Quickly

Sometimes I find the most interesting railway photos happen by accident or at least when I have no time to think about them. Sometimes, you just happen upon something and it's moving fast so you have to capture it without any preparation. I think this newfound desire for spontaneity stems from my boredom over modern railway photos and the relative scarcity of diversity in freight train consists these days. After all, if all we're doing is taking shots of the head-end power of freight trains, which are themselves long lines of containers or grey hopper cars, then things will get stale quickly.

That's how I feel anyway. 

Since June, I have had several chances to capture railway photos in Toronto, Sarnia and Stratford, as well as places in between, as my family made its annual pilgrimages to see family and enjoy the Canadian summer. I want to share a few unplanned shots as a way or promoting spontaneity in rail photography.

The first shot I captured as my family made its way to our hotel in the Toronto suburbs for our short weekend in the city. East of the city, CN has this bridge over Highway 401. I have caught trains on this bridge a few times. This time, I caught a string on container cars trundling over the busy road. The sight of these containers isn't all that interesting on its own, but I like the overall image, with the busy highway very much part of the scene. 

Here's a closer shot, with the highway sign very much a part of the image. The angle of the tracks over the highway becomes more noticeable as you pass under the line. I like this shot as well. It's something different, anyway.

On the same trip, I caught the tail end of an eastbound CN freight train around Ajax, with some borrowed power at the end. I was in the passenger seat, shooting across the highway at the time. It would have been cool to pull off a better shot, but the traffic and highway signs conspired against me. Still, it's a shot of something different.

 

 

I had a few other shots in this sequence, which show more of the power, without the highway sign, but those shots were equally imperfect due to the shrubs near the tracks and the traffic heading eastbound on the highway. I like this one since it shows the BNSF logo and the front of the unit. Again, this is far from an ideal shot but it at least captures movement and something atypical. 

 

I have noticed, from my limited observations this summer, CN is making use of a fair bit of leased power. I have more shots from Sarnia that bear this out, but that will wait for another time. 

 

Closer to home in Ottawa, my daughter took this shot of a passing eastbound Via Rail corridor train making its way past Woodroffe Avenue en route to Ottawa Station. Whenever she is in the car and a train passes, she tries to get a shot for me when I'm either not present or driving. I've taught her well. 

 

 

Yes, it's another shot of a Vanture set in Ottawa, which I have in spades, but I like that it has the traffic in the shot and the crossing guards activated. Again, there is a sense of movement and drama in this shot. Whenever I try to capture images in and around Ottawa, I try to take this approach to Via Rail corridor trains. If I cannot find an element that sets the shot apart, I won't take it. I always try to find a bit of the cityscape in my images. I like this element of the image. 

 

Finally, in my trip to Sarnia in July, I was making my way around Sarnia Bay when I stopped for a moment to take a quick shot of the Cargill elevator, which is in the news in the city these days. You can make out a lone crossbuck in the shot, minus crossing signals. This gives you the idea that the line is not terribly busy. This is the end of the Point Edward Spur, which exists the serve the elevator. It once extended into Point Edward itself, but was cut short decades ago. You can just make out a hopper in the shot. 

 

Cargill has been in the news of late as it is trying to block a city plan to build housing a few hundred metres from this operation. The development is slated to be situated on the site of a former harbourfront restaurant. Cargill claims there are regulations preventing residential developments within a set distance from operations like this elevator. The company says the noise and dust from the elevator will become a source of friction in the future. It wants to avoid any future problems and has appealed to the province to block the development. 

 

Some area municipalities near Sarnia, with substantial agricultural economies, support Cargill, as they do not want to see any disruption to this operation's business, which would have an impact on local farmers.

 

The city, and another local restaurant, which is within that restricted area near the elevator, both feel there is no potential issue. The matter will be settled in the coming months.  

Thanks to everyone for their best wishes on the blog hitting 500 posts. This is post 501. Onward we go.

Before I forget

It's always a nice feeling when I remember I have a bunch of railway photos from last year that I still haven't shared yet. This week, I recalled a batch of photos I had taken in Sarnia and elsewhere that had not yet made it into a post. So here are some lost photos from my wanderings in the past year, as well as from this past spring.

Resting on an early November morning under a big Southwestern Ontario blue sky, a host of CN road power points east at the east end of the Sarnia Yard, likely awaiting the next train to pull toward Toronto. I would venture a guess that the power here is usually substituted onto trains that originated in Chicago and make their way east under the St. Clair River tunnel. I do know that significant cuts of cars from the Chemical Valley are put together here, so it is possible this power is for Sarnia-originated trains. I do see a CN 100 unit partially hidden behind a railway maintenance truck. 

I was aboard Via Rail Train 84 eastbound when I captured a few images in the yard. To be honest, one of the Via Rail service managers insisted on instructing me on the the safety features of the car, as I was one of the few people aboard. Being a good citizen, I listened patiently, even though I wanted only to capture a few photos before I left my hometown. 

 I like this shot as well, as it is a showcase of three different CN paint schemes from the side.

One final image from Sarnia Yard of a former leased unit, now stencilled as CN on the cab. This unit was sitting on its own, far from the area where the rest of the power was arranged. I would imagine this unit was between switching assignments. Usually in the yard, the switching is done by the older, smaller geeps without the wide nose at the front of the cab, but it's also not uncommon to find a larger unit like this one assigned to switching duties. 

This next shot was taken at Fallowfield Station in May. I don't generally take a lot of shots at this station anymore, because I think I've exhausted most of the photo possibilities there. However, I did see an opportunity to get low at the extreme east end of the platform. At this point, there is a shallow drainage ditch. I got down in the ditch a bit and took a shot from way down low, trying to see if it met my criteria as something different. 

