The Overpass Debate

Note: Due to my ongoing efforts to move, my time online to pursue blogging is severely limited. I will be taking the siding for a few weeks, to focus on housing matters. The situation has improved, as we have bought a new home (near the Beachburg Sub!) and are in the process of selling our house. This is a stressful time for me, as I have mentioned in the past, so I appreciate your patience during this pause. In the meantime, here's a post that's been in the can for a while. I will continue with my Ottawa to Sarnia series when I return. - Michael

One of the things my family did in the early days of the pandemic was search for new exotic playgrounds for my children to play at throughout the city. In the summer of 2020, I took my daughters to a park next to the Smiths Falls Subdivision in Barrhaven. That was when I saw my first real glimpse of the overpass that now takes Strandherd Road over the Smiths Falls Sub. For those in the city, you know that Strandherd is an extremely busy road that is being widened and cannot handle its current capacity. The overpass really began to take shape over that summer. It also got me to thinking a bit about Ottawa and our railway etiquette in the city.

First things first, as we were leaving the park, I heard the familiar sound of a Via Rail corridor train heading east toward Fallowfield Station. I had my iPhone with me so I fired off a few shots of the train through the trees. I like this shot below the best.

I don't know that I've shared too many shots from my iPhone on this blog over the years, but I was glad to have it at that moment as the train went by at a fair clip. The sun was hiding behind clouds and making for some funny shadows, which explains some of the weird lighting in the shot. I decided to leave it untouched. 

Here's a shot of the tail end of the train, which was a double-ender with a P42 bringing up the rear.

This was pretty much the best I could do. I was trotting across a soccer field and trying not to use my phone's zoom function, which pretty much guarantees you a highly pixelated shot. As I have mentioned many times on this blog, I have really grown to like railway photos that place a train in its surroundings. I am as interested in the landscape around the train as I am in the train. I think there's so much more to the story than capturing an engine at the head of a train. This is why I like shots where the train isn't dominating the majority of the frame. I think the surroundings tell as much of the story as the train does.

But as I looked over at the Strandherd overpass, I couldn't help but think back to the years before 2020, when many of the signals and crossing guards were malfunctioning in Barrhaven, which had local residents suggesting all their level crossings should be switched over to overpasses or underpasses. 

I chuckled at those debates, as I have lived in cities with far more level crossings, many of which accommodate both long freight and passenger trains. Ottawa drivers don't know how good they have it. There is a high frequency of Via Rail traffic going through their neighbourhoods, but the inconvenience of a short, quick passenger train going by is quite minimal when you compare that to the time it takes for a giant freight train passes by. We're talking about the difference between a few seconds of waiting and a few minutes.

Having seen the delays these freight trains cause first hand when I lived in Kitchener, I know how these many crossings back traffic up, yet I don't recall much of a conversation about what needed to be done. Drivers accepted railways as being part of their landscape and learned to adjust their days according to the possibility of a delay. 

2016 shot of a flyover being constructed over Greenbank Road in Barrhaven. 

 

Greenbank flyover in 2023
 

I know I've made this point before, but Ottawa drivers really don't know how to live with railways anymore. The days of transcontinental freights going through the city are long gone, as are the days of more frequent short line traffic, like when the Ottawa Central Railway was at its busiest. 

 

While it is true that the residents of Barrhaven have more transportation headaches than many other parts of the city (they are also situated under the flight path approach to the Ottawa International Airport), the limited intrusions caused by Via Rail's corridor traffic are laughable when compared to what other cities have to live with. And never mind the once-a-week freight traffic, which usually consists of a freight train of no more than five cars.

 

I remember years ago when someone was complaining about the Arnprior Turn causing headaches for people in the Valleystream neighbourhood, when the once-a-week freight train rattled their homes with what the blogger described as "tar sands" oil tank cars. I was less than impressed with this blogger's ignorance, to say the least.  

Ottawa has become a spoiled city, where people think railways and crossings are a nuisance to be eliminated. Yet, they don't often think of the vital role Via plays in this city, or the role the rails could one day play in a future commuter transportation system.

Yes, overpasses are safer and better in the long run. I'm not suggesting they aren't the way to go from a safety perspective. However, I fear that people in this city have no concept of how to live with trains. A  collision between a Via Rail corridor train and pickup truck at the Barnsdale Road (country road, with clear views) level crossing is a good example. Anyone who thinks they can outrun a passenger train at this crossing is clearly not aware of the speed of these trains.

Sometimes, common sense is just as useful as improved infrastructure.

Capture Via's rainbow era while you can

On Jan. 12, I found myself trackside at Via Rail's Tremblay Road station east of downtown Ottawa. I didn't really have a goal in mind, other than to see what was coming and going. I was hoping to maybe catch a glance at the new Siemens Charger trainsets, but none were in operation that day. 

