Say hello to Belton

Over the course of my travels this summer, I was able to take photographs at many of my favourite spots, including the Sarnia rail yard and the Stratford rail yard. What's rare is when I come across a new railway find and am able to properly capture it for the sake of discussion on this blog. After all, my trips to see family are usually quite busy and they don't leave a lot of time for wandering. 

In July, as my family made its way to London to visit our family there, we drove through a wide swath of countryside, which is when we came across a small farming hamlet called Belton. North of London, Belton is a tiny community that is home to the Agromart Group fertilizer storage and distribution site. It's a large facility with various storage domes. The site is used as the company's administrative centre as well as a storage and distribution hub for farming customers throughout southern Ontario. In total, 25-acre site can house 80,00 metric tonnes of "urea, potash, SOP, MAP, DAP, ammonium sulphate, MESZ and NitroK." 

If you know what some of those abbreviations mean, let me know. I took it directly from the company website. Most importantly for our purposes, this facility is served by an interesting loop track near milepost 106, off CN's Guelph Subdivision.

 

This was a shot I took from the passenger seat of our car as we made our way back to Stratford from London. As you can see, the track serving the facility is a long loop. I would think this would be the domain of GP9s, GP38s or other more nimble engines. The tight radius would not accommodate larger motive power. I can imagine the squeal of the trucks and axles on this track!

 

Here's a closer look at some covered hoppers parked beside one of the storage domes, behind which stands a very large feeder. I don't know that I have ever seen an industrial rail siding with this type of radius in real life. I've seen a few on model railways, but that's it. This would be a neat facility to model.

 

Belton is just a short jaunt south of St. Marys, which is also on the CN Guelph Sub. I can't imagine that Belton is served by CN's Kitchener operations, which serve St. Marys. I would assume this facility is served out of London's CN yard, on the Dundas Subdivision. But I stand to be corrected, as I am not familiar with CN's operations in this area.

 

I had to do a little searching to figure out what railway served Belton, as I had no idea where it was relative to nearby CN and CP lines when I passed through in the car. I assumed it was CN served, and was proven right when I consulted the geography of the area using the Railway Association of Canada's online Canadian Rail Atlas. It's a handy resource if you are unsure about railway geography. I was surprised how much I was able to drill down on the interactive map to see the loop track in Belton. It's a really handy resource.

 

Speaking of surprises, here's a shot below that I was able to take that I would not have thought possible without a little luck and some great information from people who know about the movements of trains in Stratford. As I mentioned in this previous post, I was able to stay at an AirBnB in the city that was close to the GEXR Goderich Sub. Since I had already visited the Stratford rail yard and took photos of GEXR assembling its train, I was able to drive back to my place and wait by the tracks to get a shot of the westbound freight train making its way over two overpasses as it headed out of town.

 

You can see the train snaking its way around a building as it heads over the first of two overpasses that take the GEXR northwest out of the city en route to its rural customers. I was surprised to get an image like this, as my timing was perfect and there was just enough shade to allow me to get a decent shot, even through the morning sun was unforgiving. If you don't believe me, look at the small patch of sky behind the train. The sky was blue that morning, but the angle of the sun in this shot meant that the sky was washed out, no matter what I did. I stayed off the tracks and found the best spot to take a shot legally and safely.  

 

Those were among the bigger surprises from my adventures this summer. I have a fair bit of material from this summer to share still, so I won't get ahead of myself and drop it all into one post. As I have not really been trackside in Ottawa of late, it's good to have a backlog from this summer.  

Some rare sightings in Wyoming

My brother was taking his son to soccer back in May when he had a few minutes to spare in Wyoming. They decided to park trackside in the tiny parking lot near the Wyoming Via Rail station. They were lucky enough to catch a westbound passing freight with some interesting elements worth discussing a bit. Fortunately for me, he sent along the pictures he took.