As you know, Fallowfield is a place where you can get up close with trains, but the shots almost inevitably end up being very tight wedge shots. I like that we can see the gravel laneway to the tracks and the bundle of rubber strips that were used to refurbish the station platform between the main line and the passing siding. You can even faintly see the signals closer to Woodroffe Avenue. The clouds in the sky also lend this image a bit of interest.

 

Here's something from Stratford that I'll get into a little later in another post. I am lucky that I get to visit this town once a year to take in theatre, visit with family and make my way trackside to see both CN and GEXR in the city. Here's a shot taken against the harsh summer sun of a CN local heading into the city from Kitchener. 

 

 

As I was going through my photos from last year, I knew I had a few items from both Stratford and Sarnia to share. I'll share more of this meet in another post, but I thought I'd include one of my favourite shots, even if it's tainted by the harsh morning shadows. Even in touching it up, the shadows are still pretty profound. But how cool is it to see two GP9s (one GP9 actually, I didn't look closely at the second unit, which is a GP38...thanks to a reader for pointing this out) in the safety stripes scheme still soldiering on in 2025? This photo is timeless in certain respects. It could have been taken 10, 20, 30 or 40 years ago and you wouldn't be able to tell the difference to the scene today.

Old friend and a new twist

In late June, I was told by a friend that CN was using two Iowa Northern-painted geeps as power for local operations. Naturally, with so little to see in Ottawa from a freight train perspective, I was excited. Even better, CN's weekly freight west, Train 589, was operating on Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day, which is a holiday for Quebec workers like me. My first plan was to camp out trackside along the Beachburg Subdivision, which is not too far from my house. But then I heard the train was making its way up the Smiths Falls Subdivision to Kott Lumber and on to Richmond, where it would do a runaround move on a switch, as the train was not going to Arnprior that day.

So, change of plans. I got in my car and went to Fallowfield Station, which is also not all that far from where I live. I missed the train as it made its way west to Kott, but I knew I was going to catch it on the way back, as there was a large group of railfans awaiting its return.

The double header dropped off two centrebeam lumber cars at Kott Lumber, on Moodie Drive, before heading further up the Smiths Falls Sub to Richmond, where the power ran around the two empty lumber cars it picked up, so the crew wouldn't have to shove its way back to Walkley.

It didn't hit me until later that these types of geeps, clad in the classic Canadian Pacific maroon, grey and gold, were likely similar to the diesels my grandfather saw when he worked as a rolling stock mechanic for the CPR in Chapleau and Windsor. 

Iowa Northern mystery

I will admit that I knew next to nothing about the Iowa Northern Railway before seeing these two units. It was formed in 1981, when a group of grain elevator owners took over local lines from the bankrupt Rock Island Railroad. Over the years, the short line railway expanded and brought its tracks back up to speed. After a few ownership changes, the line was purchased by the Canadian National in 2025, which explains the appearance of these units up here in Ottawa. The Iowa Northern operates 163 miles (262 kilometres) of track in Iowa, from Cedar Rapids into northern areas of the state. It handles around 40,000 carloads of freight, according to stats listed on Wikipedia. It has connections with CN, CPKC and the Union Pacific.

You will notice below that the small eastbound 589 is taking the siding at Fallowfield Station, since it has to wait for the arrival of Via westbound Train 45 for Toronto.

Next up, I backed up into the parking lot to see if I could get a shot with the train's reflection in the rain puddles. The other railfans remained on the platform, getting very tight wedge shots, which is not my thing at all. I needed to see the sides of the train and that beautiful livery!

Not quite what I wanted, as I didn't get a terribly clear reflection in the puddle. I also didn't get enough of the car behind the power. But it's always worth a try to get an image that is not a standard shot. Next up, Via's Train 45 was due. A meet!

I had to get onto the platform and accept that this shot was going to be a tight wedge. I am reasonably happy with this image, given the harsh glare of the morning sun and the railfans I had to shoot around (everyone was quite accommodating to each other). The Venture had barely come to a stop before 589 geared up and headed back east to Federal Junction. Before it departed, I tried to get another two-for-one shot with both trains in the same frame. The CN freight train was a little too far east on the siding to get a side-by-side shot, but I tried my best to get something. 

Finally, it was time for a few going away shots.

I think this was the best of the bunch as the train pulled away, as I switched to my iPhone and was surprised that it captured the blue sky better than my regular camera, although that could be a function of me not having the camera on the best setting. I'll figure it out, one of these days. 

I am grateful for the tips I received from friends that allowed me to capture this unique train. I noticed the following week that the power in Ottawa had changed again, meaning this rare site is all the more precious. 

I don't know how quickly CN will be able to recover from the Canada Day flooding that slammed the west end of the city. The Beachburg Sub and Renfrew Spur both suffered washouts. CN will have to deal with the Beachburg damage while Nylene Canada and the city will have to fix the Renfrew tracks, as those rails are owned by the company while the right-of-way is owned by the city. I'm not sure how that responsibility breaks down.

All in all, it was a fun morning to capture a rare sight. It was also my first experience with local railfans. I know they're out there, but I so rarely run across them.  

Hello, I must be going

Summer is about to officially begin. My daughters are finished with their schooling and my family's thoughts are turning to time off, trips, visits to family and other leisurely pursuits. With that in mind, I am going to park all activities on this blog for the coming week.

But not before sharing this quick shot captured yesterday (June 24) at Fallowfield Station. 

This might be the biggest rail sensation to hit Ottawa since the Canadian Pacific brought up its vintage rail cars for the CP Canadian Women's Open several years back. Here are two Iowa Northern-painted geeps on the siding at Fallowfield Statiom, coming back from dropping off two loaded centrebeam lumber cars to Kott Lumber on the Smiths Falls Subdivision. 

