So long, Stratford

All good things must come to an end!

In the last several years, I have been lucky enough to spend long spells at the Stratford rail yard, but no more. My relatives who are living in the city are moving away, which means my family's summer vacations will be shifting west to the London area next year.

So, I will begin this celebration of the Festival City with a nice parting shot. This might be one of my favourite shots from 2026.

I took this shot quickly with my iPhone as I spent some quiet time at the station on vacation in the city this summer. The tracks in the yard have been realigned in the middle, which meant the GEXR units were parked closer to the platform, compared to years past. This allowed me to get a shot of the orange units with an interesting cloud pattern overhead. The Stratford Masterfeeds grain elevator is visible in the background, along with the ever-present covered hopper cars, which are a permanent fixture in this yard.

But if you look closely, you will see that there is a lone CN unit parked deep in the yard. There was no way to properly capture all the engines in one shot that did them all justice from this spot, even with my camera. If you strain your eyes, you will see a speck of dark red level with the bottom of the elevator. That is the lone CN unit, marooned on a yard track, close to the CN work buildings just east of the Via Rail station.

So here is a clear shot of the lone CN geep, on its own. I'm not sure why it would have been left in the yard. CN operates its local moves on the Guelph Subdivision out of the Kitchener yard, which means all work done in Stratford first has to come from Kitchener. When work is done here and further west in St Marys, the crew returns to Kitchener. Possibly this unit had mechanical issues. I'm not sure why it was left here, but it was gone the following day.

I do like that it allowed me some creativity to frame a shot that is a bit more like a landscape shot. You can see the red track signals, a string of Potash branded hoppers and the CN unit next to the imposing grain elevator.

So back to my quest to get both the GEXR and CN units in the same shot that does them some justice. After a few attempts up close to the GEXR units, I backed up on the platform and tried a different approach with my camera. I think this more closely captures the idea in my head of having both railways clearly represented in the same image.

I will share more images from Stratford in coming posts, as I had a few more meets with local CN trains in my days in the city. 

In my time chronicling the Goderich Exeter Railway, both in Goderich and in Stratford, I've been lucky enough to document a lot of change along this short line railway. In Stratford, I have been able to capture both the Goderich Exeter Railway as well as CN numerous times. I've seen this yard when it was the sole domain of GEXR and then watched as the transition back to CN control took hold.

I've seen GO Trains come through the city, not to mention Via Rail corridor trains. There has been no shortage of interesting sights to see from this quiet part of the CN network. 

While I will miss it, I also look forward to possibly chronicling rail activity in a new area. I'm not sure there were many new challenges for me in Stratford. As I have written about a fair bit, I am trying to find new ways to capture railway images in new locations and from new perspectives. My focus has very much shifted to rail landscape shots whenever possible. 

Stratford has much to offer a determined railfan. I'm glad for my time there.