoppers back to the yard.

And below is the Huron & Eastern geep trailing with the first covered hopper in tow. I moved a bit closer for this shot, but the sun was peaking out from behind the trees, which caused some windshield glare. I should have stayed put!

I took a quick shot of CAEX 471400 covered hopper, which had its Agri Industries lettering patched over at some point, but the patch was clearly fading amid the elements. This is another clue as to what the train was carrying, as GEXR is still very much involved in the movement of crops, seed, fertilizers and grains from the farming economy in this part of the province.

All in all, I was happy to be able to cobble together enough shots of the GEXR to put together a post about this fascinating operation in a picturesque part of Ontario. Here's one final shot of the GEXR right-of-way from the Birmingham crossing, which I took on a walk through the neighbourhood. This is facing northeast in the direction of Goderich.

This is one of my favourite railways. I was lucky enough to capture quite a bit more action from Stratford in my time there in July, which will be shared in several upcoming posts. Stay tuned.

The way it should be

Without getting into too many details, the last year has been tough for me. As a mental health public speaker, I have resolved to be honest about my mental health challenges, in an effort to encourage people to not be ashamed of their illness. As I began writing this, the sale of my former house was about to close and my family had already settled safely into our new home. We have peace. I have a feeling of immense gratitude these days for the smallest things in life. For example, I remember telling my wife how weird it felt to step outside my new home and not have to worry about being monitored by a neighbour's surveillance camera pointed at my property. It was a strangely wonderful feeling to just live my life in that moment without any concern. That's just one small example.

In the past year, much of my life has been turned upside down by the continual harassment we have endured at the hands of a neighbour, which was allowed to escalate through the inaction of the local police. Now that we have finished the process and broken all physical ties with our former life, I am beginning to pick up where I left off in my own personal pursuits. I am thinking about my creative writing again. I am thinking of new subjects to explore in this blog. I am thinking about reviving my mental health podcast. And I am getting out there again and enjoying myself trackside.

Last Wednesday, after dropping my daughters off at dance class, I did a little shopping and headed to the West Hunt Club Road overpass over the Smiths Falls Subdivision to catch westbound Via Train 59, which passes by this spot every evening at about 6 p.m. I haven't been trackside to catch this train in months, mostly due to the situation I have already noted above.

This was the surprise that awaited me. The flavour-du-jour Via Venture train set they are calling Lumi. It's the train that railfans are trying to catch, as it is the only new Siemens train that has been painted in this predominantly yellow scheme. I have seen some comments online that this train is a subtle tribute to Via's long-gone turbo train, which sported a yellow-and-blue scheme.

I have been waiting for a while to see when Train 59 was going to sport a Venture set, since all the photos I have of this train in the last several years are the usual consist of either P42s and HEP cars or F40s and LRC cars. I was quite shocked and happy to see that my first meet with Train 59 as a Venture set was none other than the yellow comet. It's nice to have good train karma, especially when you're an Ottawa railfan. 

The wires couldn't be avoided in this second shot and the sun was shining brightly, so there was a bit of glare to deal with, post shot. As you can see, the train was westbound with the power car leading the way and the locomotive in push mode in the back. No longer will we be seeing many of the old double-enders, where two locomotives bookended a string of LRC or silver streamlined cars. This is the new look of Via Rail, whether you're ready for it or not. Many of the railway's ordered Venture sets have arrived and are now actively plying the rails in the Windsor-Quebec City corridor, although they are more heavily used between Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, by the looks of it and what I've read online.

One last shot before Train 59 passed under the bridge. I like that I caught the full Via Rail Canada script on the coach, along with the locomotive, which was my real objective. I don't think the asymmetrical application of the Via logo is a winning concept, but it seems to be the way of marketing right now, along with the superfluous use of the letter Q replacing c and k and the maddening use of unnecessary accents in misspelled corporate names. Can you tell I'm an editor?  

One Week Later

Daylight is quickly running out to get a decent shot of Via Rail trains on Wednesday evenings, which is why I tried to get out this past Wednesday night to shoot Train 59 again. I went to the same spot on the West Hunt Club Road overpass, as I was not feeling terribly creative to get a different shot. I set up in the same spot, wondering what Via was using for its equipment. Once again, it was a Venture set heading west toward Fallowfield Station. 

It wasn't Lumi, but it was the first time I saw Train 59 using a conventional Venture set. I'm sure this conversion from older equipment happened a while ago, but this is the first time I have seen this change in person. I guess I'm making up for lost time, as I have not been making a lot of observations in Ottawa lately. The lights on the power car were a bit blinding as it rounded the curve, so many of my photos did not turn out from where I was perched on the overpass.

Next time I shoot this train, I will find a new spot where the headlights won't be such an obstacle. But for last night, I was reasonably happy with this shot. I suppose the novelty of shooting Venture sets will wear off soon. For the moment, it was enough for me to be trackside, without any worries. 

