Switching it up in Kitchener

It's been more than 15 years since I've lived in Kitchener, which seems crazy to me. When I moved there to take a job with the local newspaper, I never intended to move back to Ottawa, but things happen. I have fond memories of my years in KW, but I do regret never pursuing rail photography there, like I had in the past. Right before I was laid off at the newspaper and forced to return to Ottawa, I had begun to consider volunteering for the Waterloo Central Railway. 

Now when I return to KW on occasion, I make sure to make up for lost time. The city was served by the Goderich Exeter Railway when I lived there, but that service reverted back to Canadian National after I left the city. This past summer, I had a tip that the CN local for St. Marys was getting assembled in the Lancaster Street yard, which meant I had a chance to capture some local freight images. 

I started with a long shot of the crew crossing Lancaster for the first time. I've mentioned this before, but I am surprised that the city still allows this type of shunting to block city streets for as long as it does. I've seen this type of congestion in London as well. This type of arrangement where freight trains hold sway on a grade crossing in the middle of busy cities is fast becoming a memory. Here in Ottawa, Via Rail has removed its grade crossing on Greenbank Road in Barrhaven, and those inconveniences are minor, considering the passenger trains pass by in less than a minute. This shunting operation I watched blocked Lancaster for quite a while. I can imagine motorists are sick of this.

I took a quick shot of the local as it disappeared behind the metal recycling depot on Lancaster. The lead unit is a former GT geep. The cab lettering makes it clear. As I watched the crew assemble its train and cross Lancaster over and over, the thought occurred to me again that people in big cities are no longer used to living side-by-side with railways or, at the very least, have grown more impatient with them. Just down the line from Lancaster, the former grade crossings at Weber St. and King St. have both become flyover crossings. That has changed since I lived in Kitchener. I would imagine the housing, technology, research and academic developments in this area had a lot to do with King and Weber both being routed beneath the tracks. The Guelph Sub, in addition to hosting CN's local operations, also hosts daily Via Rail service, as well as GO Trains. 

 

From the Lancaster grade crossing, I was able to get a shot of the local backed well east of my vantage point, back in the yard. This shot gives you an idea of the topography that the Guelph Subdivision covers in the eastern end of Kitchener. As I was told by a few railfans who know Kitchener, the rails east of the yard are in excellent shape, as Metrolinx hosts its daily services on this line and has done much to ensure upgrades on the line into Toronto. 

 

Back and forth the train went, much to the chagrin of motorists on Lancaster. It should be noted for people not familiar with Kitchener that Lancaster Street is a busy road, as it connects much of Kitchener to the Conestoga Parkway, a busy highway that links most of Kitchener with Waterloo.  

 

Here's another example of my attempts to make railways interesting again. The lack of variety in today's freight trains means you need to get creative sometimes. In this shot, I framed a rust-stained hopper against the crossing guard, with the CN Guelph Sub plate visible. You can also see the trackside signals in the shot. 

 

One final shot of the train next to the recycling depot. I had to shot this image through links in a fence, but I think the effort was worth it. The morning sun and lack of cloud cover meant the sky was largely washed out, which was a common occurrence in my images from last summer, but such is life.

 

You can check out my other recent images from Kitchener in this post, when I caught the morning GO Train making its way east out of the station.  

How two railway photos helped spawn a book

The locomotive hissed and groaned as it inched its way forward. A small band of angry workers held its ground against the rumbling giant. A few of the workers shouted themselves hoarse, trying to get the engineer and the railway police to back off. Others hurled rocks at the train,which was attempting to push its way along the railway siding that led to the Nafziger Textiles plant. In the middle of the barricade stood a bewildered Eddie Daoust, a cigarette pinched between his thumb and index finger. He hadn't smoked in three years but couldn't resist a quick drag since he had a fierce headache from the diesel fumes and noise. 

So begins my short story, King Eddie, a tale that is included in my first volume of short stories, Sunshine at Night. The book was released in 2017 and updated just this fall to include another story (the original book had nine stories and I couldn't live with that).

The image I have included above is from a 1991 photo that was reprinted in my 2008 feature story in the Waterloo Region Record, the newspaper I worked with until 2009. The workers in the photo are striking employees of the Budd Canada plant, which was later known as Kitchener Frame. And yes, it is the same Budd company that also became famous for its rail car division. 

