Some random photos from summer and fall

This summer and early this fall, I have been able to collect a fair number of random railway photos that don't quite fit in with any particular theme or topic of a post. As I have done in the past, I usually give myself some time to store up a few and explore them in detail in a random post.

I suppose if there's a theme or topic that unites these photos, it's as follows. When you blog about railways and live in Ottawa, you need to be ready to take a railway photo anywhere and everywhere you can. To go one step further, you also need to constantly think of new places and new vantages points to take photos, so you can present some shots that aren't constantly covering the same ground. 

That's because Ottawa has very little to offer, obviously. 

I see this often online where railfans will take a shot of the same train at the same location at the same time of day. For them, it's fulfilling and worthwhile. That's not my thing anymore. I need to mix up the landscape and the background, not to mention the points of view, to keep things interesting. I think that's why a fair bit of my photography is now taken with landscape in mind.

I'll start with a shot that was shared with me by my sister. She and her husband were celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary in late September. They found their way to Alaska, where they took a ride on the White Pass and Yukon Route passenger excursion from Skagway, Alaska. 

 

Here's a shot of a few of the vintage 19th century vintage* coaches ready to welcome passengers for an excursion from Skagway to Carcross, Yukon, where the line currently ends. The railway, now owned by a company that includes Carnival Cruise Lines, operates in Alaska, northern British Columbia and Yukon. In recent years, there were talks about restoring service all the way to Whitehorse, Yukon's capital, but that has not materialized. Part of that discussion includes the line taking on freight service again, as mining interests still work along the route, although much of this traffic is handled via trucks. 

 

* - I neglected to mention in my original text that these vintage coaches are mainly newer builds made to look like 19th century equipment, although some are indeed very old and there are even some originals still in the railway's possession. Read the comments below for more.

 

It would be interesting to see this 3-foot-gauge operation back in action all the way to Whitehorse again, complete with freight operations, but this would require a fair bit of investment on the part of governments. I'm not sure there's a business case to be made right now.

 

A few days ago, I was on my way home from an appointment in Orleans, in Ottawa's east end, when I decided to avoid the westbound construction on the Queensway by taking some other city arterial routes back home. That path brought me by Ottawa's main train station on Tremblay Road. It was quiet when I arrived, save for this P42 and HEP consist pointed eastward, although the train was a double-ender. I am guessing this was a Montreal-bound train, as I have boarded eastbound trains on this track before. 

 

I didn't need to take another shot of a P42 and HEP consist, as I have hundreds of similar shots, but the thought occurred to me as I watched the train idle: How much longer will I see these trains? Even the engines with a face only a mother could love won't be around forever. The Venture sets are everywhere now and the legacy rolling stock is fasting becoming scarce. It's always worth a shot. 

 

In the summer, my family visited Sarnia and found our way to the Bluewater Bridge, which connects to Port Huron, Michigan over the St. Clair River. Beneath the bridge in Port Huron, near the Thomas Edison Inn, you will find this baggage/passenger car that once belonged to the Chicago, Detroit & Canada Grand Trunk Junction Rail Road. The railway connected Port Huron to Detroit beginning in the mid-1800s and became part of the Grand Trunk Western in 1928. 

 

Thomas Edison, a world-famous inventor born in Ohio, spent much of his earlier years in Port Huron, which is why the hotel is named in his honour. Edison also worked for the Grand Trunk, beginning as a young man when he told items, including newspapers and candy, to travellers bound for Detroit.  

 

Edison would later work as a telegraph operator for the Grand Trunk in Stratford, Ontario. You can read about his connection to railways in this earlier post. You can also see the historic Port Huron Railway Station behind the passenger car. 

 

 

This last image isn't exactly random as it's an image of Via Rail Train 84 headed eastbound toward Stratford Station en route to Toronto. I was lucky enough to catch this train while in Stratford this July, but I wanted to share this image, taken amid a sea of visial distractions. I liked the curvature of the tracks and the trees as a brackdrop. I will share my other photos of this meet later on, but I thought I would put this one out there to see what people thought. It was a bit of an experiment. I'm not sure about the concrete and metal poles framing the train. I like that there's a stop sign in there as well as some crossing signals. It shows you how the Guelph Subdivison snakes its way through the city in and around the station. In this image the consist is crossing Downie Street and making its way to Niles Street, which is the last street eastbound before it hits the station.

 

A bit of bric à brac from the last few months.  

Say hello to Belton

Over the course of my travels this summer, I was able to take photographs at many of my favourite spots, including the Sarnia rail yard and the Stratford rail yard. What's rare is when I come across a new railway find and am able to properly capture it for the sake of discussion on this blog. After all, my trips to see family are usually quite busy and they don't leave a lot of time for wandering. 

In July, as my family made its way to London to visit our family there, we drove through a wide swath of countryside, which is when we came across a small farming hamlet called Belton. North of London, Belton is a tiny community that is home to the Agromart Group fertilizer storage and distribution site. It's a large facility with various storage domes. The site is used as the company's administrative centre as well as a storage and distribution hub for farming customers throughout southern Ontario. In total, 25-acre site can house 80,00 metric tonnes of "urea, potash, SOP, MAP, DAP, ammonium sulphate, MESZ and NitroK." 

