Summer days along the main line

Earlier this summer, my family burst out of the gate for our summer vacation. We were gone after the last day of school to visit Toronto for a few days and then proceeded to the Sarnia area to visit my family. While there, I made good use of some free time to visit the CN yard in the city. The yard, if you know what to look for, has many things a railfan can tick off his and her list. 

1. The yard has an old roundhouse still standing where Lambton Diesel Specialists work on all sorts of motive power, both new and old. You are guaranteed to find something you haven't seen.  

2. The city hosts one eastbound Via Rail corridor train (Train 84) for Toronto in the morning, as well as the returning westbound train in the evening. For those who don't see a lot of passenger trains, this is your chance. 

3. The yard is also located on a main line (Strathroy Subdivision) between Toronto and Chicago, meaning it regularly sees a number of through freights in both directions.

4. The yard is also a place where trains are put together, meaning you can see big-time switching action, if that is your thing.

5. CN also has a number of smaller locals that originate and terminate in the yard, with older motive power, sometimes in older schemes. 

6. Finally, the yard is the point where CN and CSX interchange. This is your best chance to see CSX in the Sarnia area these days, as CSX does not operate very far from its industrial customers in the Chemical Valley these days. 

I saw all of these things during my visit this summer, but I thought I'd start with a quick few observations from the first through freight train I saw on June 29.

I mentioned the locals deliberately, as I was trying to get a picture a local working deep in the yard east of the Indian Road overpass on the morning of June 29. When the westbound freight made its way up the main track, I tried to get a shot of both trains in the harsh morning sun. You can see the exhaust from the westbound freight obscuring the overpass. Once I got these two framed together, I backed up on the platform as quickly as I could.

Despite the harsh light and the washed out sky, I was happy with this shot, as it captured the movement of the train in the morning haze. The exhaust was the element I liked the best. It captured the movement. 

I moved the west side of the platform because I wanted to catch the early morning Via Rail passengers, who were waiting for the Via Rail crew to back up their Venture set, just visible beyond the station to the left, onto the main line. Again, you can feel the early morning heat and haze in this shot. I had to do a bit of touching up to work with the shadows cast by the morning sun. This vantage point in the yard is a tough spot to work with the natural light if the sky is clear. 

The lead unit was a CN centennial unit, which was a cool catch, as I don't see too many of these painted units in my summer wanderings. I like that I was able to capture the sky in this shot, as the light was a little more forgiving from this angle. It's hard to imagine that this image was taken just a few seconds after those other shots. It looks like an entirely different day, judging by the sky. I also got the station in the shot, which was my goal. I often find when railfans are presented with the opportunity to get photographs from a station platform, we often stay too close to the tracks and don't get enough of a profile of the train. These head-on shots have their merits, as evidenced by my first shot in this post, but I much prefer shots that are a bit farther back, with more of the train and rolling stock in the image. 

A long line of lumber cars making its way past the station. It sure beats a long line of grey hoppers or black tank cars. 

An old Government of Canada cylindrical hopper, a bit the worse for wear and smeared with the ever-present graffiti, but still an interesting site. It's hard to imagine a time even 20 years ago when capturing one of these would be a rare catch. 

I was happy to catch these cars as well, filled with pipes. I don't often see these cars.

I also liked this shot, as I captured a few different types of loads, not to mention a special duty flat car, usually used for special cargo. It was empty, but it's still something you don't see as much as other cars.

One final shot of a steel coil car bringing the end of the train through the gantry before descending downgrade to the St. Clair River Tunnel to the United States. I tried to frame the various engines clustered around the old roundhouse for interest's sake.

As mentioned, there are a number of things you can knock off your list as a rail enthusiast at this yard. I pretty much ticked off the entire list that I mentioned above, but that can wait for another post. 