The train, CN 589, was awaiting the arrival of  westbound Via Train 45. Once the Venture set arrived, the two-car train shuttled off back toward Federal Junction, on its way to Walkley Yard. There was no run up to Arnprior. But the appearance of two locomotives adorned in the vintage CP maroon and grey was amazing to see. 

I'll have much more to share about this meet later on. For now, I'll leave you with this one shot. I have a summer full of railfanning to do, which will fill the pages of this blog in the coming months. 

But I have to say one quick thank you. I would not have seen any of this had I not been given some great tips from railfans nice enough to help me out. Also, it didn't hurt that I am a Quebec worker and had the St-Jean-Baptiste Day holiday off.

Have a good summer. I'm closing in on 500 posts. But for now, let's just enjoy this vintage scene! 

GO Trains return to Stratford, but what about Ottawa?

The recent news that Metrolinx is once again extending its GO Train service to Stratford, Ont., well west of Kitchener-Waterloo, got me to thinking about Ottawa's beleaguered rail transit service. My thought was, if GO Trains can regularly operate between Toronto as far west as Stratford, what's preventing Metrolinx from applying the same logic to Ottawa? 

A shot of an evening GO Train making its way through Stratford in summer 2023. That pilot service was cancelled soon after this photo was taken.

For those who might not know, the province agreed to work with Ottawa so that Metrolinx would take over operation of the O-Train. That arrangement has led Metrolinx to send new axles for Line 1 O-Train sets that had been damaged due to spalling issues. We need not get into the many, many issues that have plagued Ottawa's east-west Line 1, formerly known as the Confederation Line. Rails not properly installed, axle issues, catenary failures, door jamming problems and weather delays are just a few problems that have reduced the line's schedule many times since it launched. 

The end result is the city's electrified rail transit line is notoriously unreliable and the winters make the problem worse. The state of the line is such that, trains now have to slow at various curves to avoid derailing and causing further damage. The trainsets, which were once coupled end to end, are now single sets, due to the same track issues.

The eastern extension of Line 1, all the way into Orleans, is set to open this year. The western extension, which will reach as far as Crystal Beach at Corkstown Road, will take more time. 

 

A commuter waits for the next eastbound trainset on Line 1 in March.

So, here's my thought. How about some sort of GO Train service here in Ottawa?

The city has already committed to seeing the second phase of the Line 1 extension through to completion, essentially linking Orleans with Crystal Beach. Fine. The missing piece here is how to serve the booming west end of the city, namely Kanata and Stittsville? Also, how to properly serve Barrhaven, which is a city in and of itself?  

I suggest that, instead of extending the problematic electrified Line 1 operations, make use of existing track and serve Barrhaven and western Ottawa with diesel trains. 

Metrolinx knows how to do this. I'm not saying that we should see massively long double-decker GO Train consists like we do in the GTA, but who's to say we couldn't extend a slightly modified diesel service throughout the city along our lightly-used tracks?

Possibly the answer would be to use the existing diesel trainsets that are currently in use on Line 2, or the Trillium Line, which now runs from Bayview all the way out to Riverside South. 

A northbound diesel O-Train makes its way past the Walkley Diamond en route to Bayview Station in early spring 2025

This is why I think it could work, if there was a will. Consider the trackage we have in the city that is greatly underutilized, to say the least. Using the city's Via Station on Tremblay Road as a possible starting point, consider the possibilities of heavy rail going west. The one challenge would be to time all diesel O-Train runs between Ottawa's westbound corridor train departures in the morning and its eastbound arrivals in the evening. This is possible, as Via has installed a passing siding at Wass, and there is also a possibility of holding trains at Federal Junction, where the Beachburg Sub connects to the Smiths Falls Sub.

Using the Beachburg Sub from Tremblay through to North Kanata*, Ottawa has the potential to connect vast neighbourhoods with hundreds of thousands of people.

Beachburg could easily host stations where the tracks pass over Merivale Road, Woodroffe Avenue and possibly Greenbank Road. After Greenbank, there would be a possibility at multiple points to connect Bells Corners, after which the train could make its way to March Road in Kanata via the Renfrew Spur (* Then, if there was a will to reconnect the Beachburg line from the old Nepean Junction, the Beachburg Sub could link North Kanata, where many people work in the North Kanata Business Park). 

And we all know CN would desperately like to be rid of the burden of maintaining what little trackage it still owns in Ottawa. 

Easy, right?

No. 

The bridge over Carling Avenue that once took the Beachburg Sub into Kanata and beyond is gone. The rails from Nepean Junction running northwest are long gone. That part of the plan would require time, money and planning.

I haven't even mentioned the Smiths Falls Sub so far, but I don't think it's unreasonable at all to assume that diesel service couldn't be extended to Fallowfield Station, as there is already a Park and Ride facility there. Fallowfield Station was originally designed to be a commuter rail stop anyway. Why not use it for its intended purpose? The passing siding is already there.

What about laying tracks on the former Carleton Place Sub, which would link Bells Corners to Stittsville, where tens of thousands of people could make use of a link to the downtown? That old trackage was initially acquired by the former Ottawa-Carleton region as a possible commuter option. 

A meet between two Via corridor trains in May 2023 shows that this station was originally designed to be a frequent stop for commuter rail. Its name was meant to connect it to the Fallowfield Park and Ride facility, where people can park and take the bus.

 

The Barrhaven part of any diesel extension would be far easier to accommodate, as the rails are in place and the station is well established, with perhaps only some small changes to be made on the platform. You can see how Via stations operate side-by-side with commuter trains throughout the GTA and even at Dorval in Montreal.

 

I guess my point is, before the city doubles down on its electrified O-Train service, which most agree has been a failure, why not extend a proven technology? Diesel O-Trains work well and are almost never out of service. GO Trains or some form of heavy commuter trains (nor LRT, in other words) can withstand the Ottawa winters. There is no catenary to maintain.