The Kitchener plant once employed as many as 3,300 workers by some estimates, as it was a key cog in the North American automotive parts network. The plant was opened as a direct result of the 1965 U.S.-Canada auto pact, which brought untold jobs to Canada. 

The plant had a colourful history, with years of unprecedented growth and profits, as well as years marked by wildcat strikes and layoffs. The plant closed for good in 2008.

When its owner, Martinrea International, closed the sprawling operation in late 2008, the head of the union local said something to me that was succinct and quite powerful. 

"This time, we won't get back up."

Indeed, it was an awful time in the region, as the automotive parts industry was decimated by the global recession and the freefall of the Detroit Three automakers. Kitchener Frame, in the end, made chassis for GM's line of SUVs, which was well on its way to oblivion.

That photo, to me, is a powerful image that fit the theme of the book Sunshine at Night. These were normal people doing something extraordinary, because they were fighting for what they believed. You don't have to agree with their point of view to admire their courage. The book is very much based on the premise that even the most ordinary life is extraordinary.

But it was the man in the middle, whom I later tracked down, that first inspired the character of Eddie Daoust, along with the man who was the union local president at Kitchener Frame. The man in the photo, John Coleman, had a look of determination in his eyes that made me think there was more to that image that needed to be told. You can even see his cigarette pinched between his fingers in the photo. It was a detail too good not to use in my story.

Truthfully, though, the story was mainly inspired by the head of the plant's union local, who told me, "This time, we won't get back up." He was a tough man, but fair. He often made things difficult for me as a reporter, but he earned my respect nonetheless. He didn't suffer fools gladly and was not afraid to be blunt when he thought the situation called for it. 

On the day I was laid off in 2009, I remember talking to him and he grudgingly said I was an okay reporter and did a decent job. It was high praise from him. I never forgot that brief exchange. 

I'm not mentioning his name, because he went on to other prominent community positions after his time in the CAW (Unifor now) and I honestly don't know what he'd think of my character, Eddie, and his resemblance to him.

But for our purposes, it was the railway image that sparked the initial seeds of the story, because it motivated me to wonder what it would feel like to be in a position where you had the fate of that many people in your hands with everything on the line. The drama was something that felt real and touching, to me.  

Here's the other image that also inspired much of the story.

This photo, above, is from the same story I wrote in 2008, when the old Budd plant closed for good. That story, which was a long feature that ran on the front page, is one of the articles I am most proud of from my time as a reporter. 

But it was this image of a train being held up on the tracks that also inspired my story King Eddie. I know from my dad's time as a unionized worker at a power plant that these types of stand-offs do happen, but this one just seemed too rich to not mine for a good story. That is why this image ended up inspiring the first scene in my story of workers holding off the charge of a train. I can't imagine what that scene was like in real life, but I enjoyed imagining it in my story.

In my time at the Record, I became more and more involved in labour reporting, which I found fascinating, given the high stakes at play in 2008 and 2009 when the manufacturing sector in the region was being pummelled by the recession. I remember once doing an interview with CBC Radio about one of these situations. It was a fascinating time to watch the human drama unfold and try to do it some justice through the written word. I miss that.

The other union stand-off that inspired my story happened at another plant in Kitchener, Ledco, which was owned by the same family that controlled Canadian Bank Note. Ledco was a small company by the time it came to my attention. The company, which once made components for the famed Canadian supersonic fighter jet, the Avro Arrow, was on life support when we received word that the company was essentially out of money.

Long story short, the owners had pressured the company's unionized workforce to take a 25-per-cent wage deduction and 20-per-cent benefits cut in exchange for keeping their jobs. Many of the unionized workers were already laid off, so it was already a tense situation.

What happened next made national news. The workers showed up to work and were locked out. A notice on the plant's doors said they were all terminated and that the business was closed. That began a tense stand-off where workers barricaded the plant and prevented the company's remaining products to be shipped. Ledco, like Kitchener Frame, was a parts supplier to the automotive industry.

Making matters more complicated, a few workers insisted to me that they had taken a vote of their peers and were prepared to accept the company's terms. That vote was not sanctioned by the union, which essentially meant the workforce was divided.

Then, some workers decided to break into the plant and occupy it. That lasted a few days until a court order declared the occupation illegal and cooler heads prevailed. 

One last footnote to the genesis of this story. There was one other plant that closed in my time in the region, which made felt products. I was shocked that such a business even existed in Canada in 2008-09, but it did. There were elements of that company's demise that made it into my story.