If you know what some of those abbreviations mean, let me know. I took it directly from the company website. Most importantly for our purposes, this facility is served by an interesting loop track near milepost 106, off CN's Guelph Subdivision.

 

This was a shot I took from the passenger seat of our car as we made our way back to Stratford from London. As you can see, the track serving the facility is a long loop. I would think this would be the domain of GP9s, GP38s or other more nimble engines. The tight radius would not accommodate larger motive power. I can imagine the squeal of the trucks and axles on this track!

 

Here's a closer look at some covered hoppers parked beside one of the storage domes, behind which stands a very large feeder. I don't know that I have ever seen an industrial rail siding with this type of radius in real life. I've seen a few on model railways, but that's it. This would be a neat facility to model.

 

Belton is just a short jaunt south of St. Marys, which is also on the CN Guelph Sub. I can't imagine that Belton is served by CN's Kitchener operations, which serve St. Marys. I would assume this facility is served out of London's CN yard, on the Dundas Subdivision. But I stand to be corrected, as I am not familiar with CN's operations in this area.

 

I had to do a little searching to figure out what railway served Belton, as I had no idea where it was relative to nearby CN and CP lines when I passed through in the car. I assumed it was CN served, and was proven right when I consulted the geography of the area using the Railway Association of Canada's online Canadian Rail Atlas. It's a handy resource if you are unsure about railway geography. I was surprised how much I was able to drill down on the interactive map to see the loop track in Belton. It's a really handy resource.

 

Speaking of surprises, here's a shot below that I was able to take that I would not have thought possible without a little luck and some great information from people who know about the movements of trains in Stratford. As I mentioned in this previous post, I was able to stay at an AirBnB in the city that was close to the GEXR Goderich Sub. Since I had already visited the Stratford rail yard and took photos of GEXR assembling its train, I was able to drive back to my place and wait by the tracks to get a shot of the westbound freight train making its way over two overpasses as it headed out of town.

 

You can see the train snaking its way around a building as it heads over the first of two overpasses that take the GEXR northwest out of the city en route to its rural customers. I was surprised to get an image like this, as my timing was perfect and there was just enough shade to allow me to get a decent shot, even through the morning sun was unforgiving. If you don't believe me, look at the small patch of sky behind the train. The sky was blue that morning, but the angle of the sun in this shot meant that the sky was washed out, no matter what I did. I stayed off the tracks and found the best spot to take a shot legally and safely.  

 

Those were among the bigger surprises from my adventures this summer. I have a fair bit of material from this summer to share still, so I won't get ahead of myself and drop it all into one post. As I have not really been trackside in Ottawa of late, it's good to have a backlog from this summer.  

Making (and breaking) the case for non-stop service

I found the coverage of Via Rail's recent announcement of non-stop service between Montreal and Toronto quite interesting, but not in the way you might think. In case you don't know, Via Rail was planning to make four trains between the two cities non-stop, which would mean no service for Dorval, Cornwall, Brockville, Kingston, Belleville and Cobourg, to name the more important stops in Eastern Ontario and west of Montreal in Quebec. The trains chosen for this pilot were Trains 60, 61, 68 and 69.

What went missing in the coverage was that Train 50 from Toronto to Ottawa would skip stops in Belleville and Kingston, as a near non-stop train. There was no word on what the status of this train was, from the coverage I read. 

As you can tell from my wording, Via Rail has decided to halt the pilot project, which was due to start on Sept. 29. The railway cited operational constraints from CN, its landlord on most of the rails between the two cities. This comes just days after Via made its announcement seemingly out of the blue.  

As always, there are two sides to this story. Via Rail claims that this new service would allow travellers to arrive 30 to 40 minutes sooner. The railway says it chose the trains for this pilot project based on the lowest ridership counts at the smaller stations between the cities. In other words, the trains with the lowest demand in Kingston, Cornwall and Brockville for example, were chosen for the non-stop service. 

I find it interesting that Via Rail was going to try this experiment now, as it has taken a beating publicly for its abysmal on-time performance in recent years, which is a function of the speed restrictions CN has placed on Via's Venture train sets. For more detailed information on this ongoing saga, head on over to Trackside Treasure. No one has done a better job of explaining this story than Eric Gagnon.

I guess my point is, Venture trains have been consistently late for years now, so I wonder what difference 30-40 minutes will make given the restrictions Via Rail faces on CN-owned tracks? Also, is 30-40 minutes enough of a time savings to justify this service? If the train arrives in 3 1/2 hours as opposed to 4, I can't say that would be enough to sway me if I was on the fence about taking the train. It still does not compare to a flight, which still gets you to your destination faster, even after you factor in the security, screening, pre-boarding, baggage claim etc. 

 

 

The mayor of Kingston Bryan Patterson raised some interesting points, to support the case for continued full service for his city. He said Via Rail didn't consult any of the communities along the line to give them a warning that these service cuts would be happening. And make no mistake, although Via Rail maintains that these communities would all still be well served by the remaining intercity trains that call on these stations, the coverage was overwhelmingly negative. Service cuts by any other name are cuts, in the eyes of civic leaders.

 

The local media was unequivocal in describing the move as cuts and you can't blame leaders in smaller communities and cities to say anything otherwise. Via Rail making a decision like this with no consultation to the cities it serves is poor communications. 