 

Better yet, Metrolinx knows how to operate diesel commuter service in the GTA. Why not let this organization do what it can do, but here in Ottawa?

 

How could it possibly be worse than what we have in place now? 

Taking the track less travelled

This week, as I had a day off following Easter, I decided to head out and get some train photos in Ottawa, which I haven't done in a little while. True to my evolving approach to railway photos, I thought of some new perspectives to showcase trains as part of the landscape. My first thought was to get a shot of a Venture trainset going over the Rideau River on the Beachburg Sub rail bridge.

I have taken photos at this bridge before, but not from the south side. I have taken multiple shots from the north side. In this case, since the sun created shadows on the north side, I decided to try and find a piece of shoreline on the south side to get a decent perspective.

I'll even mix in some observations. This train was heading west toward Fallowfield station with the control cab leading the way, meaning Via Rail has resumed its push-pull operations in the corridor with its Ventures after wyeing many sets in the winter so that the engine was always pulling. A few readers mentioned this change in operations to me, as they had heard from Via personnel that the trains were having trouble in the push configuration over the winter months. 

Anyway, back to my image. In this case, I pulled back from the bridge a fair way so I could get an overall view of the west shoreline. I couldn't pull back far enough to get both the eastern and western shores of the Rideau, but perhaps that is a thought for future visits. The waters on the Rideau were not at their peak, as much of the snowpack has already melted. This allowed me to venture out onto some rocks that are sometimes submerged in the spring. It all helped to frame this image.

Since I had time to catch an eastbound train from Toronto, my thoughts turned to another spot along the Smiths Falls Subdivision, which would allow me to get another unique perspective. Alas, the train had made up significant time between Brockville and Ottawa on home tracks, which meant I had to quickly make my way to Fallowfield Station and try to get something unique there. I am generally avoiding the station these days, as there isn't much I haven't tried there. So I tried to get a shot that was near the station but didn't necessarily scream "station stop" in the photo.

This was the best I could do. I got to the edge of the parking lot and backed away from the tracks as much as I could. I tried to get a shot that showcased the sky and the fallow farm field behind the train. It's not a groundbreaking shot by any means, but it was at least an attempt to avoid the extremely sharp wedge shots that are all too common at this station. I have been guilty of this in the past.

Then, I figured I would try to get a shot of people disembarking from the train, but at a distance, so as to respect their privacy. 

You can see a gentleman in the centre of the platform, waiting for a loved one to get off the train. It would have been nice to get a little closer to the people, but I also wanted to see if I could get a shot of the end of the train as well. It was an imperfect trade-off. I had to decide to either get closer and lose the end of the train, or, by get closer and getting the people, risking having to blank out their faces. I also ensured that I got low, as it tends to add a bit of an element of size. You get a better appreciation as to the size of trains when you shoot them from ground level.

Some new territory

In my quest to find new topics and pursuits to fill this blog, I've begun the process of looking to the past. I recently applied to get a membership card to the Library and Archives Canada, as it is only a bus ride away for me. I have been digging through the online search tools in an effort to find some rail history that interests me and might be of interest to you as well.

One of the topics I've always had in mind is old train stations, especially the ones that have been demolished. It seems as though every city, town and village once had a train station but many are no longer standing. But we still see roads in many communities that are called Railway Street, Terminal Avenue or Station Street. Yet, the actual stations are long gone. 

With that in mind, I have decided to dig up some historic documents to see if I can find out more about some of these old stations. The first one I intend to research is the station in my hometown of Corunna. I did find one document dated 1936 that apparently outlines the details of the station's establishment, decommissioning and removal. 

My hometown station has been a complete mystery to me ever since I found the slightest mention of it in a document a while ago. I have no idea where is was located, what it looked like or how long it was standing. I do know it was shut down when the Pere Marquette Railway discontinued passenger operations in the 1930s on what became known as the Sarnia Subdivision. It's amazing to me that there was regular passenger service at all on that line. I hope I can shed some light on that station. My hometown's history is not terribly well known, and its old train station is almost a ghost in any records that I have found.

I also want to find out more about Kanata's old train station, in Ottawa's west end. That station, which sat on Station Street, is also a complete mystery. I know it stood near modern day March Road along the Renfrew Subdivision. The road remains, but there is not a trace of any old station there. 

Those research efforts are to come. For now, here is an interesting photo I found on the Library and Archives Canada online archives of the old CN station in Windsor, Ont. (Update - See the comments section below. The Library and Archives seems to have mislabelled this image. A reader says it does not match any Windsor railway landmark. In fact, looking at it, I believe this image to be of the Sarnia railway station, which still stands).

There was no information associated with the photo other than that it was the CN station in Windsor. Judging by the heavyweight passenger cars and power lines in the background, the photo could have been taken at any time in the war years. 

So that is a bit of a teaser as to what's to come, hopefully. I really need to shake up the direction of my efforts, I feel, as modern railways in Ottawa just aren't enough to keep this interesting. If you have any topics you'd like to me to research, feel free to let me know. I can't guarantee I will find anything, but I'm willing to try.

Part of the landscape

Railways are as much a part of Canada's landscape as they are of the country's history. The same can be said for a number of countries. This week, I am busy working on my house, which needs some TLC, but I had a moment Wednesday afternoon when I took my children out for a drive. We encountered a Via Rail corridor train making its final last few kilometres east from Fallowfield Station toward Ottawa Station.

This is the quick photo I took while we waited for the train to slowly pass the Woodroffe Avenue crossing on the outskirts of Barrhaven. This was the shot that was taken while we were stopped.