Before we get into it, a little context. Wyoming is one of my favourite spots to catch railroading action in Southwestern Ontario. The CN Strathoy Sub goes through the heart of the downtown. Around the Broadway Street crossing, there are multiple spots along a gravel access road where you can set up and shoot passing freight trains. Closer to the station, you can see the remnants of CN's old freight loading ramp, which is now mainly covered over in weeds.

You can read about my meets with trains in these posts:

The warbonnet in Wyoming (2018)
Perfect afternoon in Wyoming (2017)

On the west side of the crossing, you can see a large feed mill, complete with trackside elevators, that could easily be incorporated into trackside photos, if you can find the right vantage point on public property.

In short, there is lots for a railfan to see in this town.

The train my brother caught was led by 3807, a GE ES44AC unit with a special decal on its hood that appears to be honouring Canada's Indigenous Peoples. The inuksuk is a symbol of the Inuit in Canada's north (CN operates as far north as the Northwest Territories, which boasts a large Inuit and Dene population). The infinity symbol (sideways eight) is the symbol of the Metis while the feather is a more broad symbol of the various First Nations spread all across Canada.

I have seen images of this logo on other sites and am happy to share my brother's photo of this unit on this blog.

My brother made a few notes in the message he sent to me. He took a shot of an old Cotton Belt hopper, which he tells me he rarely sees in Sarnia.

He also pointed out that he doesn't seen many Potash hoppers, although I was equally intrigued by the Agrium Hopper behind the Potash hopper. I think the Potash cars are likely a more common sight, however I also tend to only see them up here in Ottawa only at certain times as well.

I like this shot of this tiny Wisconsin Central hopper as well. But once again, I am intrigued by the car following, as it appears to have some heavy items strapped down to it. I wondered if it was some sort of prefab concrete product.

My thanks to my brother for sharing shots of his meeting in Wyoming. If you are ever in Southwestern Ontario, this town offers a great trackside experience, especially on a busy mainline. Highly recommended.

And speaking of Southwestern Ontario, I will be heading down there to visit family in the next week and a half. So I will be parking the Beachburg Sub on the siding for a week or two. I hope to have lots to share with everyone when I get back, because I plan to do some railfanning when I am there.

Cedarview Road and other winter observations

I was reminded the other day of how much fun it is to shoot railroading action in the winter. Fellow Ottawa railway blogger Dave M of Ottawa 589 passed along some shoots he took of the Arnprior local heading out to Nylene Canada on its weekly Wednesday run. He graciously invited me to join him, but I was unable to go, but he did plant a seed. I was inspired the following weekend to head out and get some shoots of Via's morning 643 train to Toronto, which passes through Barrhaven at about 9:30 a.m after it leaves Fallowfield Station.

Those who read this blog know that I often take shots at the McKenna-Casey Drive level crossing, but on this morning, I decided to try a new spot on Cedarview Road. Those familiar with west-end Ottawa know that Cedarview Road's northern stretch ends at the Smiths Falls Subdivision, before Cedarview South continues through Ottawa's rural hinterland. Once you arrive at the cul-de-sac, you can park your car and make your way to a spot right next to several evergreen trees. Once you slip past them, you can find a good spot next to the security fence where you can get a nice long shot of the tracks. This one below is a good example of how much of the line you can get in a single shot. What I love about this first shot is that, if you take away that cellular tower on the left and the houses just behind the right-of-way, this scene could have been shot just about anywhere.

Of course, one challenge at the Cedarview vantage point is the nearby pedestrian walkway below the tracks, which explains those two concrete blocks, which will affect your shots when the train approaches your spot. Here's a closer look at Via 643 en route to Toronto.

And here is a close-up of F40 6417 and its consist of four LRC cars kicking up some fresh snow on the western edge of the Barrhaven neighbourhood. The one drawback of my spot was that the trees were so close to the security fence that I was unable to turn around and get some going away shots of the consists. This was a tough break since the train hadn't yet geared up to speed as it approached the Strandherd Drive crossing, just beyond this spot.

So, instead of those shots, I figured it would be fun to get some close-up shots of the coaches kicking up a little snow. That's one of the fun parts of shooting in the winter. The movement of snow really allows you to capture the power and speed of these machines in ways you can't in the summer.