The whole point of this is to explain how much a muse the railways are to me in my writing. There is something about the railways and their impact on our country that makes them such a rich image and powerful inspiration to our art. 

It's not just me. How much art in Canada in inspired in some way by our railways?

He rolled down the window. He could hear the faint cries of the morning Via Rail train as it approached Louiston. He knew it would whiz through town just like it had done for years.  

The story, King Eddie, was the beginning of a prolonged period of inspiration that resulted in the book Sunshine at Night. And it was those two powerful railway photos that kickstarted the story, which ended up being one of the centrepieces of a book. 

If you ever wonder why I write about railways the way I do, maybe this will give you some insight into how my mind works. To me, there is an emotional response when I hear a train or see a train. There is something about them that resonates deeply within me. They have always inspired me and they will.  continue to do so. 

Say hello to Belton

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

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

The last days of the F59PH

In my travels this summer, I managed to find myself in Kitchener for a few mornings. I used to live in this city when I worked for the daily newspaper, the Record. At that point, I was not in the practice of taking rail photos. So whenever I find myself back in the KW area, I always make sure to check out what is happening on the rails. 

Kitchener's rails have undergone a fair bit of change since I lived in the city back in 2007-09 For one, the Goderich Exeter Railway has given way to Canadian National on the Guelph Subdivision. Also, Metrolinx has a dedicated daily commuter train going to and from Toronto Union Station. One morning, I had the chance to catch the GO Train. I was surprised by what I saw.

 

I didn't know that Metrolinx still rostered any of its F59PH units. In this case, 559 was the power for the day. I managed to get some shots from the St. Leger Street overpass just east of the Kitchener railway station. You can see a member of the crew to the left of the old F59PH, getting some fresh air before the morning's departure.

The F59PH was GO Transit's power of choice for years, as the commuter service rostered 49 of these locomotives, which were built between 1988-1993 at EMD in London. They served GO Transit (Metrolinx) well, and a few remain on the commuter railway's roster, which I have come to learn. My information puts the number at eight in total.

On this morning, 559 was leading Train 3962. I did run into an F59PH a few other times, although mostly I see the MP40PH-3Cs and MP54AC units when I am in the Toronto area. Still, it's fun to see the old F59s, which bear some resemblance to the F40PH-2, a few of which Via Rail continues to use. 

I did get a few more shots on the overpass before I headed out to another nearby road for a shot at a level crossing. There are many level crossings in this part of the city, which tend to snarl traffic, particularly on Lancaster Street, which is right next to the CN yard. 

The shot above shows you how far ahead the Metrolinx engineer has to pull the consist ahead of the station (to the left of the rear of the train), just to get the people into the right cars. They certainly never envisioned passenger trains this long when they built this station.

The shot below gives you a better idea of the changing skyline in and around downtown Kitchener. The mix of the old and the new is quite striking in some places. In this shot, I was trying to get a glimpse of the old Krug building beside the train station. You can just see a hint of it to the right of the end of the train, mostly hidden by trees. Contrast that with tall, sleep towers in the distance. 

I had time to get another few shots, below, at the Margaret Street crossing, as the eastbound slowly geared up and made its way out of Kitchener toward Guelph. Truthfully, I was trying to catch CN freight trains near Lancaster Street that morning, but the crew had yet to sign on for the morning and I was pressed for time. I was fortunate to catch some freight action on another morning, which I will share in another post.

I also made sure to get a good going away shot, which is always a necessity when you can do so safely and legally. Control cab car 255 was bringing up the rear on a very sunny, hot, hazy morning. Getting clear shots in the harsh morning sun was not feasible from this angle. Sometimes, you have to work with what you are given.

As an interesting postscript, I later learned that the old F59PH broke down shortly after leaving Kitchener, which leads me to wonder how many more days these units have left in revenue service. 

Update on Moderation of Messages 

In recent months, I have begun to moderate my messages due to the proliferation of spam messages that were infiltrating my entire history of posts. I have found that the number of comments I get from readers is down sharply. The good news is the spammers have only tried to break through my moderation feature one time since I began moderating the messages. I encourage you to let me know what you think and point out any additional information or mistakes. I monitor the messages submitted regularly.