Thankful for everything, even the faceless grey hoppers

I once had a conversation with my former parish's priest when I was struggling mentally and he said something that changed my life. He asked me a few questions. Did you ever wonder what a miracle it was, he asked, that you walk into a room, flick a switch and light magically appears? Or when you go to the sink, you pull a faucet and clean water appears? He asked me a series of questions like these and it made me rethink my life entirely. His point was simple. He was telling me I was very fortunate to have all that I have in my life. Since that chat, I have come to recognize the blessings in my life at all times, which have made me much more successful in managing my mental wellness.

For our purposes here, I wanted to share a few photographs from my last few months, many of which I have yet to share on this blog. Many of these shots were taken in my journey to Sarnia by train and my journey home to Ottawa.

There's a saying that it's better to be lucky than be good. I'm lucky indeed. As we near Christmas, I'd like to share a few shots in the spirit of gratitude.

This first shot was taken around sunrise on a cold Nov. 24 morning in Sarnia before I left on Train 84 to head to Toronto and eventually back to Ottawa. This train was backing up in the yard when I arrived at the station, before heading west through the tunnel into Michigan. If you look closely, you can see Via Train 84 on the spur beside the station, before it backed onto the main track. The cloud bank over station made for a cooperative sky that cut down on the shadows. I decided to leave the photo as it was, with no correction. This is one of my favourite shots of the year.

 

Here's a quick shot I grabbed aboard my train home from Toronto. The sun was sinking fast and the light would soon vanish, making any further attempts at photographs moot, but I liked that I got two different GO Transit schemes in this shot, along with a bumper in the bottom of the frame. This looked like a layover yard, which was just a short distance east of Union Station in Toronto. I'm thankful that the train home was not heavily delayed anywhere, which as we all know from last week's fiasco in Brockville, is all too common.

 

Yes, I'm even thankful for the old P42s. This is the train that I took from Fallowfield to Toronto on my way to see family in Sarnia. The city was cover in a light film of ice from a messy evening of freezing rain and snow, so getting to escape that to spend the weekend in warmer climes was certainly a bonus. Also, the fact that I was on an older consist meant that there were no speed restrictions on this train. Granted, the delays from being held for freight trains is another story, but I'm trying to stick with my theme of gratitude.

 

This shot is from my July visit to Stratford, where I was lucky enough to catch a few Goderich Exeter Railway trains in the Stratford yard and on the GEXR Goderich Subdivision. I like this shot because I was able to capture a bit of smoke coming out of the old geeps, as the crew assembled its train in the yard before heading northwest down the Goderich Sub. I have many other photos to share from this trip, which I have yet to sort through for the purposes of a thematic post. 

 

 

Here's a shot from August when my family was in Waterloo for a music camp. I always try to make time to go up to St Jacobs to get some shots of the historic collection of locomotives and rolling stock in the Waterloo Central Railway yard. I like this shot because it captures the back end of an old heavyweight passenger car, a RDC Budd car as well as a repainted switcher. Then there are the axles in the foreground. This is the type of shot I am trying to capture more and more these days. I plan a post in the coming weeks to outline what I feel is the state of railfanning right now and how it has changed my perspectives on the hobby.

 

Looking for your thoughts

 

I'm thankful, as well, for blog reader Kevin from Windsor for alerting me to the fact that Firecrown Media has somehow decided to stop shipping its magazines to Canada, despite the fact that people have subscriptions. He told me he cancelled his subscription, as a result of this decision. I went online to see what was happening, as I have not received my latest issue of Classic Trains, which is a quarterly. It appears that the company that took over Kalmbach Media has indeed made this decision, although no one seems to have been notified. Needless to say, I have cancelled my subscription. Classic Trains was one of the few ties I retained to the United States after this spring's tariffs frenzy. Now, I have cut all ties.

 

I don't mean this as a slight against any blog readers from the States. I grew up on the U.S. border, have family in the U.S. and am an avid Detroit Tigers fan. Putting all politics aside, it's just a prudent measure for me to cut ties at this point. 

 

My question to my fellow railfans from Canada is which magazine should I subscribe to in this country to replace Classic Trains? I'm thinking Branchline, as I am a big fan of the Bytown Railway Society. Does anyone have any other suggestions? 