I've mentioned several times this year how much I am emphasizing railway photography that includes the landscape. I like this shot because you get a lot of landscape elements. You can see the traffic waiting, the trackside signals governing westbound trains approaching Fallowfield Station and a nice profile of the clear winter sky over Ottawa.

Yes, there is a Venture set in profile, which is supposed to be the purpose of the shot, but I don't mind that it isn't necessarily the dominant element in the photo. I would be lying if I said I set up this shot intentionally. The shot was taken with what there was available in that moment. Using the zoom on a smartphone might have given me a shot with more of the train in the frame, but it would likely also have turned out pixelated, as the camera function on older phones doesn't give you the same crisp shot that an actual camera offers.

The other element I like in this image is that you get to see a fair bit of the train in profile, which I find can be much more interesting at times than a train taken from a very sharp angle. At some point, we need to get away from the 3/4 wedge shot. There has to be more to this hobby than that fall-back option.

Here's another technique I love to see in the other railway blogs I visit regularly. I love it when we are able to get shots of trains from overhead. This shot of a Venture set, which I took last Nov. 24 in Toronto, is one of my favourite recent shots. There isn't all that much to it. You can see a bit of Rogers Centre and the Blue Jays logo in the upper left. There is also a fair bit of the cityscape all around the corridor of railway tracks just west of Union Station. You can also see the signals in the distance. I'm not sure why I like this photo so much, but I do. I like that it looks different than my more standard railway shots. There's elevation, cityscape and a logo. In short, there's a little bit of a story that you wouldn't get if you had zoomed in and focused exclusively on the train.

Here's one final example of what I mean. I will state again that this shot was not taken intentionally. I was in Markham and was near a set of double tracks. There was a parked intermodal train that was waiting another container train heading in the opposite direction. I did get some shots from an overpass, but I was looking for something a little more dramatic, which I was able to get after climbing down a small gully. I found an area where I was safely behind a fence. I took this shot of one train heading one way while another facing the opposite direction waits for the line to clear to it can continue on in its journey. I kept the brush in the shot, as it meant I could also keep more of the containers in the shot. It's not my best shot by any means, but I like that it was a departure from my early railway photography attempts (this was taken in 2013, which was barely a year after I started taking railway photos again).

I know I have made this point a number of times this year, but I can't stress enough how important it is for me to be pursuing my railway photos this way now. We are railfans at at a time of increasing standardization. Much of the rolling stock looks exactly the same. Long lines of grey hoppers and black tank cars with no visual identifiers or logos are now the norm. Most Via Rail consists are essentially carbon copy Venture sets. Motive power on most major railways is essentially the same, in that it all looks very similar. 

For me, I am trying to keep it interesting by changing the one thing that can always be changed, which is the background. By getting new elements in my images to surround the trains featured, I am keeping this hobby interesting. I'd be interested to know what you are doing to keep the hobby interesting.

Details matter

I found myself passing by Fallowfield Station recently when I decided to stop in and see if something was imminent. Luckily, a westbound from Ottawa's main station was making its way to the station, so I took to the east platform to get a few shots. It turned out to be a double-ended consist of the silver streamliner (HEP) cars with two P42s. I figured it was worth a few shots, just to get some seasonal variation in the photographs I share here. You can see a hint of the snow plowed off the end of the platform.

The first detail I noticed was how dirty the train was. The lead P42 920 clearly needed to go through the wash stand, but I suppose it's a tough assignment to keep these trains clean shortly after the first snowfall of the season, combined with the subsequent melt and the rainfall in the various regions where these trains operate. 

 

 

The second detail popped out immediately. Do you see it? Unlike the lead P42, the trailing engine still has a bit of its as-delivered blue paint shining through the wrap. It was a bit odd to see this, as it looked out of place. I have seen many wraps, but most have the plow of the front repainted.

 

Speaking of paint schemes, you can see the original lettering peaking through the wrap on this dirty trailing power. I'm guessing such minor details don't matter much right now, as I'm sure these units aren't long for this world. The Venture takeover will soon mean many of these older locomotives will retire from revenue service or head to another railway. 

 

This is a shot I took this summer of a genset locomotive that handles the plant switching duties at the Nova Corunna refinery. The detail I liked in this photo was the line of towers and power lines. Anyone who has been in the Sarnia area knows how much energy is needed for these refineries to operate. This is also an area where an immense amount of energy is managed through cogeneration, solar, battery storage and other means. And the power supply just keeps increasing. I could have zoomed in on the locomotive, but I also liked that I captured some of the refinery and the massive pipes in the bottom right of the image. This would be great information to use if I had a model railway setup right now.

 

 

Here's one last image from this summer that has a lot of details, like the photo from the Nova refinery. I wasn't really enthused about catching another Via Rail Venture consist while in Stratford, so I set up across the yard on a side street. The details in this photo are what make it more interesting than a standard railway photo. These are the details I wanted to catch: the station undergoing renovations; the rail yard; the grain elevator and the crossbucks. I left a piece of the tree in the shot intentionally, mostly because it was protecting my shot from a complete washout due to the sun.

 

The harsh sunlight required a fair bit of colour and lighting correction, but I think it was worth the effort. As I have mentioned quite a few times, I have been aiming of late for images that are more than just the standard wedge shot. I think setting a scene where a train is operating makes for a much better image.

 

The details are what fascinate me now as much as the trains themselves. 

Updated: Summer observations in Ottawa

I know it's technically not summer yet, but I thought I would share a few early observations as we head into the summer season here. So far, the weather has been decidedly springlike, with higher temperatures seemingly scattered amid a fairly predictable parade of pleasant weather, albeit a bit dry. 

It's hard to come up with any type of railway news in Ottawa these days, as CN continues it minimal presence, mostly serving Ottawa from Coteau. I've been by the Walkley rail yard a few times in the spring and it's mainly empty. The old OCR/CN building is empty and appears to be on the market. I can't imagine any business wanting to be there, but who knows.