 

Patterson also pointed out that Via Rail is also turning its back on the 1 million people who live between Toronto and Montreal, many of whom count on these trains. I would think at the very least, Kingston's stops would be left untouched, as Kingston has a high student population at university or college. As we all know, students have always made up a large chunk of Via's fares in the corridor. I took the train many times in my university years.  

 

The mayor also pointed out that taking away more options from these towns and cities means Via Rail will attract fewer customers. It's a fair point. 

 

As someone who has worked in communications for 25 years, I don't agree with the hasty approach here. Had I been in the room, I would have suggested that Via Rail perhaps choose one train pair (60 and 61, for example) and give itself 6 months to a year to prepare a proper promotional campaign outlining this service. Also, it would give the railway time to speak to the leaders of the communities who would be missing out on future service.

 

The rollout of this announcement was hastily planned out; the response was not at all what the railway was likely expecting. In theory, non-stop service between major cities makes sense and provides Via with a compelling product for customers. But the way this was handled was unfortunate from a communications point of view. When customers already booked on these non-stop train pairs were being forced to transfer their spots onto the next available train, it's a bad look.

 

It also doesn't necessarily engender trust in this railway at a time when Via Rail's reputation is already in tatters thanks to the Venture set debacle with CN. The railway has already endured a lot of wounds since the Venture fleet was brought into service.

 

But its communications strategy is producing unnecessary self-inflicted wounds. It makes me wonder how a company comes back from what Via Rail has been through in the last several years.  

 

 

This leaves me with one last thought. Many of these smaller communities in the corridor are very quick to complain when the prospect of Via Rail service cuts are floated. However, just how strong is the customer demand in some of these communities? I'm sure Via Rail took a hard look at its numbers and reassured itself that losing a few extra customers on these non-stop trains would be balanced out by the increased demand from travellers in Montreal and Toronto who might be more keen to take a faster train.

 

That is the logic, although as an infrequent train traveller, I have my doubts that there would be a substantial benefit from such a small reduction in travel time. 

 

But just how soft are the numbers? If I was a politician in one of these affected towns, I'd be very careful about being too vociferous in my complaints. I'm sure Via's attitude is use it or lose it. We've already seen many smaller towns in the corridor who have lost Via service in past years due to lack of customer demand. 

 

Then there's the issue of the investments that have been made in the new train stations in Belleville and other towns in the corridor. When you strip away this much service, what becomes of these stations? I have already seen many examples of Via Rail stations that have essentially become white elephants in many towns across Ontario. They are far too big relative to their use. Many have been repurposed for other uses, like the stations in Stratford, St. Marys and Smiths Falls.

 

I suppose the point of all this is Via Rail, once it emerges from the Venture set fiasco with CN, needs to reflect on what kind of passenger railway it wants to be. This past week's circus leaves it unclear to me what that answer is. 

The last days of the F59PH

In my travels this summer, I managed to find myself in Kitchener for a few mornings. I used to live in this city when I worked for the daily newspaper, the Record. At that point, I was not in the practice of taking rail photos. So whenever I find myself back in the KW area, I always make sure to check out what is happening on the rails. 

Kitchener's rails have undergone a fair bit of change since I lived in the city back in 2007-09 For one, the Goderich Exeter Railway has given way to Canadian National on the Guelph Subdivision. Also, Metrolinx has a dedicated daily commuter train going to and from Toronto Union Station. One morning, I had the chance to catch the GO Train. I was surprised by what I saw.

 

I didn't know that Metrolinx still rostered any of its F59PH units. In this case, 559 was the power for the day. I managed to get some shots from the St. Leger Street overpass just east of the Kitchener railway station. You can see a member of the crew to the left of the old F59PH, getting some fresh air before the morning's departure.

The F59PH was GO Transit's power of choice for years, as the commuter service rostered 49 of these locomotives, which were built between 1988-1993 at EMD in London. They served GO Transit (Metrolinx) well, and a few remain on the commuter railway's roster, which I have come to learn. My information puts the number at eight in total.

On this morning, 559 was leading Train 3962. I did run into an F59PH a few other times, although mostly I see the MP40PH-3Cs and MP54AC units when I am in the Toronto area. Still, it's fun to see the old F59s, which bear some resemblance to the F40PH-2, a few of which Via Rail continues to use. 

I did get a few more shots on the overpass before I headed out to another nearby road for a shot at a level crossing. There are many level crossings in this part of the city, which tend to snarl traffic, particularly on Lancaster Street, which is right next to the CN yard. 

The shot above shows you how far ahead the Metrolinx engineer has to pull the consist ahead of the station (to the left of the rear of the train), just to get the people into the right cars. They certainly never envisioned passenger trains this long when they built this station.

The shot below gives you a better idea of the changing skyline in and around downtown Kitchener. The mix of the old and the new is quite striking in some places. In this shot, I was trying to get a glimpse of the old Krug building beside the train station. You can just see a hint of it to the right of the end of the train, mostly hidden by trees. Contrast that with tall, sleep towers in the distance. 

I had time to get another few shots, below, at the Margaret Street crossing, as the eastbound slowly geared up and made its way out of Kitchener toward Guelph. Truthfully, I was trying to catch CN freight trains near Lancaster Street that morning, but the crew had yet to sign on for the morning and I was pressed for time. I was fortunate to catch some freight action on another morning, which I will share in another post.