A Canada Day doubleheader

When I visited Sarnia this summer to spend time with family, I was lucky enough to have some time trackside at the Sarnia rail yard, which is always a treat for me. I already shared some images of my time in Sarnia, including shots of my first mainline freight train this summer, along with my commentary on the enthusiastic railfans down there, not to mention the oddities I saw off the main line.

First taste of the main line

The Railfans

Off the main line

For this post, I simply wanted to share photos of more mainline action from my time in Sarnia. As much as I love reading railway blogs (and I do) and learn from the commentary and knowledge of my fellow bloggers, I also like to read posts about just being trackside and capturing a passing train. It's a simple pleasure in my life. Sometimes, it doesn't need a whole lot of overthinking. So with that in mind, let's go trackside on the Strathroy Subdivison. 

This is my first glimpse of a westbound freight that was making its way to the tunnel when eastbound Via Train 84 made its way east of the platform of Sarnia station on July 1. I always love to catch a meet, but it's always a challenge to get the light cooperating at this vantage point. Sometimes, the early morning sunshine and the haze makes some compromises inevitable. 

By turning my camera away from the sun and having the Via Rail Venture set out of the way, I was able to get a better view of the westbound CN with a long line of empty autoracks making its way to Michigan. It's interesting how the glare from the Venture set seemed to influence the lighting of the shot in the first image. Take that distraction away and shift the direction of the lens and the sky comes into focus. But it wasn't until the train came closer to the platform that I was in for a true surprise.

 

 

Behind CN ES44DC 2228 was a Canadian Pacific-painted unit. I'm not going to say that shared or leased power is rare on this main line, because I have seen outside power here in my limited time trackside. But I don't recall seeing CP power here before. I'm sure it's more common that I think, but it's still the first time I have seen CP (sigh, okay CPKC) power on the Strathroy Subdivision. 

 

 

The engine was CPKC ES44AC 8907, in the railway's basic red scheme minus the golden rodent and badge logo. One thing I've loved about modern CP engines is how, even after the railway migrated to a more modern paint scheme following its longstanding action livery, the railway still kept its unit operating numbers in the same white italic font. It's a little detail. I'm sure there wasn't any deliberate thought put into this, but I like that it reminds me of days gone by when I would see CP action red units in Windsor with the same operating numbers on the cab. It's the little things that make me happy.

It's weird seeing these two rivals side by side. Look at the difference it makes when you're not fighting the morning sun! The eastward facing images make it look like a cloudy, overcast day but the westward images reveal that it's really another typical Southwestern Ontario sunny summer morning.

Here's a quick shot of Via Train 84 making its way toward the Indian Road overpass while the westbound autorack train picks up momentum as it glides down the descent toward the Paul M. Tellier Tunnel beneath the St. Clair River. 

And speaking of that CPKC railway, here is the unified railway's logo. The beaver and the maple leaf are still prominent, letting people know which one of these former companies was the buyer. 

 

And here's a shot of that action red scheme, which you can still find on occasion on old covered hoppers and autoracks. I've seen a boxcar with the old action scheme in recent years, but that is truly rare. Check out that image of an old CP Rail clad boxcar in this post from London, Ontario: Serving up suds?

 

And here's one final shot of the train making its way down the grade to the tunnel as the rear markers cross the signal gantry. All in all, a cool start to my Canada Day.

 

MESSAGES CHECKED DAILY

 

I want to assure you that I check my messages on the blog each morning in an attempt to encourage everyone to be able to add their comments without fear of censorship. The only comments I delete are spam messages. That was why I switched to moderated messaging. It has nothing to do with anyone that reads here. It has everything to do with the relentless stream of spam messages that plague these blogs.

 

So keep messaging me, by all means. I love to hear form you.

 

hammondDOTmichael77AT gmailDOTcom

 

Michael H. 

 

 

 

 

  

Off the main line

This July, I was in the Sarnia area to visit family and was treated to some great train watching around Sarnia's CN yard. Granted, many of my images from this spot were a bit drab as the scenery was lacking. I have tried in past years to incorporate interesting scenes in my railway photography, instead of just focusing on the train itself.