Update on my Book, 1999

My new novel, 1999, is now available on Amazon.ca. It is printed in Bolton, Ont. and the proceeds go to the Canadian arm of the company, as well as me, as per my modest royalty. I can assure you no one gets rich selling books this way. It was the best I could do to put something out there without running afoul of the trade wars. 

 

You can check out the book on Amazon or go to my author's website to learn more about the four books I have published over the years. I can say that 1999 has a few dramatic scenes featuring railways. Most of my stories features trains in some fashion.

Finally, you can check out my other blog, where I talk about random things related to my writing. My latest post is about how truly bizarre the year 1999 actually was.  

All the book links are also included in the sidebar. This will be a permanent feature to the blog.  

Updated: The smell of diesel in the morning

In mid-July, after my family visited the Sarnia area, we paid a visit to Stratford to spend some time with my in-laws and catch a play at the Stratford Festival. My family ended up seeing Anne of Green Gables, which was an interesting, modern take on the classic story that I have read to both of my daughters numerous times.

While in Stratford, I was able to make it to the CN yard a number of times, but I was also in luck since our AirBnB was close to the Goderich Subdivision; in essence the main line of what it left of the Goderich Exeter Railway. 

Our place was near the Birmingham Street level crossing. Also, we were lucky that St. David Street also parallels the GEXR tracks for a long stretch, which means you are able to both hear the trains coming, when they come, and have the opportunity to scout out a spot to capture them. I was lucky enough to have run into a train twice. Once was on purpose, as I knew the train was outbound for Goderich so I waited. The second time was a fluke, as my daughter and I were stretching our legs during a walk when she heard the rumble to two GP38-2s coming toward us long before I did (my hearing is awful).

I had my iPhone with me so I ventured into the green space beside the tracks and found a small window to capture this shot. As always, with an iPhone, I never use the zoom function as it instantly pixelates your image. Always get as close as you can, safely and legally. Leave the rest of the work to your photo software.

I like this shot more than most of the images I captured this summer, because there's the human element. I was a a little hesitant about sharing it, because I didn't want to identify the crew capturing a bit of fresh air, but it was too good of an image to keep to myself. You can see the GEXR still has an old Southern Ontario Railway unit permanently assigned to Stratford, along with a GEXR unit as its mate. Update: Upon reflection, I blocked out the person's face in this version of the photo just because I didn't feel comfortable identifying him, even if his face is largely unidentifiable to begin with 

 

It was a blazing hot morning when I got this shot, so I'm not surprised the crew wanted a moment for some fresh air as the short train made its way northwest toward Goderich. I'm sure he was wondering who I was and why I was taking shots of the train. How to explain that I'm a train-starved railfan from Ottawa? I didn't come across any railfans around the Stratford CN yard, so possibly they're a rare breed in that area. I don't know for sure.

 

 

The train was clearly a run to the railway's agricultural customers between Stratford and Goderich, as there are many farm clients along this stretch of railway. This Potash Corp. hopper car added a bit of colour to a largely grey consists. Modern rolling stock has become very bland, sadly. 

 

 

The train ended up with a few tank cars on the rear as it made its way out of town. I was happy to catch this train by surprise, as it just added another set of photos among the many I took in Stratford during the week that I was there. I have a number of other photographs to share from around the town during my time there. 

 

My New Book 

 

Those who have followed this blog from the beginning know that I am also an independent author of (now) four books. I don't really have any expectations for these books. I put them out there because someone once told me, "Until you release them, they will never be art. They're just files cluttering up your hard drive." I appreciate the sentiment, but I know these books are not art. Even if they were, it would not be for me to say. 

 

 

My latest book is titled 1999. It's a story of that final lousy summer job you have before you graduate and join the real world. That was the genesis of this story, anyway. I had way too many surreal experiences in my summer of landscaping and working for a property management company for it not to fuel a story. 

 

Truthfully, my story about the real Trailer Park Boys (that's what I called them, for good reason) ended up being about much more.  

 

I am very proud of this book, which has been twenty years in the making. I originally began writing it in 2005 and have worked on it periodically since then. It never seemed like the right moment to release it, until my daughter convinced me to take up my writing again. So there it is. If you are interested in it, you can find all my novels listed on this page of my author's website. There are links to all my books, except for the first one, which was legitimately published by a real publisher, but is now out of print. 

Or you can skip right to the Amazon.ca page to find out about this book.  

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.

