Winter surprises in frozen Ottawa (Part I)

I finally made it out to capture some winter railroading shots last weekend and it brought to mind a comic strip. I recall Calvin and Hobbes peering down from a high hill, wondering why they are about to hurdle themselves down the precipice in a wagon. I asked myself a similar question this past weekend, as I braved the -30 C conditions to get a few winter railroad images.

In between the frostbite and quick retreats to my car, I did manage to capture some interesting images. These shots helped me uncover a few pieces of news that I was not aware of before. I was in the east end of the city to drop my daughter off at a birthday party at a laser tag facility, so I had a few hours on my hands. 

As the facility was just across Saint Laurent Boulevard from the Canada Museum of Science and Technology, I decided to head behind the museum to the Bytown Railway Society storage tracks to see what BRS had resting on the rails in the frigid cold.

I was happy to see the former Thurso & Nation Valley GE switcher basking in the winter sun. This bidrectional engine was built in 1946 in Erie. Pa. It was used for plant switching at the Singer facility in Thurso for years. More recently, it was considered for use on the old tourist railway between Hull and Wakefield, Quebec. That never panned out and the engine was never used. Instead, it sat in storage near Edelweiss ski resort near Wakefield.The steam operation is long gone while the rails it used, CP's former Maniwaki Subdivison, are also history. BRS had the locomotive brought to the museum, where it was restored to operational shape and painted in a classic CNR livery. You can read more about its history here.

Right beside the GE switcher, the society had its Canadian Pacific wood slatted caboose 436436 sitting on an adjacent track in the sunshine. This car was built in 1913 and acquired by BRS in 1983. Like the switcher beside it, this car was used on the T&NVR. The car, after being acquired, spent three years in and out of Thurso until that railway closed for good in 1986. After the caboose was transferred to the museum, the society took off the plywood sheeting that it was covered in, to restore its wooden slat cladding, essentially restoring it to its original condition. The car was recently repainted and re-lettered. The caboose is now used for special events like Santa meet and greets. 

This image above was perhaps the biggest surprise I found on the museum tracks. The society's recently purchased steam locomotive was resting at the end of the museum tracks, connected to the old Central Vermont crane car. I was surprised to the see the skeleton of the old E.B. Eddy steam locomotive stored outside, considering what a big deal it seemed to be when the society acquired this piece of equipment from Exporail in Delson, Quebec in the fall.

The engine is called E.B. Eddy No. 2. At it stands now on the rails, its exterior cladding is clearly somewhere else, as the chassis and insides of the machine are exposed to the elements, with some tarps partially covering certain areas. You can see the various shots that chronicled its move from the Exporail shops onto a flatbed truck here. 

When the engine was acquired, there was work to be done with asbestos removal. The society also mentioned that work would have to begin on the engine's boiler, as it must meet safety standards before anything is to happen to make it operational. I would imagine this would be a long-term project.

The E.B. Eddy switcher is a throwback to a time when downtown Hull was a warren of industrial activity, complete with railway tracks serving the Eddy operations. Although Hull still has a paper facility on the waterfront, most of the former Domtar lands have been repurposed into modern condos and housing around Chaudiere Falls. E.B. Eddy's legacy lives on in the downtown, as one of old Hull's main streets bears the Eddy name. Some of the old stone match making facilities remain, although I'm unsure what is intended there.

Railway service to the Hull waterfront continued via the Canadian Pacific Prescott-Ellwood Subdivisions, over the former Prince of Wales rail bridge, up until the late 1990s. That service ended, essentially silencing the sound of trains in the old section of Hull for good. Although the Guebec-Gatineau Railway still technically reaches Gatineau, most of that activity is limited to the east parts of the Outaouais. That railway is operated by Genesee & Wyoming. 

For more on the rails in Gatineau, you can check out my 2018 post, which is still relevant today.  

Before departing from the museum, I managed to get a few other quick shots of what was on the rails.

The old CV crane car is at the very end of the museum tracks, coupled to E.B. Eddy No. 2. Indoor storage space for the society in the museum building is clearly at a premium, which is why I would imagine some of this equipment has to be stored outside. In recent months, the organization's old CP Jordan spreader plow car has found a new home, which leaves a bit more room for what the organization can fit outside now. 