I also made sure to get a good going away shot, which is always a necessity when you can do so safely and legally. Control cab car 255 was bringing up the rear on a very sunny, hot, hazy morning. Getting clear shots in the harsh morning sun was not feasible from this angle. Sometimes, you have to work with what you are given.

As an interesting postscript, I later learned that the old F59PH broke down shortly after leaving Kitchener, which leads me to wonder how many more days these units have left in revenue service. 

Update on Moderation of Messages 

In recent months, I have begun to moderate my messages due to the proliferation of spam messages that were infiltrating my entire history of posts. I have found that the number of comments I get from readers is down sharply. The good news is the spammers have only tried to break through my moderation feature one time since I began moderating the messages. I encourage you to let me know what you think and point out any additional information or mistakes. I monitor the messages submitted regularly.

Update on my Book, 1999

My new novel, 1999, is now available on Amazon.ca. It is printed in Bolton, Ont. and the proceeds go to the Canadian arm of the company, as well as me, as per my modest royalty. I can assure you no one gets rich selling books this way. It was the best I could do to put something out there without running afoul of the trade wars. 

 

You can check out the book on Amazon or go to my author's website to learn more about the four books I have published over the years. I can say that 1999 has a few dramatic scenes featuring railways. Most of my stories features trains in some fashion.

Finally, you can check out my other blog, where I talk about random things related to my writing. My latest post is about how truly bizarre the year 1999 actually was.  

All the book links are also included in the sidebar. This will be a permanent feature to the blog.  

Updated: The smell of diesel in the morning

In mid-July, after my family visited the Sarnia area, we paid a visit to Stratford to spend some time with my in-laws and catch a play at the Stratford Festival. My family ended up seeing Anne of Green Gables, which was an interesting, modern take on the classic story that I have read to both of my daughters numerous times.

While in Stratford, I was able to make it to the CN yard a number of times, but I was also in luck since our AirBnB was close to the Goderich Subdivision; in essence the main line of what it left of the Goderich Exeter Railway. 

Our place was near the Birmingham Street level crossing. Also, we were lucky that St. David Street also parallels the GEXR tracks for a long stretch, which means you are able to both hear the trains coming, when they come, and have the opportunity to scout out a spot to capture them. I was lucky enough to have run into a train twice. Once was on purpose, as I knew the train was outbound for Goderich so I waited. The second time was a fluke, as my daughter and I were stretching our legs during a walk when she heard the rumble to two GP38-2s coming toward us long before I did (my hearing is awful).

I had my iPhone with me so I ventured into the green space beside the tracks and found a small window to capture this shot. As always, with an iPhone, I never use the zoom function as it instantly pixelates your image. Always get as close as you can, safely and legally. Leave the rest of the work to your photo software.

I like this shot more than most of the images I captured this summer, because there's the human element. I was a a little hesitant about sharing it, because I didn't want to identify the crew capturing a bit of fresh air, but it was too good of an image to keep to myself. You can see the GEXR still has an old Southern Ontario Railway unit permanently assigned to Stratford, along with a GEXR unit as its mate. Update: Upon reflection, I blocked out the person's face in this version of the photo just because I didn't feel comfortable identifying him, even if his face is largely unidentifiable to begin with 

 

It was a blazing hot morning when I got this shot, so I'm not surprised the crew wanted a moment for some fresh air as the short train made its way northwest toward Goderich. I'm sure he was wondering who I was and why I was taking shots of the train. How to explain that I'm a train-starved railfan from Ottawa? I didn't come across any railfans around the Stratford CN yard, so possibly they're a rare breed in that area. I don't know for sure.

 

 

The train was clearly a run to the railway's agricultural customers between Stratford and Goderich, as there are many farm clients along this stretch of railway. This Potash Corp. hopper car added a bit of colour to a largely grey consists. Modern rolling stock has become very bland, sadly. 

 

 

The train ended up with a few tank cars on the rear as it made its way out of town. I was happy to catch this train by surprise, as it just added another set of photos among the many I took in Stratford during the week that I was there. I have a number of other photographs to share from around the town during my time there. 

 

My New Book 

 

Those who have followed this blog from the beginning know that I am also an independent author of (now) four books. I don't really have any expectations for these books. I put them out there because someone once told me, "Until you release them, they will never be art. They're just files cluttering up your hard drive." I appreciate the sentiment, but I know these books are not art. Even if they were, it would not be for me to say. 

 

 

My latest book is titled 1999. It's a story of that final lousy summer job you have before you graduate and join the real world. That was the genesis of this story, anyway. I had way too many surreal experiences in my summer of landscaping and working for a property management company for it not to fuel a story. 

 

Truthfully, my story about the real Trailer Park Boys (that's what I called them, for good reason) ended up being about much more.  

 

I am very proud of this book, which has been twenty years in the making. I originally began writing it in 2005 and have worked on it periodically since then. It never seemed like the right moment to release it, until my daughter convinced me to take up my writing again. So there it is. If you are interested in it, you can find all my novels listed on this page of my author's website. There are links to all my books, except for the first one, which was legitimately published by a real publisher, but is now out of print. 

Or you can skip right to the Amazon.ca page to find out about this book.  