A quiet few moments to capture railway history

Last November, I visited my family around Remembrance Day because I hadn't seen my father over the summer and I wanted to visit with him in his new home. It was a busy weekend with not a lot of time, but I did manage to sneak a couple of minutes trackside to see if there was anything to see at the Sarnia CN Yard.

The yard was largely quiet, although I did manage to see an interesting CSX interchange train picking up a massive piece of equipment that was to be delivered to one of its industrial customers south of Sarnia. You can read about that here.

Other than that, I busied myself taking some shots of the odd assortment of locomotives parked around the old CN roundhouse, which is now the home of Lambton Diesel Specialists, which repairs, rebuilds and leases motive power. You often see old engines there, when they are stripped for parts. Sometimes, you see old units there that are given new life. It's always a mixed bag, which adds a little colour to your railfanning in this area.

This unit below was the one that really caught my eye. I had never seen this scheme before or heard of this railway. It was a misty, grey day so I did my best to grab a photo of it.

 

I was immediately stumped at to what GIO Railways was or where it would have operated. At first glance, the hood is a giveaway as to this engine's lineage. This is clearly a former CP Rail GP9. Thankfully, a couple of quick searches on this unit yielded some unexpected results. 

 

Since I no longer live in Southern Ontario, I didn't know about GIO, which is a fairly new shortline operator. This unit, which was leased from LDS, was first used several years ago when GIO took over operations on the dormant Cayuga Subdivision. The sub, which stretches from St. Thomas to Delhi (pronounced DEL-high), was once a CN concern before it was abandoned. After CN stopped operations, Ontario Southland operated the line before it went dormant again in 2020. In 2022, GIO Rail cleared the brush, laid some new ties and resumed operations, with this old GP9 as its first unit running light over the line.

 

That unit has since been returned to Sarnia, obviously, as operations on the line have been upgraded to include GP38s, judging by this YouTube clip. The newer units no longer have the GIO Railways grey scheme. Instead, they are straight black and are patched LDSX, which means the railway continues to lease its units from Sarnia. GIO Railways is perhaps better known as the company that bought Trillium Rail in the Niagara Region. 

 

This summer, when I returned to Sarnia, the old GP9 was still there, looking like it was either being readied to return to action or being kept in storage. It looked like it had been refurbed at the very least. Note the motors under tarps on flatcars right beside the old roundhouse.

 

While at the yard in November, I also caught this old SW switcher in a red and grey scheme. As this was the only vantage point I had, I couldn't get a side view of the unit. I'm not sure what railway it once belonged to, as I am not familiar with this livery. That's what I love about this old roundhouse. You never know what you are going to see. We live at a time when the number of railways is shrinking and many of today's trains cars are lease fleet blanks, which doesn't leave a lot of variety. This is a spot where you can see railway history.

 

There's also a straight red geep to the left of the image, with a livery similar to CP. I'm not sure where this unit might have originated, since I couldn't see its operating marks from where I was standing. In the centre of the image, there appears to be two other GIO units, one a GP9 of CN origin and a GP38-2 in the rear.

 

Here's a shot of some other SW units, including Nova Chemical's SW unit, which appears to be patched as LDSX 7316, meaning it's a leased unit in Nova colours. In my travels around Lambton County this summer, I noticed that a newer switcher is now handling the tank cars at the Nova Corunna refinery, where Nova handles its own industrial trackage, off the CN St. Clair River Industrial Spur. That means this old unit is either in for servicing or awaiting reassignment. 

 

 

Here's one last image from my November visit trackside in Sarnia. The LDS roundhouse is adjacent to CN's refuelling pad, which means when things are quiet, you can get a glimpse of a lot of yard horsepower in one image. Here's a shot of quite a few old warhorses sitting idle on a quiet November day.

 

 

It's always fun to see old engines that aren't common on railways anymore, like the SW1200s or old CP-style GP9s. I like sharing shots like these because you can look at the image for a while and always find something new. All of these shots have multiple elements that are worth exploring. It might not be as exciting as watching a mainline freight roar by, but for those of us who appreciate rail history, a few shots of a quiet yard can be quite illuminating.

 

UPDATE ON MESSAGES 

 

Since I have switched my messaging over to moderation mode, I'm happy to see that the spam messages have disappeared from my site. There are two sides to this, obviously. My messages from readers has also decreased, which is understandable. I don't want to make it harder for anyone to share their thoughts here or contact me, but I will be sticking with moderated messages for the time being, until I am satisfied that the spam scourge has abated. I'm curious to read what you think. 