The old 1955 CN baggage car, built by National Steel Car Co., remains a fixture at the museum, although the winters can be tough!

 

Here's one final shot of E.B. Eddy No. 2, which gives you a little more context as to its size, when framed against the CV crane car. It's not a huge locomotive, but it likely didn't have to be huge, as it was a switcher that worked the tracks a few cars at a time in downtown Hull.

 

I have another batch of photographs from Ottawa's central station from the same day, but I will save them for another post, as this one is long enough. It ended up being a very successful railfanning day for me, with a number of unexpected surprises. I'll be watching the efforts of the Bytown Railway Society closely as it works to restore the old Eddy switcher back to its operational condition. It will be nice to see a part of Hull's industrial story come back to life.  

Switching it up in Kitchener

It's been more than 15 years since I've lived in Kitchener, which seems crazy to me. When I moved there to take a job with the local newspaper, I never intended to move back to Ottawa, but things happen. I have fond memories of my years in KW, but I do regret never pursuing rail photography there, like I had in the past. Right before I was laid off at the newspaper and forced to return to Ottawa, I had begun to consider volunteering for the Waterloo Central Railway. 

Now when I return to KW on occasion, I make sure to make up for lost time. The city was served by the Goderich Exeter Railway when I lived there, but that service reverted back to Canadian National after I left the city. This past summer, I had a tip that the CN local for St. Marys was getting assembled in the Lancaster Street yard, which meant I had a chance to capture some local freight images. 

I started with a long shot of the crew crossing Lancaster for the first time. I've mentioned this before, but I am surprised that the city still allows this type of shunting to block city streets for as long as it does. I've seen this type of congestion in London as well. This type of arrangement where freight trains hold sway on a grade crossing in the middle of busy cities is fast becoming a memory. Here in Ottawa, Via Rail has removed its grade crossing on Greenbank Road in Barrhaven, and those inconveniences are minor, considering the passenger trains pass by in less than a minute. This shunting operation I watched blocked Lancaster for quite a while. I can imagine motorists are sick of this.

I took a quick shot of the local as it disappeared behind the metal recycling depot on Lancaster. The lead unit is a former GT geep. The cab lettering makes it clear. As I watched the crew assemble its train and cross Lancaster over and over, the thought occurred to me again that people in big cities are no longer used to living side-by-side with railways or, at the very least, have grown more impatient with them. Just down the line from Lancaster, the former grade crossings at Weber St. and King St. have both become flyover crossings. That has changed since I lived in Kitchener. I would imagine the housing, technology, research and academic developments in this area had a lot to do with King and Weber both being routed beneath the tracks. The Guelph Sub, in addition to hosting CN's local operations, also hosts daily Via Rail service, as well as GO Trains. 

 

From the Lancaster grade crossing, I was able to get a shot of the local backed well east of my vantage point, back in the yard. This shot gives you an idea of the topography that the Guelph Subdivision covers in the eastern end of Kitchener. As I was told by a few railfans who know Kitchener, the rails east of the yard are in excellent shape, as Metrolinx hosts its daily services on this line and has done much to ensure upgrades on the line into Toronto. 

 

Back and forth the train went, much to the chagrin of motorists on Lancaster. It should be noted for people not familiar with Kitchener that Lancaster Street is a busy road, as it connects much of Kitchener to the Conestoga Parkway, a busy highway that links most of Kitchener with Waterloo.  

 

Here's another example of my attempts to make railways interesting again. The lack of variety in today's freight trains means you need to get creative sometimes. In this shot, I framed a rust-stained hopper against the crossing guard, with the CN Guelph Sub plate visible. You can also see the trackside signals in the shot. 

 

One final shot of the train next to the recycling depot. I had to shot this image through links in a fence, but I think the effort was worth it. The morning sun and lack of cloud cover meant the sky was largely washed out, which was a common occurrence in my images from last summer, but such is life.

 

You can check out my other recent images from Kitchener in this post, when I caught the morning GO Train making its way east out of the station.  