Off the main line

This July, I was in the Sarnia area to visit family and was treated to some great train watching around Sarnia's CN yard. Granted, many of my images from this spot were a bit drab as the scenery was lacking. I have tried in past years to incorporate interesting scenes in my railway photography, instead of just focusing on the train itself.

So for this latest post, I wanted to incorporate some of the other shots I took while I was in Sarnia, which were a bit off the beaten track. As I mentioned in my last post, I did get to see quite a bit of main line freight trains roaring through the yard, but there was also plenty to see in the yard itself, not to mention in other spots.

Just a short drive from the CN yard, CSX still maintains a small local operation, at the foot of Clifford Street, tucked away behind the Imperial Oil refinery. The old railway station is still standing and has been renovated over the years. It once housed passenger operations, back when the railway was the Pere Marquette, but those operations ended nearly a century ago in the 1930s, if my research is correct. 

But CSX still serves its industrial customers in the Chemical Valley and along its Sarnia Subdivision south of the city. At one time, you'd have seen 4-5 locomotives in Sarnia. Now, there are just these two refurbished geeps.

 

These geeps are considered Dash 3s, as they have incorporated a number of new features, including remote control operation (hence the beacons), newly enlarged cabs, inset lights on the hood and a number of other improvements. I have to say that I don't really like the look of these geeps. They seem overly boxy and not in an endearing, quirky GP30 kind of way.

I took a few other shots, but didn't want to wander onto private property. so I did the best I could from the end of the street, where I could legally take photos. The shot below gives you an idea of how far I was from the power. 

 That track in the bottom of the photo once used to extend all the way beside the station. I often saw covered hopper cars stashed on that track with manual feeders beside them. See the shot below for an example of how it was once used.

In the CN yard, the yard power of choice is still GP9s as well as some GP38s. The old SW1200s are long gone, although a few linger near the Lambton Diesel Specialists roundhouse facility, but they are units for lease in LDS colours. 

The curiosity among the yard power was a lone BNSF geep that had been sandwiched between two CN geeps when I was there. Local railfans told me it's been in the yard for quite some time, so it's either a leased unit or possibly a purchased unit that has yet to be repainted. I didn't see a CN stencil on the engine, so I'm guessing it's a leased unit.

In the image below, you can see the crew heading into the yard from the fuel pad, to get going on some switching duties. 

Truthfully, the unit was a bit hard to catch, as it was mostly hidden behind long strings of cars in the yard. I had to get creative to catch a glimpse of it a few times before it finally came out in full view.

 

There were many other cool sights at the yard that I was lucky enough to capture but I will save those for other posts.

First taste of the main line

It's always satisfying for me to see freight trains on a main line, since we get almost no freight activity in the west end of Ottawa, save for the weekly Arnprior Turn, which operates once a week. In late June and early July, I visited my family in the Sarnia area and was able to carve out small windows of time where I sat trackside at the Sarnia Via Rail station, which sits at the edge of the CN Sarnia rail yard. The yard marks the end of the Strathroy Subdivision, a main line for freight trains into Michigan and Chicago.

The volume on the subdivision is pretty steady most days. You don't have to wait too long to see a freight train, with the exception of Via Rail's morning run of Train 84 as well as its evening return. Other than that, the line is exclusively a fast freight line. The trains whiz through small farming communities near Sarnia on their way to and from the tunnel linking Sarnia with Port Huron, Michigan beneath the St. Clair River.

On my first visit to the rail yard, I managed to get some shots of the various locomotives being serviced or used for parts at Lambton Diesel Specialists in the old roundhouse. I will save those for another post. This was the visit where I came across some chatty railfans. I chatted with them for a few minutes but moved on, as time is always at a premium for me when I am with my family. They come first, always.

Luckily, a mainline freight came rumbling from the west end of the yard as it was making its way eastward fairly quickly. ET44AC 3263 was leading a container train with a string of autoracks in the back. Considering the amount of force and power needed to climb the steep grade from the tunnel, I was impressed that the train was moving as quickly as it was. 

Given the sunny conditions and the lack of cloud cover, the shadows played havoc with my shots. Given that this is the only spot you can capture these freights up close, you have to work with what you have. Shadows are a fact of life when shooting at this yard under sunny skies. 

I don't often take close up shots anymore, but I did want to capture the Indigenous reconciliation logo that adorns some modern CN units, including this unit. It's interesting that just a slight change of angle makes such difference in the shadows.

In this case, I really wanted to capture a good going away shot, since you can see the yard engine in the distance, right behind the Indian Road overpass. I saw a fair number of freights and yard jobs during my visit, so I tried to capture as many shots as possible of meets or at least shots of multiple trains in the same frame. 

Then, it was time to capture a shot of the train making its way through the gantry that guards movements to the St. Clair River Industrial Spur turn off, the Point Edward Spur turn off and the main line into the tunnel. I like that this shot shows the curvature of the track, the noticeable grade and the gantry. 

Now time to capture a few logos. I haven't seen this logo, but remember that I don't see a lot of mainline freights! I did capture a few other logos and freight car shots over the course of my visit, but this one was worth showing as it is new to me. 

I walked down the station platform to capture the end of the train in the same frame as the Sarnia station. This vantage point at least allowed me to capture a bit of blue sky and some colour, as I wasn't fighting the sun from a difficult angle. 