As is the case in Ottawa, Via Rail is often the only railway to observe some days. My first stop was the Belfast Road overpass, which gives you a great view of the station yard to the west and the Alexandria Subdivision to the east. Of course, the view of the station is obscured by a number of hydro wires, but you can work around them with some creative camera positioning and zoom. If you are hoping to catch a westbound train coming from Montreal, the Belfast Road overpass is an ideal spot to shoot facing east, as long as the east sidewalk is cleared, which is not the case in the winter. On the day I was there, a corridor train from Montreal was making its way to the station, but I could only capture it from the west sidewalk, through the traffic. Not an easy task.

Led by P42 918 in a wrap, this train featured a full consist of silver streamliner cars, complete with the requisite buffer cars that sandwich the operational coaches, thanks to a mandate from federal safety officials. 

The buffer car behind the engine was 8103 long distance coach in the traditional Via blue and yellow colours. This was originally a CP coach, and is designated by Via as an HEP1 coach. 

The last buffer car in this train is Via Rail 8318 Manor-class sleeping car, which was also a Canadian Pacific car prior to Via. The nameplate on the side of the car did not carry a name, but research showed that 8318 is officially listed as Craig Manor. This car was also still carrying its original blue and yellow Via Rail colours dating back to the late 1970s. I mention these cars in particular because I really do think we are living in a rainbow era of Via, where many different paint schemes and wraps are vying for a railfan's attention. I wonder if a day will come when we look back fondly at this point in Via's history.

Once this train had tied up, I made my way to the station to take a peak at the schedule. Given the number of people in the station, I assumed more trains were coming or going. While there, the Ottawa Valley NTrak railway club was showing off its prowess in a combined display. I took a quick peak at this model train setup, in between all the fascinated kids. I took a shot at what I assumed was an approximation of CN's Super Continental. Love those old F units!

While I was there, I decided to get a shot of the main entrance to the station. This is kind of an iconic place for me, as it was how I arrived in Ottawa to return to university or the final place I saw before heading home to visit family in the Sarnia area. The Ottawa train station is a very difficult building to capture an image of, given there aren't many good vantage points in the area where you can get the entire building in a shot. But the entrance gives you an idea of the architectural design of the station, which has won awards. Once inside the building, you can certainly appreciate the floor-to-ceiling windows, as it is a very warm, welcoming place.

Before calling it a day, another westbound made its way to the station, this time being led by another P42 (902) in its original Via paint scheme. I tried to get the train as it rounded the curve, for the sake of getting a different shot. I like this one below the best.

Once again, you can see the two buffer HEP1 cars sandwiching the cars in revenue service. This at least adds a little bit of colour to the corridor, allowing those along the rails to see cars (like the Manor sleepers) that don't often grace the rails between Windsor and Quebec City. In this case, the first buffer was HEP1 Business Class car 4000 in the updated business class grey and yellow scheme.

The rear buffer car appears to be Via Rail 8307 Blair Manor sleeping car, once again in the original Via blue and yellow scheme from the late 1970s. It was fun to see some of these cars that very rarely made it through Ottawa before the mandated buffer car order came down from federal safety regulators. I wonder how long this policy will be in place, given the outcome of the tests being done on these cars. I suppose it's a reminder to capture some rail history trackside while you can.

While I was capturing the incoming consist from Montreal, I noticed an eastbound corridor train making its start for Montreal. This consist was a little more standard with an F40 leading a typical LRC consist.

My original goal with this post was to provide a little bit of trackside commentary on winter railroading in Ottawa but I realized that the photos I took tell the story of the many faces of Via Rail right now. There are many different colour schemes at play these days, including the newest scheme in the Siemens trainsets. This seems to be the direction that all of Via's equipment is heading in, or at least the equipment that will remain in use in the years to come. A look at the HEP1 4000 Business Class buffer seems to be a decent match for the newest Via equipment.

But it's interesting that you can see the original Via blue and yellow colours on both the HEP1 and LRC cars, not to mention the various updates and wraps from the Canada 150 and Via 40 years. Then there's the Love the Way wraps, which carried over in recent years. I'm not even mentioning the slightly iridescent scheme on the Renaissance equipment. Put it all together and you have a lot of interesting design elements worth capturing while you can. What seems mundane today might seem fascinating in the years to come. So go ahead and take that additional shot. You'll be happy you did.

Next stop: Glencoe

On a March trip to see family in Southwestern Ontario, my brother and my nephew were nice enough to take me on a road trip to some of their favourite haunts, including some great spots trackside. You see, my nephew is a railfan for sure. His interests are quite varied, but he does love sitting trackside watching trains, which makes me proud to be his uncle.

So with that in mind, the three of us set off down county roads toward a small town in Middlesex County called Glencoe. This town in situated in the middle of some prime farm land and boasts of a beautiful old Grand Trunk station, which still sits trackside on the Canadian National Chatham Subdivision. Like many other small rural towns, the passenger trains no longer call at the large old stations. Glencoe is no exception as the Via Rail trains between Toronto and Windsor make use of a tiny trackside depot.

