Grand slam in Stratford (Part II)

In my first post about this strange lash-up I saw in Stratford, I shared some  photos of the CN crew bringing a short string of cars into Stratford's rail yard. The crew did a little switching, which was perfect for someone like me who never gets to see freight trains. My time in Stratford earlier this summer was quite prolific from a railfanning perspective. Not only did I get shots of a unique triple-header leading a CN freight, I also was able to catch an inbound Goderich Exeter Railway train returning from the Goderich Sub.

So you would think that would have been enough for one trip. And it was. However, I was surprised when I returned to the yard the following day for a quick peak to see this consist coming into the yard, with the same triple header I saw the day before.

CN had clearly kept the trio of geeps together for a return trip to the yard on July 19. This time, it was the BNSF geep in the lead, bring in a mixed load of mainly tank cars and a few covered hoppers. I tried to get a shot of the train emerging from behind the parked cars in the yard, as it made its way toward Romeo Street and the Masterfeeds elevator storage facility.

I also tried to frame the local with the entire elevator in the frame, just to give myself an idea of the scale of the Masterfeeds operations against the small consist. At least this way, I didn't have to fight the heat swivels coming up from the ground, which is always an issue in the summer when you are using the zoom on my camera. You can see the two searchlight signals showing the crew what it was allowed to do. The main line is red over red while the secondary track is red over green.

I don't take a lot of close-up shots of power anymore. I prefer shots where the train shares the frame with some other element of the landscape. In this case, the trio of geeps was too rare for me not to capture it in its own shot.

While I was in the yard, I made sure to try and find some unique rolling stock. I did spot these old Burlington Northern ribbed covered hoppers, which were in pretty decent shape considering how old they are.

That was the last really cool surprise before my family returned home from our trip. It was a really fun time for my kids and it was a very peaceful time for me at the rail yard at a time when I needed it. Great railway therapy.

Grand slam in Stratford (Part I)

I love being able to visit the rail yard in Stratford. Not only does it allow for a glimpse of a longstanding short line operation, the Goderich Exeter Railway, it also now gives you a chance to see a secondary operation in Canadian National's vast North American network. The trick here, as you would find on any secondary line, is to be there when the trains are operating, which is not terribly frequent. When you are along the main line in Kingston or in Toronto, you don't always have to wait long. In Stratford, there are long gaps you need to endure between trains sometimes. In my case, I did have some inside information from someone who is familiar with CN's operations.

But, as is often the case, when I arrived at the yard, it was quiet. Neither CN nor the GEXR was operating and the yard was only scattered with cars. As is often the case, there were a few strings of covered hoppers and some coil cars (unseen, but to the right of the hoppers).

Here's where being able to read railway signals helped me figure out that it was worth sticking around. The two signals to the left of the photo are what are commonly known as "searchlights." They are only activated when there is a train relatively close. On the Guelph Subdivision, even when these signals are activated, it doesn't mean you will see action imminently. The Guelph Subdivision often sees a more leisurely pace with its freight trains.

But a train did eventually appear on the main line, to the left. At first, it didn't seem like anything special. It was a string of covered hoppers pulled by the usual CN power on this line, which appeared to be a GP38-2 minus the wide safety hood. The train, which is usually 568, was pulling onto the secondary track leading to the yard. It was a sign that the consist was likely due to be switched, positioned in the yard, or added to cars already parked. Either way, it was great to know I'd be able to watch some freight action without any rush.

When it approached the Stratford Station platform, I was quite surprised to see that the leading geep was trailed by an old Grand Trunk Western and BNSF unit. Three liveries in one train. Talk about great luck.

The power, for the record, was CN GP38-2 4732, CN (GTW) GP40-2 6420 and BNSF GP38-2 2317. There were two tank cars immediately trailing, followed by a string of covered hoppers. I was surprised to see tank cars in tow directly behind the power, as they are usually separated by a buffer car. 

I waited for the train to move past the parked GEXR unit, so I could capture four liveries in one shot. This was a first for me. I would have to look through my photo archives to see if I have a shot with even three liveries. I know have a few shots with two liveries. But four? Well, this was a first.

I stuck around to watch the switching for a while, trying to get a few different shots as the crew did its switching duties.

And one last shot of the train in reverse.

I tried one last image with all four units and the Masterfeeds grain elevator in the same shot. When I was searching around a bit to get information on the units on CN 568, I saw that there were a few other railfans that caught this unique consist in Kitchener and elsewhere along the Guelph Subdivision. CN put on quite a show.

It was definitely the highlight of my time at the yard in Stratford.

Cabooses of Ottawa (2003-2022)

Since I began blogging in 2013, I have had a few moments where I was able to take in CN operations at Walkley Yard in the city. This is a tricky task, as the yard is largely inaccessible. At the end of Albion Road, there is a gravel access road where a few businesses retain civic addresses, which makes the road a grey area. I do not go down the gravel access road, as it seems to me to be trespassing. However, I have had occasions in the past to see that CN has made use of several cabooses, which provide for a little bit of interest in an otherwise dull railfanning city. 