If you look closely, you can see the railfans I was alluding to in my previous post. They are camped out beneath a tree right by the faded Canada flag.

All in all, it was a great first visit to the yard on June 28 in the mid-afternoon. I returned to the yard later that evening and caught more action. I will save that for another post.

The Railfans

On my recent trip to Sarnia to visit family, I was able to make repeated visits to the Sarnia Via Rail station, which sits on the edge of CN's rail yard. It's interesting that, in my recent visits to the yard, I have come across a number of railfans quite often. It's interesting, in that, I have very rarely come across railfans there in the past. But there is no doubt that there are a number of regulars who sit on the Sarnia platform and film the mainline trains. There are even some others that come and go, including kids (see picture below). Most seem interested in taking videos. 

I mention this because I don't know that I have ever shared my experiences as a railfan and my limited interactions with railfans. When you live in Ottawa, your experience with fellow railfans is limited. But this summer in Sarnia, I have to say that I saw a wide swath of railfans and it left me feeling somewhat ambivalent.

 

I will come out with the truth. I much prefer railfanning on my own, without any interaction with anybody. I don't say this because I am antisocial. I say it because railfanning, to me, is my own private time where I can zone out trackside, listen to the wind, smell the creosote and forget about the world. I've always been this way. Not many people know I am a railfan, even among my close friends. I prefer it that way. It's certainly not a popular hobby and, let's be honest, outside our railfan circles, we are ridiculed. It's not unlike the people who camp out at the end of the runway at the edge of the Ottawa Airport property, watching the planes. I think it's cool, but not everyone sees it that way.

For some people, I simply explain it this way. Some people like classic cars. Some people like following ships. Me? My family has a long history with the railways and this is my way of keeping up the tradition.

So I will say I was a bit surprised when approached by railfans in Sarnia when I was there in July. They were camped out trackside and had been there for quite a while, they told me. One of the railfans was from Guelph visiting family and was sitting next to his cousin. Beside the two of them was a woman who could not have looked any more disinterested. I felt for her. If you're not into it, I can't imagine why you would be there! The whole vibe to me was a little off.

What surprised me was that they were asking me when I was coming to the station next, because they figured we should all get together during the time when trains were sure to come. I appreciated the offer, of course, but told them I was squeezing in time trackside in between visiting my family, which was my main priority in visiting. I found it surprising that someone would come to visit family and spend hours watching trains instead. But maybe that was the plan all along for them. If so, I guess that's fine. It's just not my thing.

Even here in Ottawa, I rarely come across railfans. I think that we are a unique breed up here. Some rabidly chase the one west-end freight train each Wednesday. Me? I don't bother following CN 589 to and from Arnprior much. If I have a chance, fine. If not, I'm not all that bothered by it. Others fill their free time capturing Via Rail corridor trains at either one of our two local train stations. There's not much to choose from and, as I have a job, family and other duties in my community, I suppose my options are even more limited than younger railfans.

I generally find the vibe on the Eastern Ontario Rails Facebook group to be very friendly and supportive. I appreciate everyone's outlook on that group. 

But I can't help but mention my ambivalence over that encounter in Sarnia. I guess railfanning is not a social thing for me at all. I enjoy discussing railways online and trading messages with fellow bloggers, but I'm just as likely to trade messages about music, writing, current affairs or anything else that captures my attention. I hate to limit myself. That is why my railway photographs have changed quite a bit over the last few years. I'm more interested in capturing a railway scene, rather than capturing a tight shot of a train. Sometimes, we tend to limit ourselves, I feel.

Maybe I'm just not as big a railfan as others. Maybe it's because I prefer to split my time between multiple pursuits. That's why I find it fascinating when I come across railfans who talk about epic bike rides, or their family history, or their pursuit of music, or their love of hockey, or whatever else it is they do.

I suppose what I'm getting at is that railfanning is a small part of me as a person. I am in the midst of preparing my next two books for publication. My daughter is a budding writer and it's inspired me to take up a pen again. I find this just as exciting as being trackside. I'm thankful for my curious mind.

When I have these encounters with railfans, I wonder what else is there to these people? My guess is everyone has fascinating things to share and has many unique strengths and talents. We are all unique in this world. We all are complex, interesting and baffling in our own ways.

Railfanning is just a part of who we are.   

  

A quiet few moments to capture railway history

Last November, I visited my family around Remembrance Day because I hadn't seen my father over the summer and I wanted to visit with him in his new home. It was a busy weekend with not a lot of time, but I did manage to sneak a couple of minutes trackside to see if there was anything to see at the Sarnia CN Yard.

The yard was largely quiet, although I did manage to see an interesting CSX interchange train picking up a massive piece of equipment that was to be delivered to one of its industrial customers south of Sarnia. You can read about that here.

Other than that, I busied myself taking some shots of the odd assortment of locomotives parked around the old CN roundhouse, which is now the home of Lambton Diesel Specialists, which repairs, rebuilds and leases motive power. You often see old engines there, when they are stripped for parts. Sometimes, you see old units there that are given new life. It's always a mixed bag, which adds a little colour to your railfanning in this area.

This unit below was the one that really caught my eye. I had never seen this scheme before or heard of this railway. It was a misty, grey day so I did my best to grab a photo of it.