So for this latest post, I wanted to incorporate some of the other shots I took while I was in Sarnia, which were a bit off the beaten track. As I mentioned in my last post, I did get to see quite a bit of main line freight trains roaring through the yard, but there was also plenty to see in the yard itself, not to mention in other spots.

Just a short drive from the CN yard, CSX still maintains a small local operation, at the foot of Clifford Street, tucked away behind the Imperial Oil refinery. The old railway station is still standing and has been renovated over the years. It once housed passenger operations, back when the railway was the Pere Marquette, but those operations ended nearly a century ago in the 1930s, if my research is correct. 

But CSX still serves its industrial customers in the Chemical Valley and along its Sarnia Subdivision south of the city. At one time, you'd have seen 4-5 locomotives in Sarnia. Now, there are just these two refurbished geeps.

 

These geeps are considered Dash 3s, as they have incorporated a number of new features, including remote control operation (hence the beacons), newly enlarged cabs, inset lights on the hood and a number of other improvements. I have to say that I don't really like the look of these geeps. They seem overly boxy and not in an endearing, quirky GP30 kind of way.

I took a few other shots, but didn't want to wander onto private property. so I did the best I could from the end of the street, where I could legally take photos. The shot below gives you an idea of how far I was from the power. 

 That track in the bottom of the photo once used to extend all the way beside the station. I often saw covered hopper cars stashed on that track with manual feeders beside them. See the shot below for an example of how it was once used.

In the CN yard, the yard power of choice is still GP9s as well as some GP38s. The old SW1200s are long gone, although a few linger near the Lambton Diesel Specialists roundhouse facility, but they are units for lease in LDS colours. 

The curiosity among the yard power was a lone BNSF geep that had been sandwiched between two CN geeps when I was there. Local railfans told me it's been in the yard for quite some time, so it's either a leased unit or possibly a purchased unit that has yet to be repainted. I didn't see a CN stencil on the engine, so I'm guessing it's a leased unit.

In the image below, you can see the crew heading into the yard from the fuel pad, to get going on some switching duties. 

Truthfully, the unit was a bit hard to catch, as it was mostly hidden behind long strings of cars in the yard. I had to get creative to catch a glimpse of it a few times before it finally came out in full view.

 

There were many other cool sights at the yard that I was lucky enough to capture but I will save those for other posts.

First taste of the main line

It's always satisfying for me to see freight trains on a main line, since we get almost no freight activity in the west end of Ottawa, save for the weekly Arnprior Turn, which operates once a week. In late June and early July, I visited my family in the Sarnia area and was able to carve out small windows of time where I sat trackside at the Sarnia Via Rail station, which sits at the edge of the CN Sarnia rail yard. The yard marks the end of the Strathroy Subdivision, a main line for freight trains into Michigan and Chicago.

The volume on the subdivision is pretty steady most days. You don't have to wait too long to see a freight train, with the exception of Via Rail's morning run of Train 84 as well as its evening return. Other than that, the line is exclusively a fast freight line. The trains whiz through small farming communities near Sarnia on their way to and from the tunnel linking Sarnia with Port Huron, Michigan beneath the St. Clair River.

On my first visit to the rail yard, I managed to get some shots of the various locomotives being serviced or used for parts at Lambton Diesel Specialists in the old roundhouse. I will save those for another post. This was the visit where I came across some chatty railfans. I chatted with them for a few minutes but moved on, as time is always at a premium for me when I am with my family. They come first, always.

Luckily, a mainline freight came rumbling from the west end of the yard as it was making its way eastward fairly quickly. ET44AC 3263 was leading a container train with a string of autoracks in the back. Considering the amount of force and power needed to climb the steep grade from the tunnel, I was impressed that the train was moving as quickly as it was. 

Given the sunny conditions and the lack of cloud cover, the shadows played havoc with my shots. Given that this is the only spot you can capture these freights up close, you have to work with what you have. Shadows are a fact of life when shooting at this yard under sunny skies. 