Small surprises from 2025

This past year, most of my rail photography came from outside Ottawa, which was partially out of necessity. I am always on the lookout for new spots in the city to take photographs, but there's only so many images of Via Rail trains I can share from here. I will admit that I have not been out taking photographs in Ottawa in quite some time, mostly due to schedules and other commitments. But, luckily for me, I took photographs of trains all through my travels in the summer and fall, which has me struggling to remember what images I've shared and what images are still to be shared.

It's a great problem to have! 

Case in point is the image below. This shot was taken while my family made its way west through the increasingly notorious Milton bottleneck on Highway 401. Whenever we encounter a slowdown in this area, it usually means I get a good look at a rail line that traverses beneath the highway, next to a Smurfit Stone plant and trucking depot. This past summer, I was finally able to get a shot of a train on that line, from the passenger seat of our car. A little bit of good timing.

This is an admittedly imperfect photo but it's an example of my mission to make railways interesting again. I touched on this in a past post. I like that this train is merely a part of the image in a busy industrial area. I suppose I could have zoomed in, but that type of image would lose all context. Here we see two typical CN six-axle locomotives pulling a string of autoracks south, heading toward the 401 underpass on the Halton Subdivision.

This leads me to another surprise, which I stumbled across in Sarnia. When I was heading home to Ottawa aboard Via Train 84, I took the time to capture some images around Sarnia Yard, since there are vantages points on the train that are otherwise off limits.

I was surprised to see this tank car clad in a CN scheme. It was obviously put on a piece of track for display purposes. The track is located near a CN administrative building deep in the east end of the rail yard. It looks to me like the tank car that was used as a tender when CN was experimenting with liquefied natural gas converted locomotives. As I was capturing a quick image with my iPhone, I didn't use the zoom as most zoomed images on your phone quickly turn pixelated.  

Here's another interesting image I caught when Train 84 had slowed before being stopped at a junction near Kamoka. This is the P&H grain elevator in Kerwood, Ontario, which is the last customer CN serves on the Strathroy Subdivision outside of Sarnia. This facility is located near milepost 25 on the Strathroy Subdivision, just east of the Lambton County border, where it gives way to Middlesex County. This elevator gets served once or twice a week by CN in London, when either CN 583 or 509 pays a visit. This was a neat surprise, much like the Belton grain elevator was when I caught a glimpse of it earlier in the summer.

This elevator reminded me of the SynAgri facility in Twin Elm, although the Twin Elm facility doesn't have silos like this one does. The way the spur curves off the main line like it does makes me think of the smaller four-axle power needed to negotiate the tight radius of this small piece of track. It's much like the old Twin Elm turn off (now severed).

Here's one last surprise from Toronto. I had to pause a moment before realizing what was surprising about this Union Pearson Express train. I looked at it for a moment before realizing that it wasn't a true double-ender, at least in terms of its looks. Most of these trains have control cabs with the curved, sleek locomotive design at each end. This one does not. One end of the train has a control cab not unlike the ones on the old Budd cars or even at the end of the older GO Trains. I had never seen this consist on the UP Express before. Not a huge surprise in the grand scheme of things, but something different nonetheless.

Those are a few of the surprises that caught my attention this past year in my travels around Ontario. It's always fun to share photos that aren't front-end power at a 3/4 wedge. I feel like, sometimes, as train people, we become too focused on the power, as if we were at a classic car show. There's a place for engines, it goes without mentioning, but I find I am having a lot more fun branching out and finding the hidden gems on the rails that tell a larger story.

One last kick at the can for the F59PH

Recently, I shared some photos and thoughts about GO Train service in Kitchener, where Metrolinx has enjoyed success with its Kitchener-Union Station service. I was camped out on an overpass this past summer to capture the morning run of Train 3962 eastbound for Union Station. That train was being led by 559, one of GO's old F59PH locomotives, a reliable warhorse that was built by the old Electro-Motive engine production facility in London, Ont. 

At the time, I couldn't help but wonder if the F59PH was into its final days with GO Transit, as very few still remain on the GO roster. Later in that same day, I was told that 559 had broken down between Kitchener and Guelph. 