 

I was immediately stumped at to what GIO Railways was or where it would have operated. At first glance, the hood is a giveaway as to this engine's lineage. This is clearly a former CP Rail GP9. Thankfully, a couple of quick searches on this unit yielded some unexpected results. 

 

Since I no longer live in Southern Ontario, I didn't know about GIO, which is a fairly new shortline operator. This unit, which was leased from LDS, was first used several years ago when GIO took over operations on the dormant Cayuga Subdivision. The sub, which stretches from St. Thomas to Delhi (pronounced DEL-high), was once a CN concern before it was abandoned. After CN stopped operations, Ontario Southland operated the line before it went dormant again in 2020. In 2022, GIO Rail cleared the brush, laid some new ties and resumed operations, with this old GP9 as its first unit running light over the line.

 

That unit has since been returned to Sarnia, obviously, as operations on the line have been upgraded to include GP38s, judging by this YouTube clip. The newer units no longer have the GIO Railways grey scheme. Instead, they are straight black and are patched LDSX, which means the railway continues to lease its units from Sarnia. GIO Railways is perhaps better known as the company that bought Trillium Rail in the Niagara Region. 

 

This summer, when I returned to Sarnia, the old GP9 was still there, looking like it was either being readied to return to action or being kept in storage. It looked like it had been refurbed at the very least. Note the motors under tarps on flatcars right beside the old roundhouse.

 

While at the yard in November, I also caught this old SW switcher in a red and grey scheme. As this was the only vantage point I had, I couldn't get a side view of the unit. I'm not sure what railway it once belonged to, as I am not familiar with this livery. That's what I love about this old roundhouse. You never know what you are going to see. We live at a time when the number of railways is shrinking and many of today's trains cars are lease fleet blanks, which doesn't leave a lot of variety. This is a spot where you can see railway history.

 

There's also a straight red geep to the left of the image, with a livery similar to CP. I'm not sure where this unit might have originated, since I couldn't see its operating marks from where I was standing. In the centre of the image, there appears to be two other GIO units, one a GP9 of CN origin and a GP38-2 in the rear.

 

Here's a shot of some other SW units, including Nova Chemical's SW unit, which appears to be patched as LDSX 7316, meaning it's a leased unit in Nova colours. In my travels around Lambton County this summer, I noticed that a newer switcher is now handling the tank cars at the Nova Corunna refinery, where Nova handles its own industrial trackage, off the CN St. Clair River Industrial Spur. That means this old unit is either in for servicing or awaiting reassignment. 

 

 

Here's one last image from my November visit trackside in Sarnia. The LDS roundhouse is adjacent to CN's refuelling pad, which means when things are quiet, you can get a glimpse of a lot of yard horsepower in one image. Here's a shot of quite a few old warhorses sitting idle on a quiet November day.

 

 

It's always fun to see old engines that aren't common on railways anymore, like the SW1200s or old CP-style GP9s. I like sharing shots like these because you can look at the image for a while and always find something new. All of these shots have multiple elements that are worth exploring. It might not be as exciting as watching a mainline freight roar by, but for those of us who appreciate rail history, a few shots of a quiet yard can be quite illuminating.

 

UPDATE ON MESSAGES 

 

Since I have switched my messaging over to moderation mode, I'm happy to see that the spam messages have disappeared from my site. There are two sides to this, obviously. My messages from readers has also decreased, which is understandable. I don't want to make it harder for anyone to share their thoughts here or contact me, but I will be sticking with moderated messages for the time being, until I am satisfied that the spam scourge has abated. I'm curious to read what you think. 

Odds and ends on my summer travels

My family has done a fair bit of travelling so far this summer, as our life is more stable. After a wonderful visit to my hometown around Canada Day, we were able to visit my wife's family in London and Stratford in recent days. 

This being vacation, I was able to make my way trackside quite a bit and was fortunately, saw lots of mainline action in both Sarnia and Stratford. I have not even begun to process some of my better shots and figure out how to present them thematically. So, as these are the lazy days of summer and I am not thinking too hard, here are a few random photos that I captured in my travels that I thought would be interesting to share.

This shot made me laugh a bit. This was taken in the eastbound lanes of the 407 as we approached MacMillan Yard. There is an overpass in this area where container trains are often passing over the highway. On the other track, a trio of engines sat, awaiting their next assignment. The unit in the middle was clearly an ex-BNSF unit that was hastily patched over by CN. I shared this with a couple of my friends, and they had the same reaction. Nice patch job!

Over the course of any year spent railfanning in Ottawa, it is inevitable that there will be a large amount of Via Rail pictures. A friend jokingly told me as we were preparing to head home to Ottawa, "It's back to Via Rail purgatory." Don't get me wrong. I will take photos of any trains, but Via Rail photos can become monotonous after a while, which is why I wasn't all that keen to capture passenger rail photos in my travels. This shot is an exception, though. I thought it was cool to catch Train 84 backing into Sarnia Station from its overnight parking spur.

Via operates one train out of Sarnia each morning and one train into Sarnia each evening. The new Venture sets mean that Via no longer has to wye its trains in the yard, as they are bi-directional. All they have to do is tuck in to the spur beside the station each evening and back in to the station the following morning. Easy. 

Via Rail used to have early morning service from Sarnia when I was a university student, but the train now leaves mid-morning, which is better for those who aren't earlybirds. I wasn't specifically seeking out Via trains on this morning, but I was happy to catch this move. 

