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.