The city's transit authority, OC Transpo, has been advising people that there will be delays on Line 1 of the commuter train system (the former Confederation Line). This is due to the ongoing construction to extend the east-west line from its current endpoints to Corkstown Road in the west end and Blair Road in east-end Orleans.

I was on West Hunt Club Road in my travels recently when I saw this piece of maintenance of way equipment being brought into the city on a flatbed truck. I've asked some people if they know what it is and no one has yet been able to pin down what it does, but I do believe it's likely going to be used on the O-Train expansion.

Maybe someone a little more knowledgeable than me can fill me in on what this does. I do see an ST-1 marking on the back. Also, I can't help but laugh at the notion that anything being delivered to Ottawa for rail purposes has to come in on a truck. It's amazing to me. I have seen examples of rail cars being delivered to the National Research Council or LRT equipment being brought in for the light rail network, but on trucks.

It makes me wonder. There are two ways freight could conceivably make its way to this city by rail and in each case, the rail lines are owned by Via Rail. Whether it would come in on the Smiths Falls Sub or the Alexandria Sub, I wonder how difficult it is to make arrangements to use these lines. I have no evidence to suspect that Via would give CN a hard time bringing in special freight shipments, but it does make you wonder just how difficult and cumbersome it is to book carload freight shipments to the city. Likely, it's just more cost effective by truck.

Speaking of Via Rail, I was taking my daughter to an appointment recently and we just so happened to be beside the Smiths Falls Subdivision on West Hunt Club Road. I managed to slip out of the office and catch an eastbound Via Rail corridor train, but not before I checked out what had become of the old severed industrial spur that once served the industrial park on Bentley Drive.

Short answer: Nothing has been done. The old rails and switch stand remain where they have been for well over a year (right/centre of the image). I'm not sure why nothing has been done to salvage this rail and switch stand. The next question might be who owns the rail. This spur was obviously once used by CN and Ottawa Central, but this rail line is owned by Via, so possibly it's not worth the effort to pick up the rails and move them elsewhere. The remaining lengths of spur behind the fence is still clearly in place.

After taking these photos and walking along the Hunt Club Road overpass, a Venture set came down the line toward me.

 

I don't often do tight shots of engines anymore, as they offer almost no context to the image, but I snapped a quick shot as 2220 led this consist under the overpass.

I suppose the biggest challenge ahead for me might be to catch a few modified Venture sets with *older other coaches attached, to comply with CN Rail's axle count minimum threshold. You have likely read elsewhere that Via has begun cobbling together these mixes, to ensure that its newer Siemens trains are not held to the CN speed restrictions at grade crossings. As others have already pointed out, Via had this option in hand when the safety feud with CN erupted, but the passenger railway has only now begun to implement this change on some trains. I haven't yet seen any of unusual combinations, but I intend to try. 

Those are a few of my limited observations from the last little while here in Ottawa. I haven't had much chance to spend any time trackside in recent weeks, but I plan to make up for it when my family goes travelling this summer. 

* - Please see comments below for an explanation of my correction to this post

Higher ground

The winter here in Ottawa just won't let up, which I suppose is a sign that the climate is behaving at it normally does. Silver linings. As I write this, I am watching more late snow fall. Recently, during the March Break, a friend of our family made her way up to Ottawa for a visit. She arrived by train at Fallowfield Station. I took the opportunity to tag along for the pick-up, just in case there was something worthy of a photograph.

I'm sure some of you are thinking, Oh great, he's going to share another Via shot from Fallowfield. I can understand this reservation. I have tried to avoid Fallowfield to be honest, as I really can't see many more opportunities to see something interesting there worth sharing. But in this case, I knew there was something that might make for some interesting photos.

A small preface to the first photo. Amazingly, as my wife and I tracked our guest's progress from Toronto Union, we were stunned that her Venture set, Train 52, was right on time. I scratched my head over that, until one of my railway sources, with inside knowledge, told me that 52 was part of a J-train, as it was joined with a Montreal-bound Venture set all the way to Brockville. That would allow the train to avoid the curious CN speed restrictions on the Ventures, since it would have more than enough of the required axles to activate the signals. I won't get into that story, as I have touched on it in a past post. Go to Trackside Treasure for the full details. Eric Gagnon has done yeoman's work detailing the finer points of this fight between CN and Via over whether the new Ventures are a safety risk for CN crossings.

Anyway, with the Venture set on home rails from Brockville to Ottawa, the train arrived right on time, as there are no restrictions on Ventures on Via's own network (and somehow, the crossing guards all seem to work!). But, back to the problem of Fallowfield. What was the point of taking a boring extreme-angle wedge shot from the edge of the platform? I've already seen far too many of those in my own blog as well as on the railfan Facebook pages with Ottawa content.

But, lo and behold, there was an enormous snow pile on the east end of the station parking lot, which was about a storey and half high. And, the Venture set was the all-yellow set nicknamed Lumi. So the elevation shot was what I was after. It's one of the few blessings of this Ottawa winter. A drone shot, if you will, minus the expense of a drone.

This shot gives you a much different perspective of Fallowfield. It shows you how difficult it is to get a shot without cars blocking your view. This is why you almost always see shots from Fallowfield as tight wedge shots. I think those shots are getting boring, so I try to avoid them when I can. I like this shot because it puts everything into perspective. I wonder if the person backing up their pickup was wondering what I was doing on top of a massive pile of snow. I know my wife was shaking her head on the station platform. 

After getting my elevated shot, I thought of a few other different perspectives I wanted to get, just to see if I could find other different perspectives that bring this late winter scene to life. After coming down from higher ground, I decided to get low. Very low.