When we first arrived in Stratford, I headed for the CN/GEXR yard to see if anything was moving. This isn't like Sarnia, of course. You need to know when things are moving on the CN Guelph Subdivision or you will be waiting quite a long time. Luckily, I had some good information to work from, which allowed me to catch both CN and GEXR action. However, when I first arrived, there was nothing happening in the yard and the familiar GEXR units were nowhere to be seen from the station platform, which I found odd.

So I took a walk across Nile Street crossing to Guelph Street, which gives you a different perspective of the yard. Deep in the yard, tucked away behind long strings of steel coil cars, were the two GEXR units, parked at an odd angle. I was told that these tracks are situated like this because they once led to the old Stratford roundhouse. I didn't know that until I shared this photo with a friend who knows the local operations.

So it was cool to catch these units framed against the massive Masterfeeds complex. Those elevators helped frame many of my shots over the course of my visit. 

It was a ridiculously profitable vacation for me for future blog content, but as mentioned, I need to get some themes together to properly share some of my photos. I look forward to the challenge. 

 

Summer observations and musings

I spent a wonderful few days with my family in Southwestern Ontario for the Canada Day weekend. It was fun to be in my hometown for Canada Day for the first time in decades. While there, I was able to amass countless photos from the local railway operations. My challenge now is how to organize it all thematically so it makes sense in the context of this blog.

First, a bit of news passed along from a reader (thanks Michael F.). The City of Ottawa is planning to widen Carling Avenue and do away with a railway bridge over the road in the west end of the city. This old bridge carried transcontinental freight and passenger trains through Ottawa for generations, but the Beachburg Subdivision was torn up past Nepean Junction years ago, making this bridge a relic of the past. It will now go so that the one narrow stretch of Carling can be alleviated.

This is a photo I took from the passenger seat of my car three years ago. It always pays to take photos of the mundane, because you don't know when the mundane might become something worth remembering. I will be glad to see this stretch of Carling widened because the narrow fit beneath the rail bridge is dangerous and the rails are long gone, so it's time to do the practical thing. The city doesn't mention on its site whether there will be any bridge over Carling once the road is widened. I would imagine the old rail right-of-way would make a nice bike and pedestrian trail.

Isn't it interesting that, at a time when yet more of Ottawa's rail infrastructure is being removed, there are open musings from our federal government of building new railway infrastructure as part of the government's drive to devote two percent of the country's GDP on defense spending. Given how much of our area rail network has been removed, it would seem remote that there would be any strategic new rail infrastructure built here. However, those who have lived here for a while know that military vehicles and equipment were once delivered to CFB Petawawa via rail. I dare say this wasn't a huge source of revenue or regular thing for CP, CN or Ottawa Central, but there was a time when rail served our defense industry in the area. Check out this post from Trackside Treasure for more information about this piece of railway history.

Also, here's a YouTube video of Ottawa Central making a military delivery to Petawawa. 

Before I get to my treasure trove of rail images from the Sarnia area, I'd like to share a few attempts at rail photography on the 401/407 and the other major highways between Ottawa and my hometown. I did see two freight trains going through Kingston, but neither could be photographed from my vantage point in the passenger seat. 

Then there was the stretch of the 407 near CN's MacMillan Yard. This is wide highway and the safety barriers make a shot of the yard challenging to say the least, but with a little bit of cropping and luck, you can at least get a glimpse of this huge operation.

This image might look a bit strange. Why so much sky and so little actual railways? Well, that's because I had to crop out the highway safety barrier from the shot. You can at least get a small glimpse of a former CitiRail lease unit making its way toward the 407 while a string of autoracks to the right await their next destination. There are also some boxcars next to the CN building to the left of the shot. I wish I could offer something a bit more detailed, but I like scanning through this shot for all the various interesting elements.

Also, I did catch a passing container train making its way over the highway near Airport Road.

Here's one final shot that I had been meaning to get for years. It once again qualifies as one of those mundane shots that might not mean anything at the time, but can one day become more important. Here's a shot of the old CN ferry landing in Sarnia, as seen from Front Street. The old yard that the railway once maintained for shipping oversized cars over the St. Clair River is now occupied by a gravel dock. But notice how the rails are still there at the edge of the old ferry dock.

 

Given how quick CN is to tear up every last scrap of track here in Ottawa, I was surprised to see rails still there at the end of the old ferry dock, some 30 years after the new tunnel was put into use beneath the river, making the ferry operation obsolete. 

 

I also caught an interesting meet while looking over the old ferry operation, which was once connected by the CN Point Edward Spur, which is still in place today as it serves the grain elevator on Sarnia Bay.

 

Okay, so it's not the type of meet we usually like to see in a railway blog, but I thought it was cool to catch two Great Lakes freighters making their way north and south along the river. The southbound ship is the Mark W. Barker, an American ship owned by the Interlakes Steamship Company. This ship carries taconite, salt and limestone, although it has carried parts of wide turbines in the past. I was not able to get a clean enough shot to read the name of the northbound ship.

 

As I am about to head out on the second vacation with my family, which promises more railway photos to come, I thought a post with some random shots might work best, as I am still thinking about how to properly organize the stacks of images I intend to share from Sarnia in the months to come. Stay tuned.