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.
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.
8 comments:
I never understood why CSX keeps what is now effectively a switching railroad, disconnected from their own network, in Canada. You’d have thought they would have just sold it to CN and called it a day. They must be making some money there, or have contracts to deliver product to/from other chemical plants on their network. ….. During COVID, my wife and I went for a picnic along the St. Clair River. Some park between Walpole Island and Corunna. Quite a few along there, so I couldn’t tell you which one. On the way home we detoured down some side road after turning east off the Parkway. There was a level crossing with the CSX line, and just to the south of the crossing, a stack of wooden pallets on the tracks, unceremoniously marking what I presumed was the end of usable track. ….. I looked on Google Maps to try and spot the exact location, but I can’t place it. But not far south of Corunna, the satellite images show the track, while still intact, to be severely overgrown. ….. Despite the disconnection, there are still intact and signalled level crossings for the CSX in both Chatham and Wallaceburg. I can’t imagine they see any trains. Yet, in Chatham later that day, I spotted a CSX truck parked at one of crossings inspecting the signals. ….. Could it be that CN or CP uses, or used, the CSX line to serve customers in Chatham? I can’t think of any industries there that would even require freight service these days. Ethanol maybe?
The easy answer is to your first comment, Kevin. CSX has maintained what is essentially a local switching operation because it must be profitable. There is no other reason for a massive railway to maintain its presence on a disconnected piece of track in another country. The operation is much smaller than it was even a few years ago. There used to be 4-5 geeps in Sarnia at any given time. Now there seems to be two. The railway's active operations go as far as about Sombra, I'm told, as they have some customers in Courtright and there has been a customer in waiting in Sombra for some time. Everything south of there is out of commission. The tracks in Chatham-Kent were sold to a numbered company after the municipality tried for years to get another operator to take over CSX's customers. I'm told a few railways kicked the tires, including Ontario Southland, but nothing happened. I have heard multiple times that CN wanted no part of CP acquiring any of this line, which would give it a connection to Sarnia. CN took over CSX's operations to Blenheim to serve a grain elevator there. Other than that, there is nothing left of the CSX operation in the old Kent County.
Interesting observation about CN and CP. But I suspect that had CP really wanted the CSX traffic out of Sarnia, at least for Canadian destinations, they could have bought the line south of Sarnia without CN stopping them. CP is north of CN through Chatham, so they could have interchanged with the CSX line without even crossing CN tracks. But CSX needs CN and their tunnel to connect to home rails, so I suspect that factored into whatever deal they have. But historically, there was a time when CP picked up tanker traffic from CSX. I don't know your age, but if you don't remember it, you've certainly read about the CP derailment that led to the evacuation of Mississauga in 1979. That train originated in Windsor, and the tank car with the overheated hotbox that caused the derailment originated in Sarnia. Hence it was picked up from the CSX in Chatham.
A quick look at Google Maps shows some kind of chemical plant on Holt Line south of Sombra. It has a small yard with 20 tank cars parked there. So that checks with your information. South of Holt Line the tracks look pretty grim, so that's likely the side road where we turned off the parkway, and the de facto end of the CSX line.
That is the old Chinook Chemicals plant just beside the McKeogh Floodway. A friend of mine works in the Chemical Valley in Sarnia and told me that a company has been planning to ramp up operations of a biofuel plant for some time.
From the view on Google Maps, it looks pretty active. The satellite image is from 2025. And now that I remember where we were, I recall it being up and running back in summer 2020 as well. But I couldn’t see the tank farm around the back from the road. I was more focused on the end of the line on the other side of the street.
I was by there a week ago, and the small yard at the former Chinook site has tank cars stored…the small refinery there shows little life, so I wonder about its revival. It was (is?) under a company called Forge Hydrocarbon.
That's essentially what I have been told. There are/were plans to ramp up operations there, but it has been years and there is still no full-scale operations. But I think we can all safely say that is pretty much the end of track for the CSX at present.
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