As I said, I don't like these tightly angled shots from the platform, unless I can do something that makes the image a bit more interesting. I took a few shots with the salt box out of the photo, but I found this shot to be more interesting. The grey sky certainly helped make this yellow train stick out. As I was in the mood for different shots, I figured something patriotic might be fun as well, hence the maple leaf below.

One other shot that I thought I would try. I've been experimenting with these slice-of-life platform shots for a while, trying to ensure I am not identifying anyone in the photo. I like this one, although this passenger is a bit lost amid the vehicles. I would have liked a cleaner shot of her on the platform. I had to be careful because I didn't want to take any obviously intrusive or unflattering photos of people. I made sure to keep my distance and take a shot with an iPhone discretely. That way, no one is identified and no one is alarmed.

So that was my recent experiment in getting some different shots at Fallowfield. I was thankful that the Lumi consist provided such an interesting contrast to an otherwise blustery, grey day in mid-March. 

In recent weeks, I've made some small trips around the city to chronicle the O-Train's newly operational southern extension (which is now part of the Trillium Line or Line 2 as it is also known). These diesel trains seems to be handling the job with no problem. I even made a quick trip to Walkley Yard, or as close as I could get to the yard legally. With CN's presence in the city but a blip these days, this trip proved to be quite informative. Stay tuned.
 

An alternate history of rails in the Ottawa Valley

There is no shortage of lamentations online about the state of railways in the Ottawa Valley and loss of much-loved rail lines. The other day, I found myself in Bells Corners with a few minutes to spare, so I sat trackside, hoping to catch CN 589 on its way back from Arnprior. The train never showed, but I began to think of some documents I read years ago from the Canadian Transportation Agency about the Renfrew Spur, a long stretch of track, between the former Nepean Junction and Arnprior, that would be long gone by now if CN had its way. Strangely enough, you can thank the Canadian Pacific Railway (okay, CPKC if you want to get technical) for the survival of the former Renfrew Subdivision.

Long story short, in 1987, CN applied to discontinue service on what was then known as the Renfrew Subdivision because the railway claimed it lost more than $328,000 per year on the line. The reasons were pretty obvious. Its one main customer was Nylene Canada (formerly BASF), which required weekly service, mostly one to three tank cars of caprolactum from Texas. CN, in its filings to the CTA, said there weren't enough customers on the line to justify continued service. In 1987, there were less than 100 car movements on the line. Hardly worth the price of maintaining the tracks for a large railway.

Read the specific details of this line's status from my earlier post.

At the time, the Teamsters Union claimed that Sullivan's Lumber in Carp (later Rona) and a flour mill both wanted rail service, but nothing seemed to come of the union's claims.

Instead, there were discussions with both CN and CP over how Nylene Canada would continue to get rail service in a way that didn't cost a railway money. When you consider that the Renfrew trackage now runs roughly 50 kilometres from what was once Nepean Junction (where the Beachburg Sub once veered northwest toward Fitzroy Harbour and beyond) out to the Nylene plant, you understand that this is a lot of infrastructure to maintain for one eastern and western movement a week. 

At some point in these proceedings, it was decided that Nylene must have rail service, as the cost of shipping caprolactum by truck wasn't worth it for the company, which remains a major employer in Arnprior to this day. So the issue was how would the plant get served and which railway would provide the service in a way that was workable for everyone involved?

In 1987, Arnprior had both the Renfrew Subdivision and CP's Chalk River Subdivision running through the town. At the time, neither line could be described as a critical stretch of track, but CP did still use its Chalk River Sub for through freight, even if there was little to no trackside business. Also, Via Rail used the Chalk River Sub, as well as the CP Carleton Place Sub, for the Canadian, which once ran through Ottawa all the way to Montreal.

We all know how the story ends. We don't know what happened during this time between the government and the two railways, but we know the discussions over rail service to the Arnprior plant ended with the decision that CN would continue to serve the plant, instead of CP. But here's the question that I find intriguing. What if it was decided that CP would serve Nylene Canada?

If the Canadian Transportation Agency's discussions about rail service to Nylene Canada resulted in CP being the railway to provide the service, would there have been an Arnpior Turn originating in Smiths Falls? It might have happened.
 

Here are the possible scenarios that could have resulted from this decision, including my take on how likely they would be in a parallel universe.

1. CP would have retained part of the Chalk River Subdivision. (LIKELY) I think this could have been a likely scenario. Would the track have been owned by CP or would the land have been sold to local governments and the rails sold to Nylene? Possibly over time. But what makes this scenario less likely is the fact that, at the time the decision was made in 1987, the Chalk River Subdivision still hosted daily through freights as well as the Canadian. That's a far different situation than what CN was facing with the Renfrew Subdivision, which essentially hosted nothing but a weekly freight out to Arnprior and back. Possibly the Chalk River track would have remained a CP concern. 

2. CP would have retained the entire Chalk River Subdivision. (FAIRLY UNLIKELY) The other fascinating question would be if this weekly service, as mandated by the CTA, have caused CP to rethink its plans to abandon the Chalk River Sub in 2010-11? I ask this because possibly the weekly Arnprior service would have ensured that the subdivision between Smiths Falls and Arnprior remained in place. If that was the case, possibly Via Rail could have come in to maintain the remainder of the track to ensure the Canadian had its connection to Ottawa and beyond. And if that scenario seems possible, would it be a stretch for CP to keep running through freights on this line as a guest on a Via line? Or would the Ottawa Valley Railway still be involved on the sub? There are a lot of factors to consider here, but I think it might have happened.

The issue working against this possibility is that Via Rail did not have multiple trains using this line. Think about Via Rail's ownership of the old CN Smiths Falls Sub and the old CP Brockville Sub. These two lines see many movements a day, which makes sense for Via Rail to own and maintain them. The Chalk River Sub is not in the same league as these other lines. I think the entire track would likely not have made it.