Odds and ends on my summer travels

My family has done a fair bit of travelling so far this summer, as our life is more stable. After a wonderful visit to my hometown around Canada Day, we were able to visit my wife's family in London and Stratford in recent days. 

This being vacation, I was able to make my way trackside quite a bit and was fortunately, saw lots of mainline action in both Sarnia and Stratford. I have not even begun to process some of my better shots and figure out how to present them thematically. So, as these are the lazy days of summer and I am not thinking too hard, here are a few random photos that I captured in my travels that I thought would be interesting to share.

This shot made me laugh a bit. This was taken in the eastbound lanes of the 407 as we approached MacMillan Yard. There is an overpass in this area where container trains are often passing over the highway. On the other track, a trio of engines sat, awaiting their next assignment. The unit in the middle was clearly an ex-BNSF unit that was hastily patched over by CN. I shared this with a couple of my friends, and they had the same reaction. Nice patch job!

Over the course of any year spent railfanning in Ottawa, it is inevitable that there will be a large amount of Via Rail pictures. A friend jokingly told me as we were preparing to head home to Ottawa, "It's back to Via Rail purgatory." Don't get me wrong. I will take photos of any trains, but Via Rail photos can become monotonous after a while, which is why I wasn't all that keen to capture passenger rail photos in my travels. This shot is an exception, though. I thought it was cool to catch Train 84 backing into Sarnia Station from its overnight parking spur.

Via operates one train out of Sarnia each morning and one train into Sarnia each evening. The new Venture sets mean that Via no longer has to wye its trains in the yard, as they are bi-directional. All they have to do is tuck in to the spur beside the station each evening and back in to the station the following morning. Easy. 

Via Rail used to have early morning service from Sarnia when I was a university student, but the train now leaves mid-morning, which is better for those who aren't earlybirds. I wasn't specifically seeking out Via trains on this morning, but I was happy to catch this move. 

When we first arrived in Stratford, I headed for the CN/GEXR yard to see if anything was moving. This isn't like Sarnia, of course. You need to know when things are moving on the CN Guelph Subdivision or you will be waiting quite a long time. Luckily, I had some good information to work from, which allowed me to catch both CN and GEXR action. However, when I first arrived, there was nothing happening in the yard and the familiar GEXR units were nowhere to be seen from the station platform, which I found odd.

So I took a walk across Nile Street crossing to Guelph Street, which gives you a different perspective of the yard. Deep in the yard, tucked away behind long strings of steel coil cars, were the two GEXR units, parked at an odd angle. I was told that these tracks are situated like this because they once led to the old Stratford roundhouse. I didn't know that until I shared this photo with a friend who knows the local operations.

So it was cool to catch these units framed against the massive Masterfeeds complex. Those elevators helped frame many of my shots over the course of my visit. 

It was a ridiculously profitable vacation for me for future blog content, but as mentioned, I need to get some themes together to properly share some of my photos. I look forward to the challenge. 

 

Long live the SWs

Back in November, I was visiting family in the Sarnia area around Remembrance Day, which meant a bit of time trackside, of course. I don't get many chances to see large rail yards or busy rail freight corridors in action, so it was a nice change of pace for me.

When I was at CN's Sarnia rail yard, I trained my camera lens on the nearby former roundhouse, now a workshop for LDS, Lambton Diesel Specialists. It's a bit of a challenge getting good shots of the motive power outside the old roundhouse, as you have to shoot across a fair number of tracks. However, this is the only way to get quality images legally as there are no other publicly available vantage points around this facility. The mist in the air the day I was there didn't help.

This was the image that got me to thinking a bit.

This is a shot of two old EMD SW units, one appears to have been painted black. It's possible it was used as an LDS switcher, as the company has used old SW1200s over the years in a black and grey scheme, like the one in this image below. Both of these units still have bells atop their hood, which is increasingly rare these days. I've seen many old engines at this facility being scavenged for parts, but these two still look to have some life in them.

The SW1200 was once an ubiquitous presence on most major freight railways. In Sarnia, these units were all over Sarnia yard, not to mention the industrial spurs radiating out of the yard. CN would use them on the St. Clair River Industrial Spur all the way south to Courtright, not to mention on the Point Edward Spur, which used to connect to the CN ferry for oversize cars. The SWs would bring lines of autoracks and hi-cube boxcars to the old ferry yard near Front Street, so they could be ferried across the river to Port Huron, Michigan.