Shortly after the Kitchener post went live, I got some interesting information from a blog reader, which I will share here in its entirety:

GO bought F59s from Los Angeles Metrolink and they are sitting in North Bay for rebuild so, by the looks of things, the last days in green of that loco type is some time away. I suspect the idea is to add to the power pool as newer engines get fitted with ECTS signalling, and also possibly 2MW battery packs to replace one Cummins on the MP54s. 

Shortly after that comment, I got further confirmation from another reader that, indeed, more F59PHs were on the way, which means that these old engines will be seen in and around the GTA for the time being. 

In November, I had a small layover in Toronto on my way to see family in Sarnia, so I camped out trackside near the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, when I found this GO Train heading eastbound toward Union Station, led by F59PH 561 in the old GO scheme. As I don't get a chance to shoot much but Via Rail trains in Ottawa, it was a treat to find a few GO Trains with different paint schemes. 

Besides the continuing presence of the F59PHs in revenue service, it was interesting to see a few of the old cab control cars in the middle of some GO Trains, as they had been refurbished and converted to regular passenger cars. A friend of mine was nice enough to meet me at Union. He was the one who pointed this out to me. 
 

Speaking of 559, it was back in revenue service when I was in Toronto in November. I caught it creeping eastward toward Union with a newer GO unit heading in the same direction a few tracks over.

In my last post, I made a point to explore the different approaches I have taken of late to rail photography. These photos would not be reflective of those new approaches. I was simply watching trains on my layover and taking shots fairly casually as I hung out with my friend. Still, any time you can get two trains in a shot, with different units, it's not the worst shot.

The London plant built 72 F59PH units from 1988 to 1994, along with 83 F59PHI locomotives for American customers. GO once rostered 49 of the original F59PH units, many of which have moved on to other railways or retired. 

The one thing that I don't know is if the F59s on their way to GO are the original models that we all know in Canada or the F59PHI models, which look different, especially near the cab. 

Personally, I kind of like the boxy look of the old GO 59s, as they remind me of the F40PH-2s that have served Via Rail well for decades. The Metrolink units have a sleeker nose and cab, but they seem a bit awkward aesthetically, in my opinion. Details, details...

I wanted to share on shot from the day when I caught these F59s that might be considered a little different from the usual 3/4 wedge shot. Although I was not trying to reinvent the wheel with the above two shots, I did try and get a shot of the train sheds at Union. The Skywalk overpass didn't do me any favours from this vantage point, but I did like that I caught a GO Train on one end of the sheds and a Via corridor train on the other end.

My chances to catch something from the platforms were limited, as crews don't want people wandering around the train sheds so I tried to sneak a few shots here and there.

I like this as a slice of life shot where passengers were waiting their turn to get on the escalators that would take them into the arrivals hall of the station. Sometimes, train shots can have the trains on the periphery and still tell a good railway story. I have a few other shots in and around Union that I took on my way back to Ottawa, but I will save them for another post. 

I have to say, I am happy that the F59s are going to continue to ply the rails for a while. The old boxy ones that have served GO well for decades are unsung heroes. Catch them while you can. 

Make Railways Interesting Again

Being a railway enthusiast sure is different these days. I am not going to go down the road of saying everything was better when I was young. It wasn't. Some things I found were better while other things were not. But I will say this. Railways have taken on a sameness, for lack of a better term, and it's really affected my enjoyment of rail photography.

Again, I won't say that things aren't what they used to be, across the board, because there are some aspects of railways today I find fascinating. But I cannot get excited by endless container trains, at least in that, once you get your initial photographs of the power up front, there really isn't much left to photograph. The same can be said for most rolling stock. Most covered hoppers are endless strings of grey, with only their alphabet soup of lease company reporting marks to offer any variety. The same has always been true for most tank cars, as this continental fleet has been under the control of leasing companies for far longer than other cars.

The question is what can we do to keep this hobby fresh when there is so much blank space on cars and so little diversity? With most railways not investing much in new rolling stock, there's not much variety in the average freight train. Also, with much of the fleet of fallen flag cars on its way to the scrapper's torch, there's a scarcity of history to capture.