3. CP would have retained the Carleton Place Subdivision. (UNLIKELY) This is where the alternate history gets a little murkier. Remember that Via Rail used the Carleton Place Sub and the Chalk River Sub as its route for the Canadian up until 1990. If CP had been forced to provide service to Arnprior, which would have necessitated a major stretch of the Chalk River Sub to be saved, would it mean that the Carleton Place Sub would have been saved? I don't think it would have saved this piece of track, which is but a memory now.

The reason I think this line was doomed no matter what was because it was essentially in the same situation as CN's Renfrew Subdivision, with no freight activity. In its final days, it was hosting Via Rail and nothing else. The discontinuance documents show the line had two car loads in and out in 1986 and nothing else afterward. This document from 1988 shows that CP was essentially losing anywhere from $250,000 to nearly $500,000 a year on this stretch of track, even though Via and officials from Carleton Place wanted the line kept in place. Notice from the document that the former Region of Ottawa-Carleton did not take a position on the rail line, but asked for the right of first refusal to buy the land.

My guess is that the Canadian, if it still had access to the Chalk River Sub and was running through to Montreal, would have gone to Smiths Falls and switched onto the old CN Smiths Falls Sub, where it could then continue on its way to Ottawa and then Montreal. It's fascinating to consider that train stopping at Fallowfield Station.

Is the platform at Fallowfield long enough for the Canadian? It's interesting to consider.

 

4. CN would have torn up the Renfrew Subdivision (SURE THING) There's no doubt at all that the Renfrew Sub would have been a goner had the CTA decision on rail service to Arnprior been different. Most likely, the land would have either been converted to a trail or sold off in parts of the city where it could be developed, like in Kanata. As it stands today, the line is still in place, with a 10 mph speed limit, giving you an idea of the condition of the rails. 

The final factor to consider in this alternate history is the fact that CPKC now has a transcontinental link across Canada re-established. Given that CP can run trains all the way out to port in New Brunswick, possibly there could have been consideration to keeping the Chalk River Sub in place or at least re-establishing a connection between Chalk River and Arnprior, if that part of the line saw a discontinuance even with the CP service to Nylene.

 

Of course, in the early 1990s, no one could have foreseen CP relinquishing its cross-Canada network only to reacquire it years later, but it's fascinating to think what might be possible if CP had been mandated to serving Nylene in Arnprior.

First impressions of 2025 at Fallowfield Station

I needed to do something. My family's new house had sprung a leak, as in the outside air (-28C with the wind at one point) was gushing into a room in our house, making things very unpleasant. I have been wrestling with many renovations to our new house, which has been neglected for years and is in need of some TLC.

But on Wednesday night, I had had my share of being cold and frustrated in my own house, so I decided to be cold and frustrated outside and maybe see a few trains. My daughters were at a nearby dance class and I had no errands to run. Time for some nighttime photography at Fallowfield Station in Barrhaven.

Unluckily for Via Rail, but luckily for me, the ongoing drama over the Venture trainsets has altered Via's schedule, but has created opportunities for railfans. For me, it meant that Train 59 westbound, which usually arrives at Fallowfield shortly after 6 p.m., was due to arrive at 6:20 p.m. At the same time, a late eastbound Train 644 from Toronto was due to arrive at 6:23 p.m. In fact, Train 644 arrived first on the station siding (track two), while Train 59 could be seen meandering west down the Smiths Falls Sub, just east of the Woodroffe Avenue crossing, waiting for 644's passengers to get across the main line onto the station platform. 

In other words, it was a meet at night in the blowing snow. I only had my iPhone, as it was a spur-of-the-moment decision to try my luck, but I was quite happy with what I got, considering the limitations of an iPhone camera.

This was the scene shortly before the meet, looking east toward Ottawa and Federal Junction, in particular. Can you feel how cold it was by this photo? You can see a light sheen of ice and snow on the platform. The blur around the red signal lights was mostly due to the blowing snow.

This is a shot of Train 644 arriving nearly an hour late at Fallowfield, as a Venture set leads the way home for travellers on track two. It looks a bit blurred, but much of that was the blowing snow. I like the look it gives the train, as if it is tearing by the station at speed, which was not the case.

I went to the east side of the station platform to get a still shot, as the train was parked to allow passengers to hustle into the waiting arms of loved ones and the hopefully warm confines of cars that would take them home.

I like this shot because it's less blurry, but it also has a darker feel, since I was positioned a little further away from the platform light standards. You can feel the dark, cold night of an Ottawa winter in this shot. You can also see a few brave passengers on the main platform awaiting the westbound Train 59 on the main. 

It was ambling up the track at this point, far from its normal speed. In fact, I noticed at one point that the signals at Woodroffe Avenue activated too soon, as Train 59 was nowhere near the road, to my eye, anyway. The lights then shut off again and the guards went back up. At this point, Train 644 had crept forward on the siding, awaiting clearance to proceed to Ottawa Station, just as soon as Train 59 made its way to Fallowfield on the main.

Here's a shot I like, and it doesn't even really give you any idea of the profile of either engine. I like train shots that sometimes don't conform to our usual shots. I really like how this one turned out. You can see the blowing snow affecting the light and you can see the effect of the F40 lights on the Venture coaches.

Here's one final closer shot of Train 59, which was a consist of six LRC coaches being led by an F40. When the consist went by, I marvelled at how beat-up the LRC equipment looked. Decades of dents, nicks, scratches and abuse seem to have left their mark.

All in all, it was a peaceful few minutes at the station. I love being trackside for a few minutes, with nothing else to do but watch the trains go by. Good therapy.