Now, these units are almost exclusively the domain of private owners and industrial trackage. You'd be hard pressed to find them on any major railway. CN now uses its rebuilt GP9s in Sarnia, some with slugs attached. CP uses its GP20ECO units, which were built off the platforms of old GP9s.

Yet, seeing those two SW units back in November was a cool sighting for me, especially as one was clearly numbered 7316 and appeared to be a Nova Chemicals switcher. Nova owns several refineries in and around Sarnia, all of which are rail served. Its recently expanded Corunna operation has a large rail yard running along Highway 40, mostly hidden behind an earthen berm. You can see it from a nearby overpass and can get some shots if you are in the passenger seat.
 

This shot, above, is not an SW1200, but an earlier model from the same EMD line. This unit has no number, so it's a bit difficult to figure out what it is. But the point of sharing the image is that this engine is one of the survivors of a highly successful line of switcher locomotives, possibly one of EMD's most successful freight lines outside its GP38-2s and SD40-2.

The SW line of switchers began with the SW1, which began production in 1935. The SW line continued in production until 1974, when the most popular of the series, the SW1200 and SW1500 (and the variations) ended production. That's a remarkable run of nearly 40 years. At one point, this line was meant to be a response to the popular Baldwin S line of switchers, which were common at one point in many rail yards. It wasn't long before EMD claimed the title for the most successful yard power.

 

Today, many of the old SWs are long gone or hidden away in industrial operations. I find it interesting that they were largely supplanted in some cases by GP9s, engines that in some instances were much older. I suppose the rebuild program in CN's case was what tipped the scales in favour of the GP9s.

 

Whenever I get back to Sarnia and see a few of the old SW1200s kicking around the roundhouse, I smile and think back to when I used to see them doing yeoman's work in the yard, up until the mid- to late 1990s. 

 

I also think back to when they powered some of the freights on the Kawartha Lakes Railway through Peterborough when I lived there. 

 

There's even these shots I inherited of a few SWs in Essex Terminal Rail colours in Windsor. 

 

 

It's safe to say that this could be one of the most successful engines to ever grace the rails in Canada and possibly North America. I miss them. 

The Budd cars return to Windsor after dark

This is part II of my Windsor history series. You can read the first entry by clicking here.

In August 2022, when I was taking photos of the interesting pieces of rolling stock at the Waterloo Central Railway's St. Jacobs yard, I spotted an RDC unit tucked away in the yard, far enough away from my vantage point on a nearby street that I couldn't get a clean photograph of it. But I got a reasonable shot. I give the volunteers running this operation credit. They painted the unit in the Canadian Pacific maroon and gold scheme, albeit lettered for the Waterloo Central. This maroon scheme predated the ubiquitous CP multimark scheme that was adopted in 1968. It got me to thinking.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, it was clear that highways had supplanted passenger rail services as the dominant form of short-distance travel in much of Canada. Despite various attempts to modernize their service or innovate after the Second World War, both CP and CN were hemorrhaging money on their passenger services. In CN's case, it was a government owned corporation, which tended to soften the blow, but also force its hand to stick with its passenger services. CP was a different story, as it was not a government owned entity, although it was still subject to the same regulation that mandated passenger service standards at the time. So, in a sense, CP had the worst of all worlds.

That said, CP and CN were going in different directions as the 1970s approached. One was investing and another was actively bailing out.

At this time, my Dad had moved with his family to Windsor, Ont., as my grandfather was transferred from CP's facilities in Chapleau, in Northern Ontario, to the Windsor shops. In my Dad's case, this meant, as a teenager, he found himself with his first job at the CP yards in Windsor alongside my grandfather, who was a rolling stock mechanic.

My grandfather usually worked the RIP track, which is short for the repair-in-place track. He sometimes would work in the shed near the roundtable as well. There were times that he would be dispatched to wrecks around southern Ontario to ensure that the main line would be clear as quickly and safely as possible following an accident. In short, my grandfather did a little bit of everything. By contrast, my Italian grandfather (Nonno in Italian) was also living in Windsor at this time, but he had long since moved on from his work as a general track labourer with CP, which he did in the Crowsnest Pass district of B.C.