While I'm talking about winter in Ottawa, I should mention that I've been out to Twin Elm a few times lately, although never at a time when a train was passing. I took this shot of the right-of-way facing east from Twin Elm Road. You can see the yellow aspect on the signal ahead.

Up until a few weeks ago, there were a few Potash three-bay hoppers still at the SynAgri mill just down the road from the Twin Elm crossing. I haven't seen any new hoppers spotted at the mill in recent weeks, but you can see huge piles of tarped-off potash (presumably) right off the SynAgri spur. This hopper, below, is heavily tagged by graffiti taggers.

So those were my little winter adventures in the last few weeks. Since Ottawa appears to be in the midst of winter for real now, I am hopeful that I can add a few more winter gems to my photo collection.

East meets West at Twin Elm

Ottawa's rail watchers have so little to get excited about, so I'm asking your indulgence as I present to you a rare visitor to the Via Rail/CN Smiths Falls Subdivision. I was driving around Twin Elm with my daughters in tow when I saw some odd looking hopper cars at the SynAgri feed mill. Of course, I had no camera with me when I realized that CN had delivered a few Potash Corp. three-bay hopper cars to the mill's spur, including this one below, which was pushed all the way to the end.

While these cars are, of course, common in Western Canada and are seen on trains in the east, I have never seen them up here in Ottawa. Needless to say, I made a return trip the following day (Oct 3) to document these hoppers, western stalwarts making a guest appearance in this eastern rail outpost.

Above: The interesting thing I noticed when I arrived at this mill was that one Potash car was spotted on the spur by itself, apart from three other cars.

My return trip also allowed me a chance to take some shots of the feed mill, which I have mentioned and shot in previous posts. It also gave me a chance to think about what they were doing at the mill. Looking at the SynAgri website, it's clear that they provide fertilizer to their clients (farmers), which would explain a delivery in Potash cars. Whether these cars are filled with a Potash Corp product or not, I cannot say, but I would say it's a pretty good guess. I've been to this place a few times and have shot a few different hopper cars on the spur, including one in this post that generated an interesting discussion among the readers.

This is a shot from Cambrian Road, above. Given that Ottawa is such a backwater when it comes to freight trains, seeing anything out of the ordinary is always a welcome diversion for me. This shot shows you that it's a busy time of year for the mill. I noticed quite a number of loading devices and other pieces of equipment strewn around the property, as you can see from this shot.

This shot above shows you what the mill complex looks like. You can see the other three hoppers, including two more Potash cars and one patched for a leasing company. You can see a loading device and a small Caterpillar machine next to the cars. I was happy that I caught these cars on a Saturday, since CN 589 serves this mill on Sundays, which means these cars were likely gone soon after I took these shots. I had to colour correct this shot and use the saturation tool to clean up the lighting a bit.

Now, here's the same shot with the black and white treatment, below. There's a timelessness to this scene, which I think lends itself to black and white. I really love shooting at this mill. I wish I could catch the switching operation here some day.

Oh, and that field next to the mill is a corn field. Luckily, a wide swath had been harvested and cleared recently, which allowed me to get these shots.

Here's a closer look at the cars, two of which appear to be newer three-bay 4300 cubic foot capacity Potash Corp. cars. The one in the middle looks new.

 

Here's a final shot of the spur, which comes much closer to Twin Elm Road than I thought. I have made my rounds here a few times and never knew the spur came out this far, since much of it is buried in weeds and grass during the summer. You can just make out the shark teeth at the end of the spur through the weeds.

 

So, for those of you who likely see far more trains than I do, thanks for your indulgence on this post. I know these cars might not be all that interesting to those of you who see them all the time, but to me, they are a rare treat, especially since they are graffiti free. And, as my fellow blogger Eric Gagnon of Trackside Treasure mentioned, this is the year of the mundane, so I'm hoping this is a good addition to that theme.

 

As I have learned from taking mundane shots when I was young, what seems mundane one day may been invaluable down the road.