I don't often take close up shots anymore, but I did want to capture the Indigenous reconciliation logo that adorns some modern CN units, including this unit. It's interesting that just a slight change of angle makes such difference in the shadows.

In this case, I really wanted to capture a good going away shot, since you can see the yard engine in the distance, right behind the Indian Road overpass. I saw a fair number of freights and yard jobs during my visit, so I tried to capture as many shots as possible of meets or at least shots of multiple trains in the same frame. 

Then, it was time to capture a shot of the train making its way through the gantry that guards movements to the St. Clair River Industrial Spur turn off, the Point Edward Spur turn off and the main line into the tunnel. I like that this shot shows the curvature of the track, the noticeable grade and the gantry. 

Now time to capture a few logos. I haven't seen this logo, but remember that I don't see a lot of mainline freights! I did capture a few other logos and freight car shots over the course of my visit, but this one was worth showing as it is new to me. 

I walked down the station platform to capture the end of the train in the same frame as the Sarnia station. This vantage point at least allowed me to capture a bit of blue sky and some colour, as I wasn't fighting the sun from a difficult angle. 

If you look closely, you can see the railfans I was alluding to in my previous post. They are camped out beneath a tree right by the faded Canada flag.

All in all, it was a great first visit to the yard on June 28 in the mid-afternoon. I returned to the yard later that evening and caught more action. I will save that for another post.

Some final rough cuts from 2024

Well, the Christmas dust has settled. The decorations will be coming down soon and life will return to normal soon enough. I've had some great conversations and made some new connections through this blog this year. I've seen some interesting things trackside. There was a proliferation of Via Rail content, which was just a factor of what I saw for much of the year. I managed to see some more diverse railway scenes later in the year, which helped keep things interesting. But I cannot deny that it was a heavy Via Rail year.

So, as I close out 2024, here are a few rough cuts, photos with no home, B-sides, outtakes and other odds and ends that didn't quite fit in with other posts that still merit some consideration.

This shot was taken in November as I was waiting for an eastbound Via Rail train to cross Fallowfield Road on the northern edge of Barrhaven. I was returning home from a doctor's appointment and I saw the train making its way slowly toward the crossing. I had mentioned earlier in the year that this was the Year of ABC (Always Be Challenging), where I encouraged myself and everyone else to get out of the routine of taking the same old railway shots and try to get something new and interesting.

In this case, this shot was a matter of good timing, but it was also a chance for me to get a sidelong shot of a train near Fallowfield Road. I had never attempted to get a shot here before, so it was something a bit new. 

This shot was taken at Montreal's Central Station, as our train was about to head back west to Ottawa. As I mentioned, I tried to think of new images to get this year that were not the same old railway photos. I took a few shots in the limited lighting of the underground platforms in Montreal. This was one of the few that didn't have a reflection of my own car's interior, so I included it. It's the side of a Via Venture locomotive taking off. Again, nothing special, but I like it for some reason. It gives me the feeling of movement; of people going to or from some place; of the countless human stories that are waiting to be told once these trains get to where they are bound. There are many shades of grey here, just like with humanity.

Here's an interesting image from Tupperville, Ont., a tiny rural community of about 300 people in Chatham-Kent that is equidistant from Wallaceburg and Dresden. This is the site where the old CSX Sarnia Subdivision serviced the London Agricultural Commodities grain elevator on Centre Sideroad in Tupperville. The image doesn't show that the track over the road had been paved over, yet the rails remain in place through the elevator, awaiting the inevitable lifting up, whenever that happens. For years, efforts to get rail service restarted on this portion of the old CSX line were ongoing, but the end is definitely nigh. Interesting as well that the company's webpage for this elevator clearly shows the rails in place. Just a few metres from this spot, you can see the concrete abutments for the old rail bridge that once carried trains over the Sydenham River. A sad scene for someone who grew up watching trains on CSX rails through my hometown.