My Dad often worked nights at the CP yard alongside my grandpa. At the time, CP was still maintaining a national passenger network. A peak at the CP schedule from 1968 shows that there were two daily trains between Toronto and Windsor in both directions. This image below was taken from Steve Boyko's collection. Steve is the author of the traingeek.ca blog. He graciously allowed me to use this image for this post. 

The timetable gives you clues as to CP's state of mind regarding regional passenger rail at the time. The four trips were all made with Dayliners, which is a fancy term for RDCs. The schedule shows two RDCs made morning runs, one from Toronto heading west at 8:30 a.m. and one from Windsor heading east at 7:15 a.m. The eastbound to Toronto arrived at 11:20 while the westbound to Windsor arrived at 12:40 p.m. That means a four-hour trip. A bit slow, but not bad considering the stops made en route. 

The evening trains followed similar schedules. The evening train out of Toronto heading west left Union Station at 6:30 p.m. and arrived in Windsor at 10:40 p.m. The eastbound out of Windsor left at 5:05 p.m. and arrived in Toronto at 9:15 p.m. 

So what are the clues that CP was not prioritizing the passenger service, other than the fact that the Budds were doing the hauling? Look closely at the left of the image and you see that the schedule advises that there are "Meal Stations" en route where food can be purchased at city prices. In other words, there appears to be no service on the train. It's also worth noting that CP has a bus service to Kitchener from its Galt passenger station, since Galt (part of Cambridge now) is quite a way from Kitchener and Waterloo.

The final clue as to what CP was thinking at the time can be found on the notation at the bottom of the schedule which lists Windsor's passenger terminal as "Tecumseh Road and Crawford Avenue." This is what my Windsor rail friend and blog contributor Kevin O'Neil said of the CP passenger terminal.

"CP’s Budd Cars stopped at Tecumseh W and Crawford. The whole intersection was realigned a few years ago so the two distinct wings of Tecumseh were connected with a sweeping curve, covering part of the Crawford right-of-way. The building that held the CP Express transfer docks is still there, although it hasn’t belonged to CP in the years of my conscious memory. It belonged to a private cartage company for many years, and now it’s a warehouse for a restaurant equipment supplier. I’ve never been able to pinpoint the location of the Budd waiting room."

 

So, in other words, CP had some sort of makeshift waiting room for passengers in a freight facility. Not uncommon in the days where railways were actively trying to discourage passenger travel. Now compare that image in your head to the Canadian Pacific's terminal near the Detroit River, which served from 1880 into the 1930s. I don't know that I have ever seen anything like this.

 

Image and the one that follows beneath are from the Southwestern Ontario Digital Archives at the University of Windsor and are used for informational purposes only, as per the disclaimer stated on the SWODA website. 

 

After this station was demolished, CP moved its passenger operations into the Michigan Central station on Pelletier Street until it improvised a waiting room at the former corner of Tecumseh and Crawford in the 1960s. The MCR station was used by the New York Central's Canadian operations (legally the Canada Southern Railway, a subsidiary of MCR, which was owned by NYC) before its operations were merged into Penn Central and eventually Conrail. At this point, there were no passenger services offered by this successor railway, as Conrail's birth came after the establishment of Amtrak.

 

Sadly, this station is no longer around, as it was a victim of arson some years back. I do recall reading about this, but my thanks to Kevin for reminding me. 

 

So back to my Dad. I do recall him telling me about his two most vivid memories of working in CP's yard during his early years. He told me he recalled walking alongside freight trains that had just arrived and filling the journal boxes with oil. This was, of course, at a time when there was still rolling stock around that used journals instead of roller bearings. Essentially, the axles were kept in running condition by fabric that was coated in oil. When these boxes containing this fabric and oil leaked and the oil spilled out, the axles would get hot. This is the origin of the term "hot box" I am told. 

 

My Dad's other memory? He told me one of his jobs was to clean out the Budd cars that had arrived from Toronto. This is where his job got interesting. He often found that the cars were quite a mess when they arrived in the yard for servicing. He said it was quite common to find beer and liquor bottles on the cars, as well as a surprising amount of money. His suggestion was that there was usually an unsavoury element that rode these trains into Windsor at night. 

 

Luckily for my Dad, Ontario Hydro offered him a better job with benefits and hours at the J. Clark Keith thermal generating station in Windsor (long since closed). His life on the railway and cleaning out the Budd cars was mercifully short.