I was just enjoying life. That's the way it should be.

Summer observations in Eastern Ontario

From time to time, I collect some random sightings into an observations post. Mostly, the posts centre around Ottawa, but I'm happy to have a few images from Kingston, so this post will be an Eastern Ontario post. However, I do want to start with a bit of news from Ottawa.

Farewell, 4977

You may have noticed, if you follow this organization on Facebook, that the Bytown Railway Society has found a new home for its old heavyweight Canadian National coach 4977. The BRS officially moved the old coach off the grounds of the Canada Museum of Science and Technology this week, where it began its long journey to the Railroad Museum of New England. It's noteworthy that it had to be trucked down to the States.

Those who do follow BRS on Facebook know that this group has worked diligently for 11 years to refurbish the old coach. They also chronicled their progress on Facebook regularly, so all of us history nerds could appreciate their painstaking progress. When the job was officially done, the group brought the old coach out of its storage area at the museum. I was lucky enough one day to be in the area in the spring, so I took a couple of photos of the old car.

This is what the old coach looked like on Feb 29, as it was resting on the BRS tracks near the museum on a frigid sunny afternoon. I walked along the car and marvelled at how great it looked. The BRS obviously did absolutely everything it could with the funds and manpower it had to bring this old antique car back to life. I would imagine that it will get further cosmetic treatment at its new home in Thomaston, Connecticut. 

The New England museum says 4977 will join some other pieces of CN passenger history on its grounds: heavyweights 5046, 5089, 5114, 4980. 

Of course, this is a somewhat bittersweet moment for the society and for railfans in Ottawa. The harsh reality for BRS is this group does not enjoy a connection to active rails like it once did. There was a time when the society chartered railfan trips on local and regional rails. Of course, times change and priorities change. 

The rails in and around Ottawa have been significantly pruned back by CN, which has shrunk the size of the old Ottawa Central footprint to the point where only the passenger links into and out of the city are the only rails left, with some exceptions. There's the trackage out to Orignal, the Walkley lead, Walkley Yard, a bit of the Beachburg Sub and the old Renfrew Sub. That's almost it. The rest of predominantly Via Rail territory.

Also, I can only speculate here, but I would imagine the prospect of granting BRS access to Via trackage in the area is likely fraught with difficulties, liability issues, timing challenges and likely resistance. That's just a guess. I can't see today's railways having the same attitude toward sharing its rails with charters like they once did. I can only imagine the potential liabilities that would need to be ironed out. Then there's the physical connection, which is nonexistent.

So the coach will go to a museum where it can be enjoyed. A reason to pay a visit to New England. Also, it makes me grateful that I had a chance to see this antique up close before it left Ottawa for good. 

A Bit of luck in Kingston

Earlier in July, my family took a break from the whirlwind of trying to sell our house, pack, and move to a new house. We visited family in Stratford, which meant a long drive on Highway 401. When we were driving through Kingston, we were lucky enough to catch an eastbound freight train right around the area where the CN Kingston Subdivision parallels the highway. My wife in the passenger seat was a good sport and tried to get a few quick glimpses of the mixed freight as it rumbled by in the opposite direction.

This is what you get when you are travelling at 100 km/h in the opposite direction of a freight train. The visual hazards are everywhere so you take a few shots and hope for the best. CN ES44DC 2299 leads the way with trailing unit C44-9W 2659 pulling a lumber car. 

She even managed to capture an image of an old BC Rail boxcar with its door open. 

Stretching the Eastern Ontario boundary definition

All right, this last image is most definitely not Eastern Ontario, by the classic definition, but I thought I'd add it in as it is east of Toronto. On the same trip west to Stratford, we saw a number of GO Trains as we headed west on the 401. As we were driving through the eastern suburb of Ajax, I snapped this quick shot of an eastbound commuter train from across the 401. I've made this point before but I will make it again. Taking photos of trains with no visual distractions in your image is fine, but I often find these images don't give you any context.

I've tried this year to take photos with the context attached, meaning to place the subject in your frame alongside something that gives you an idea of the five Ws. (who, what, where, when, how). That is an old lesson from my journalism school days. Approach everything with the 5 Ws in mind, even if one of the Ws is an H. I like that there are cars in the shot. It tells me this was taken on a busy highway near a city. Context!

I was actually going to finish this post with a few images of Via Rail's evening train that I usually come across each week when my daughters are at a nearby dance class. With my wife off Wednesday evenings this summer, many of my railfan excursions were curtailed by the more urgent needs of settling into our new house. This past week, I had a clear window to catch a few trains, hoping that one of them was a new Venture, but one of the trains was quite early and I missed it while the other I was unable to catch since I was busy at Costco. O for 2. 

In the coming weeks and months, I plan to share the prolific amount of railfanning images I was able to get on that trip to Stratford, including a very rare grand slam of a photo where I caught four different railway liveries on four different engines in a single shot.

Stay tuned.