Here's a shot taken from the Hunt Club Road overpass as an evening eastbound glides toward Federal Junction en route to Ottawa's main train station. I tried to capture a shot that encompassed the beautiful evening sunset as well as the train. I don't know that I quite captured what I was seeking, but I like this shot nonetheless. It's the human stories aboard that train that are waiting to be told that fascinate me. You can even see the recently removed spur that once served Bentley Avenue customers. Those rails and the old switch stand still lie in the weeds trackside (in the bottom of the image). Here's a post with another photo I took the same night. The shot I used in that post did not include the evening sky to the same extent.

One final image from deep in CN's Sarnia rail yard. I dropped by the station one morning in early November when I was on the way to my sister's house. There appeared to be nothing happening when I arrived so I stuck around and took a few shots. There was a major surprise in store, which I will wait to share in a future post. But, when I first arrived, this was all I could see, other than the long line of diesels parked at the old Sarnia roundhouse.

Even though the fog made a clear picture almost impossible, I do like this shot, which is a bit eerie and wistful. 

So that is a wrap for 2024. Thank you everyone for stopping by. Lots more to come in 2025, I hope. Happy New Year!

Sometimes, you get a second chance (Part II)

As I mentioned in my last post, there are rare times when your train karma will grant you a second chance. I stumbled across one of those rare opportunities on a July trip to Sarnia last year with my family, when I chanced a last-second trip to the Sarnia rail yard.

In my previous post, I talked about a train heading for the tunnel, the front of which I had missed by seconds. I was disappointed to have missed the shot, but then something unexpected happened. The train began to back up. It didn't back up far enough for me to capture the engines in any meaningful way, but it at least allowed me a few going away shots. The train then inched forward. But then it backed up again. This happened for a while, which had me confused. (Note: I have since come to understand that part of the train was being scanned deep in the rail yard) The train was clearly not backing up to keep a switch to the main line clear. It was sitting over a busy switch at control point Hobson. So it was clear to me there was no meet happening with an eastbound train, since that would require this westbound to back up past the switch.

I stood there wondering what I could get in front of this train legally and safely, without resorting to trespassing (most Sarnia railfans will tell you not to even try this, as the CN Police are quite strict about any incursions onto CN property in the area).

So, I decided to try a last-ditch long shot. And surprisingly, it resulted in a shot I have never captured before. I went to the Donahue Bridge, a link between a south end residential neighbourhood and the northern edge of the Chemical Valley. The bridge actually soars quite high above the descending CN track in to the Paul M. Tellier Tunnel.

Unfortunately, a pedestrian walkway on the tunnel side of the bridge has been closed off for quite some time, which eliminated that possibility. However, on the other side of the bridge, facing the rail yard, there is a pedestrian sidewalk. 

There's also a tiny stub-end city street that is used exclusively for trucks that use CN's CargoFlo service. That street was option number two. Lucky for me, the tunnel-bound train was still positioned at CP Hobson, obviously waiting the green light to proceed into the tunnel and head into Port Huron, Michigan. 

Here's my attempt at a very long shot from the Donahue Bridge. You can see the Sarnia Station, signals and an SD70 on point. On the left side of the photo, you can also see a small piece of trackage that is the Point Edward Spur, which serves the Cargill grain elevator on Sarnia Bay. There's also a great deal of poles and lights in the shot, which isn't ideal, but it gives you the impression of a busy yard. I like this shot, but wasn't entirely satisfied that I had the shot I wanted.

That's when I decided to try a shot from the sidewalk near Union Street, a tiny little dead-end slab of asphalt used by trucks to connect with cylindrical hoppers on a spur. You can see my previous visit to this operation in this post. But for our purposes in this post, here are my two attempts at getting some the CargoFlo infrastructure in the shot. You can also see Sarnia Station, the sign for CP Hobson and the trackage leading up to the CargoFlo operation. That turnout you see will lead you to CN's refuelling pad and the Lambton Diesel roundhouse operations. This area is a no-go, so stay on the nearby road if you want to have a look.