Over the last few years, I have found that I have begun to refine my approach to railfanning quite a bit, without even realizing it. These small changes I have made to my approach have really allowed me to make the most of what there is to capture out there these days. I'm not saying it's for everyone. I understand that there are people younger than me who don't have the same experiences I have in my arsenal, so they don't know what they're missing, so to speak.

For that matter, there are people older than me who could say the same thing about my outlook. I will never know the luxury of their past experiences, so I cannot say whether their time spent trackside while young was better than my time spent trackside when I was young.

So here is my refined approach to railfanning, developed with modern railways in mind. 

1. Don't begin and end your time trackside documenting power only This might be my biggest disappointment when I look at the work of others. It's also a critique I have of my own work at times. So many videos today essentially follow the power to the detriment of actually cataloging the entire train. I try to look for shots of the train from different angles. This means finding interesting trackside infrastructure to frame the entire train against. I find shots of engines with no context are not terribly interesting anymore. Unless I know where the shot is being taken and the context of the train's movements, I am not all that excited.

Look at the shot above from Smiths Falls in 2017 and look at the shot below, taken with details in mind. I know which one I prefer.

 

2. Try and get the big picture This is one of the hardest challenges of rail photography and it often goes against our natural desire to get as close to the action as possible. I think we spend so much time shooting the power that we forget how powerful an image can be when it incorporates an entire train. There is certainly a trade off here. Your shot will not be as close and the train will not be as prominent, but I think it's a good compromise sometimes, when it works out.

 

This shot shows the limitation of my former camera, as I took this shot outside of Sarnia in 2013. I shared similar photos of this train in a past post, but this one at least captures the majority of the train. It also gives you an idea of the train's length as well as the topography outside Sarnia and the time of year. There are many details to consider. 

 

3. Change your perspective This is where I find I am having the most success and fun. I am always on the lookout for a new perspective, whether is be down low, on a bridge, shooting a train on a bridge, or just finding a creative way to capture a train in a way that doesn't mimic a standard rail shot. I think the best recent example of this was when I shot some GO Trains in Toronto in November, when I was travelling between Ottawa and Sarnia. I will have a few posts from Toronto later on.

 

This shot, taken in November, is an example of all the different techniques I have been trying recently. I am on a bridge over the downtown tracks, which means I have a different perspective. I also deliberately framed the cityscape in the shot, and placed the train to the far right of the image. Finally, I didn't zoom in on the train, which would have meant I couldn't capture the entire consist. I deliberately kept the train small in the image, so I could capture the big picture. I also like the look of the many tracks in the photo. I am far more satisfied with this type of image than I would have been with a shot where I zoomed in on the train.

 

4. Look for history This might be the hardest technique as so much rail history has disappeared. When I write about rail history, I'm not talking about steam engines or something that you can only see in a museum, I'm talking about fallen flag cars. I used to shoot images of shortline railway cars and the incentive-per-diem cars that tiny railways built and were still in wide usage when I was younger. I also made sure to get photos of railway fleet cars, which seem to be quite rare now that many railways basically use cars that are part of lease fleets. But, since this is such a challenge, it makes a good catch all the more rewarding!

 

I know that these old Burlington Northern covered hoppers are still fairly common trackside, but for how long? I have photos of old Soo Line covered hoppers that I shot just a few years ago and I haven't seen any since. I like this shot above because I made sure to wait until the yard job in Stratford was passing between the cars so I could grab this shot of the old BN hopper in a unique image.

 

My first thought for this post was to do an exhaustive comparison of how the rail photography hobby has changed since I was younger, but I felt that this approach would come across too much like an angry man shaking his fist at young whippersnappers so I decided to try and take a more even-handed approach.

 

I will say that, unlike when I was younger, today's epically long trains with power on both ends, and often with distributed power in the middle, are something that I never saw when I was younger. And it's a definite improvement for those who are trackside these days. I also like how container trains look from a distance, with so much colour and variety, when taken together as a whole. 

 

See? It wasn't all better back in the day. I'm grateful for what I have now, just I am grateful for what I saw when I was younger. It's all what you make of it. My goal is to make the railways of today, with their lack of diversity, interesting again. Make Railways Interesting Again. MRIA is this year's theme. Let's get to it!

 

Happy New Year everyone.