Strathroy, finally...

I've written a lot about railways in southern Ontario over the years, mainly because that is where I grew up. One place that I've had precious little to share anything about is Strathroy, a small town at the southwestern edge of Middlesex County. The town lends its name to the Canadian National Strathroy Subdivison. Strathroy is amalgamated into the surrounding Caradoc Township. Located about 35 kilometres west of London, it boasts some small scale manufacturing operations, not to mention agricultural and food processing businesses, largely centered around turkey breeding and chickens. 

I've been asked in the past if I had anything to share from Strathroy and I've always said no, sadly. Until now. First, a bit of railway context.

Not far east from Strathroy in Komoka, you will find the junction between the CN Strathroy Subdivision and the Chatham Subdivision, a rail line that is now largely used by Via Rail for its Toronto-Windsor service. Also, you will find a junction nearby with the CP Windsor Subdivision. The point is, Caradoc Township, and Strathroy in particular, owe much of their development to the railways. 

Strathroy still maintains daily flag stop Via Rail service, as Via's Sarnia-Toronto trains call on the town's station in each direction once a day, upon request. The station is an unheated shelter now, which is common in small communities on this line. But the town once boasted a large train station, reminiscent of the station in Sarnia at the western end of the subdivision.

In my time on Via Rail trains, mostly in university in the late 1990s, I don't recall the train stopping in Strathroy very much, if ever. I suppose it would be hard to remember a tiny shelter on the side of tracks.

Earlier this month, I paid a visit to family on the Remembrance Day weekend, since I had family business to attend to in Windsor (more on that in a later post). 

Whenever I travel home, I leave Highway 402 at the Centre Street exit in Strathroy. I follow Centre Street until I reach Napperton Road, a county road that becomes the Confederation Line in Lambton County, which parallels the Strathroy Sub between Strathroy and Sarnia. 

On my way west on Nov. 8, I took a quick glance over at the tracks and saw a CN eastbound freight making its way toward Strathroy. I was able to turn my car around and head back east toward Strathroy, where I turned onto Pike Road, as the western edge of the town, to try and capture some images.

Given the very tight time I had and the restricted visibility at the crossing, I had to make do with less-than-ideal sight lines. I did, however, have time to get to the sunny side of the train before the crossing guards were activated.

I had a choice, as I was the first car waiting at the crossing, to get close and get a very tightly angled shot, or stay back a bit and get a shot with a more forgiving angle, but less of the train in view. I chose to stay back. The eastbound was led by CN ES44DC 2256.

CN C44-9W 2578 was next in line. Given I was in my car, I had to include my rear view mirror in the shot. It couldn't be avoided. I had no time and no place to set up a shot on the side of the road. Safety first.

Given the harsh late afternoon sun I was contending with, the going away shot was a little more forgiving, although that hydro pole couldn't be avoided. This was not an ideal spot to set up! But you have to take what you can get sometimes. 

This was the payoff for doubling back to Pike Road. This train was quite short and overpowered, as it only had about 20-30 cars. But at the end of the train, there were about five flat cars carrying these massive metal rings. Are they used for city water mains or pipes? Possibly they are used as braces when boring a tunnel or pipe? I'm not sure.

Whatever these rings were used for, I was happy to get a shot of some pretty rare cargo, not to mention a shot of a train in a new location. It was a cool moment for me on my way home to see family.

The last car in the consist was a heavily graffitied steel coil car, which made for another interesting image. As railfans today, many of the trains we see offer very little in the way of variety. This small train had a bit of everything. 

I managed to snag a lot of varied rail photography on my trip to southern Ontario, including a few shots in Windsor, some nighttime shots on the CN St. Clair River Industrial Spur and a rare shot of a CSX interchange train deep in CN's Sarnia yard. It was a great weekend filled with good times with family and a few really great bonus moments trackside. 

A nice break from this year's steady stream of Via Rail content.

Smoke!

No one can deny that railways are a dirty business. Sure, locomotives today operate more efficiently than their predecessors by a mile. For all that the railways make of the green nature of their business, it's not exactly like driving a Prius. These massive locomotives need serious power to pull their consists and this requires heavy duty diesel engines. That sometimes results in lots of smoke.

The shot below is one of a few I caught in October around Sarnia Yard as CN diesels went about their business. In this shot, these diesels are putting together a long consist, likely headed west for the tunnel and into Michigan.

I haven't caught too many shots of locomotives mid-smoke, so these shots I thought were worth grouping together. You can't tell by the direction of the exhaust in this shot, but this train was actually backing up. It just so happened that the wind was blowing pretty swiftly in the direction of the train's backward move. The lead unit in this consist is CN C44-9W 2670. The majority of the smoke appears to be coming from the third unit.

Here's a closer shot, with a little more colour correction. I like how the exhaust is bluring the light standard behind it. I had a tough time shooting due to the angle of the sun, but you have to take what you can get sometimes. There really is no way to catch these trains on the sunny side in the late morning from this vantage point. You may notice a piece of equipment in the foreground that was once used to service the old heavyweight passenger cars. That track is now ripped out from the side of the Sarnia station.

This might be my favourite shot from the weekend. This is a pretty typical scene in the yard, as a pairing of yard engines is shunting a cut of tank cars around. That initial moment when the units begin their shoving movement is always fun to watch as the engines roar and the plumes of smoke blanket the area around the front of the train.

A moment later, the wind begins to dissipate the plume. These units are clearly working hard to get this line of cars moving.

I zoomed in to get a closer shot of the locomotives in the aftermath. It was just a brief moment, but I was lucky to catch a few images of this movement. As much as I love catching a mainline freight screaming down the tracks, I really do love watching small yard jobs making moves like this.

Throughout the year, I have tried to change my approach to photographing trains. This wasn't really a group of shots I was consciously trying to capture, but I'm glad I snagged them just the same since they offer a glimpse of how these machines work.