I like how the bushes and the loader eliminate the clutter a bit. Also, this angle means the white sign (look just left of the SD70) doesn't block the view of the engine as it did in my earlier shot. For my second attempt, I zoomed a little closer, making sure not to focus too hard on the loader. I like both shots for different reasons, but in this one, the train is definitely not as clear. And the zoom function is distorting the rails a bit.

Getting the camera to properly focus was a tricky task, as there was so much in the frame. All of these shots taken from the bridge and the end of Union Street are quite busy. You can see Sarnia Station, the CN Hobson sign (white, next to the locomotive) and also the Indian Road overpass in the distance. 

Since I was in the area close to the CSX Clifford Street rail yard, I drove to the end of the street to see if there was anything happening in the yard. I was not surprised to find the area pretty quiet. I was hoping that I might get lucky and happen across some CSX activity, but it was not to be. The CSX Sarnia Subdivision has seen some increased activity of late, as the railway has been carting away materials salvaged from the ongoing demolition of the Lambton Generating Station near Courtright (More to come on that in a future post). That process is expected to continue for a year or more, which means local railfans might expect to see a few different consists on the CSX line, most notably gondolas. I was hoping that I might be able to see something like that, but all was quiet. 

Oh well. You can't have it all.

Sometimes, you get a second chance (Part I)

Rail karma is something I'm sure we've all experienced. You just miss the head end of a train or you get trackside just in time to see the flashing end-of-train device winking at you in scorn as it disappears down the tracks. Then there's the times when you sit trackside and nothing materializes. I can't tell you the number of times I've experienced all three. 

That was why, when I arrived at the Sarnia rail yard for one last chance to see some trains on a family trip last summer, I was disappointed to see a very long freight train slowly making its way west toward the tunnel beneath the St. Clair River. I decided to watch it anyway, to see if maybe there was a DPU unit or some interesting rolling stock.

Then something happened. The train stopped. Then it began to back up. Could this be a second chance for me? Well, yes and no.

Let me explain.

As I was shooting any type of rolling stock I found interesting, I noticed the train was slowing down. Then it started backing up.

The backup move allowed me to snap a few shots of rolling stock, like this CN coil car, with the maroon IHB cover. Again, this was all very routine for me. I was just hoping that the train might back up enough that I could get a shot of the head end. Sadly, it stopped just short of the end of the platform. I walked along a public road as far as I could to get a shot of the two units from public property, but the train was just not cooperating.

This was about as close as the crew came. Over the course of ten or 15 minutes, the train backed up and then moved forward several times. More recently, readers have told me that this is due to the railway scanning its trains before they cross international borders. In this case, it wouldn't back up to the platform or move past CP Hobson sign. So, I decided to improvise and see if I could use the signal gantry near the platform to get some worthwhile shots.

This shot above had the most blue in it, which was nice, since I was shooting after 8 p.m. and the daylight was beginning to recede while the shadows grew longer.

Here's a shot from the platform. I do like the reflection of the setting sun against the side of the train, but I don't like that a pole pretty much blocked out the power from this vantage point. All in all, it was a frustrating few moments.

On one hand, if the train started moving, I had a great chance to get to a vantage point near the St. Clair Tunnel and get my first ever shot of a train entering the tunnel. On the other hand, if the train sat where it was, I was limited in my ability to get a shot from in front of it. After a few minutes, I decided to risk my position at the station, figuring the train was not going to back up and give me the shot I wanted.

I decided to risk getting a vantage point near the tunnel to get ahead of this train. 

But it's never that easy. Railfans in Sarnia know that the pedestrian walkway near the tunnel has been closed for some time, essentially, eliminating that potential spot. That left the Donahue Bride. This bridge provides a link over the tunnel track between the actual residential south end of Sarnia and the northern edge of the Chemical Valley. 

Luckily, there is a pedestrian sidewalk on the bridge, which affords you a long view of Sarnia Yard and the long descending track leading to the tunnel. 