The cabooses CN has made use of have varied in quality and origin. Given that CN largely stopped using cabooses by 1990-91, it makes the stories of the cabooses in use in Ottawa over the years that much more interesting. Mostly, the cabooses have been used for backwards movements or shoving movements, where the train's conductor needs a safe platform to observe what's ahead on the tracks as visibility from the engine is restricted at the rear.

CN 9106 (ex OCR 9106, ex Devco 9106)

In 2013, it was hard not to see this caboose from the end of Albion Road. It was parked in plain view, not far from the old maintenance building in the yard. It did not appear to be in active service.

By the time I started taking photos near Walkley, like this shot in 2015, the old caboose was a mess of graffiti and broken windows. You can just make out the marking of CN 9106 below the Devco Railway script above. But, upon closer inspection, the 9106 number was once followed by OCR, which is blacked out in this image. That means this caboose predated CN's operations and was used prior to 2008 by the former Ottawa Central Railway. I found this image online from 2003, which gives you an idea of how long it was used in the area.The Devco part had been painted over long ago, but the car retained its green and yellow Devco colours, if you don't count the abundance of graffiti.

This caboose is an AAR M930 class wide vision cupola caboose, which was a common van used by many Class I and regional railroads right up until the industry discontinued the use of these cars. This common caboose was built by International Car Co. from the early 1960s until the mid-1970s. They were in service until the end of the caboose era. CN also made a number of these cabooses at its shops in Montreal.

This caboose saw service on OCR and CN until it was taken out of service at some point in the early 2010s, at which point it sat in Walkley Yard and was left to the vandals. It's a shame that it was not preserved, as it probably saw a lot of service on the Devco Railway, the Cape Breton coal carrier that served the island's remaining coal mines and Sydney's interantional shipping piers between the late 19060s before that railway ended operations officially in 2001.

CN 79834 (ex Ottawa-L'Orignal 2000, ex OCR)

This caboose was in active service as late as 2013 in the city. It was a curiosity by any stretch, mostly because of its odd paint job and the even more curious inscription "Millennium" that was once stencilled onto the left side of the van. It disappeared from Walkley Yard years ago, but was used for shoving moves on the Vankleek Spur as recently as 2020, as per this webpage. The car was built at the CN Point-St-Charles shops under the same number it bore through its later years of service with CN.

The car was sold to the Ottawa-L'Orignal Railway in 1996. The railway, which operated between Glen Robertson on the Alexandria Sub and Hawkesbury, was then bought out by the Ottawa Central, which continued to use the van until 2008 when CN bought OCR and a host of other assets, which meant this old caboose was back with its original owner.

Here's a 2013 shot of an Ottawa crew assembling a train on a Sunday morning, with the old Millennium caboose behind the engine.

These days, the old warhorse is back where it started, used for shoving moves in the Montreal area. It's interesting to speculate what happened to this van. When was it repainted from its original CN colours to blue? How did that paint scheme disintegrate? To be honest, it looks like the paint on this car was applied with roller brushes. I would love to know the story behind its unique appearance.

The only mystery I managed to solve was that the caboose was numbered OLOR 2000 when it was owned by the Ottawa-L'Orignal Railway, which would explain why it was called the Millennium caboose. Maybe someone on the railway had a sense of humour? 

DAWX 79872 (Ex CN 472000 boxcar)

This caboose, which was a former CN caboose, was in storage in Walkley Yard for years. The company that owns it is D.A. Walmsley and Company. It was attached to an RDC9 unit, also owned by DAWX. Sadly, both of these cars were subjected to arson, the RDC unit just recently. There isn't a lot of information about DAWX online, although a picture from locomotive and railway car rebuilding company IRSI in Moncton, New Brunswick provides a clue. This photo shows an old CP RDC, owned by DAWX, being rebuilt at the facility. The company clearly has railway holdings. I have not been back to Walkley Yard in a number of years, so I'm not sure what is to become of its torched RDC unit here or what happened to its previously torched ex-CN caboose. The only information I could find about this caboose is from the Bytown Railway Society, which lists some of its history in this document. From this document, I learned this old caboose was actually a converted boxcar. That's about all I could find. How these cars came to be stored in Walkley Yard is a mystery. I can imagine there would be better places to store cars where the security was better.

GTW 79047

The most recent caboose to ply the rails here is this relatively fit looking Grand Trunk caboose, which has been used on the Arnprior Turn of late. You don't have to look too hard online to find photos of this van in various CN yards across its system in Michigan (ex-GTW territory), Ontario and Winnipeg. It has seen a lot of yard duty, judging by the photos I have seen in various rail photo forums.

Since crews here have to do a fair bit of backward moves on the Smiths Falls Sub to Federal, not to mention on the Vankleek and former OLOR, it's not surprising that CN would want to have one of these old warhorses around to make things easier for the local crew. It certainly has provided a fair bit of excitement among railfans in the area who are making the weekly run to Arnprior a regular spectator sport of late.

Many of us bemoan the lack of variety on today's modern railways. CN's continued use of cabooses in this region certainly gives local railfans one tiny thing to brag about that those along the mainlines cannot claim.