There were two things I had to consider. Was the train in a position where I could see it from the bridge? And was it going to stay there? Also, how effective could my image be, considering how much I had to rely on the zoom function? 

I was about to find out. I'll leave that to the next post. 

Ghost in the Yard, Part I

Those who have been with me on this blog from the beginning know that I often do a lot of rail photography in Sarnia, where I grew up. I was finally able to travel with my family this summer and even squeeze in a little time trackside at Sarnia's train station. 

I'm not a picky railfan. I see so little here in Ottawa, I will settle for watching a rail yard being switched. That was what was happening when I visited the yard on a cloudy morning in late July. To be honest, the cloudy conditions were ideal for me, as lighting from the station vantage point is tricky at the best of times, with the trains always being obscured by shadows. That morning, there were no such headaches, thankfully.

The first hint of activity was east of the station, as a consist of coil cars, a few hoppers and a long line of tank cars made its way toward the station. With the exception of the coil cars, this was a pretty typical consist for Sarnia, as much of the railway's local customers are in the Chemical Valley, which usually require tank cars and hoppers. These two types of cars are by far the dominant presence in this yard.

I tried to include some of Sarnia Station in the first photo. At this point, I caught a glimpse of a ghost in the consist, but I wasn't sure. In this photo, you can see an old GP9 long hood forward leading the way.

I had to wait a while for this train to make its way closer to the station. While I waited, I snapped a shot of this hopper car that is lettered NOKL, which you would think would belong to the Northwestern Oklahoma Railroad, but this is another case of a shortline leasing its reporting marks to a leasing company. 

I looked up its history, because I was interested in the plate on the upper right hand side of the car and found that this car once belonged to First Union Rail (FURX) and Iowa Interstate (IAIS). The plate in the upper right corner once sported the Equity logo, which you can still make out in the middle of the car. There's a tiny decal still there. Here's a closer shot of that old logo.

With an assist from Eric Gagnon at Trackside Treasure, I was also able to find out a few more things about this car, which Eric told me was once referred to as the "sash scheme" hoppers, which have a capacity of 4,750 cubit feet. They were made by Thrall. Eric also shared that there are a number of more common yellow hoppers with the Equity plate on them.  

Here was another NOKL lettered hopper with the XTRA lettering down the side. I know I have said this before, but taking photos of any type of rolling stock that is out of the ordinary may seem like a waste of time now, but it could one day prove interesting. I always make sure to find a car or two to capture whenever trackside.

This car once had the reporting marks CFWR, which belong to the Caney Fork and Western Railway, a shortline owned by Ironhorse Resources in Tennessee. 

As the yard job finally approached the station, I was able to confirm my suspicions about the rare piece of motive power in the consist. And there is was. Ex-GT 5849 GP38-2 still in its original GT colours. I know this might not seem all that rare to some more regular rail watchers, but it's the first time I've seen this scheme in person since the early 1990s. So, rare for me. What's even cooler is that this unit was once Pittsburgh and Lake Erie 2156. So it has a lot of history.

Here's a shot of just the GT unit. A nearby railfan at the station told me that the unit has been making the rounds in Sarnia for a few months. In the shot below, you can see that one of the front number plates had to be replaced. Not a great match, but it gets the job done, I guess. I also find it interesting that there is no CN stencil below the side numbers. It's as if the GTW never ceased to be its own operating entity.

 

Here's an overall shot of the yard job. I had to strain the limits of my camera's capabilities to get a clear shot. It was a hazy morning and the rain was just about to fall. You can see three yard signal sets in the background as well as the Indian Road overpass over the rail yard.

Here's a more conventional shot of the yard job, with a bit more clarity.

You can even see a carbon black covered hopper behind the coil cars. That hopper is either coming from or going to Cabot in the Chemical Valley. I got a better shot of that type of car when another yard job approached from the west end of the yard from behind a string of other cars. Stay tuned for that in the second part of this series.

In a way, I was lucky enough to catch a meet between two yard jobs, although they were a few tracks apart. It was quite a challenge trying to capture an image with both trains in the frame. I will leave that for the following post.