We waited for the expected 10:05 a.m. arrival of Train 72, which was bookended by a pair of P42s on either end. P42 905 was the engine on point leading the train east toward Toronto. The Via station here is quite spacious when compared to Wyoming's station, which is even smaller. The shot below, from 2017, gives you an idea, for comparison's sake.

It was fun to watch the Via pull up to the Glencoe station, especially since my nephew rarely sees Via Rail trains, as the Sarnia Via service leaves early in the morning and its return trip arrives late. So he never gets to see them. In this case, Glencoe is a conditional stop for Train 72 and only pulls in to the station when there are passengers to pick up. On this day, there were.

The previous day's snow squalls left a faint trace as we watched the engineer eyeball the train's positioning at the station, to ensure the passengers had access to the right car. I've never seen that happen before. After a few minutes, the train was moving again, complete with horn, which my nephew found incredibly loud so close. P42 914 was on the tail end as the train passed by the old depot and the preserved CNR caboose.

When the train had made its way east and out of site, we decided to check out the old train station and caboose, which were remarkably well preserved and cared for, which was encouraging to see. The station itself was built in 1904 in the Queen Anne Revival style. The station, which served Grand Trunk, was actually just the latest version of a station for the rural town, as the Great Western Railway built its first log cabin depot in 1854. The next station was built in 1856 and another was built in 1900. The town, which sits on a once busy main line into Windsor, has relied on railways for much of its history.

Given that the station is so well preserved, the first thing you might find curious is that it is not sitting parallel to the CN Chatham Subdivision track. Judging by the new foundation that my brother noticed, the building seems to have been shifted from its trackside location to a spot more suited to its community function, on the corner of the town's main street and McRae Street.

Looking inside the structure, you can clearly see the original features have been maintained. The men's and women's waiting rooms are still intact while the stationmaster's office is still in place. The tin ceiling and hardwood floors are still in place, as they were for much of the station's history. It's a remarkably intact station and has been recognized for its preservation.

 

The caboose outside the station is in great shape too, although you could see a bit of wood rot among the slats near the cupula, which is to be expected when an old wood-framed car is left in the elements. Still, it's clear that the car has been recently repainted and cared for by dedicated volunteers. I was a bit disappointed that there were no markings, logos or any other identifying information on the car.

I couldn't find much on this old car, although some older photos show that it was once covered over with plywood sheets before those sheets were pried away and the original slats repainted. If only they would put an old CNR maple left logo on that car and some markings, it would be just about perfect.

All in all, it was a fun stopover to see the old train station and learn a little about this small town of 2,000 people in southern Middlesex County.  It's clear that history matters here, symbolized by the old train station.

Goodbye McKenna Casey, Part II

In my last post, I shared a few photos and a few thoughts about changes to the Smiths Falls Subdivision in the Barrhaven area of Ottawa. The Strandherd Drive level crossing is being replaced with an overpass and the resulting construction of that overpass has severed McKenna Casey Drive, a rural road that connects Strandherd with Moodie Drive. For my purposes, it also eliminates a crossing where I have captured countless Via Rail corridor trains, as well as the odd appearance of CN's 589 local, which once used to ply these rails shortly after 10 a.m. on Sundays on its way to Kott Lumber and SynAgri.

I recently visited the area, proper camera in hand, to see what there is for railfans now that the road has been turned into a cul-de-sac just east of the 416. It turns out, this area might even become a better railfan spot than before (Note: Blog readers have pointed out that there is a proposal to connect McKenna Casey to another road).

The road is almost deserted, as it only serves a few local residents who live there. That means you can drive up to the end of the cul-de-sac near the old crossing and wander a bit, trying to set up a nice shot along the line. You can also go back to where Highway 416 goes over the road, to get some nifty shots of the train passing beneath the highway spans.

First off, here's a view of the Strandherd overpass, taken from near the old McKenna Casey Crossing, which is blocked off to cars. This shot was taken in the summer. The overpass is now completed over the right-of-way.

As you can see, the overpass is starting to look like it might be ready in a few months. The rail line itself has not seen any interruptions, as is the case sometimes when infrastructure projects necessitate a shoo-fly track. In this case, nothing has changed, other than the blockade of McKenna Casey Drive.

Since I was in the area, I decided to wait for a morning westbound, which passes by McKenna Casey just after noon. I decided to shoot from beneath the highway overpasses, as they provided much-needed shade.This shot was my favourite.

That giant pile of gravel behind the F40 unit is the berm for the overpass on Strandherd. You can make out the other F40 on the other end of the train. It would have been pretty easy to get a shot through the barricades, but I figured if I stayed beneath the highway spans, I could also get a shot of the train passing beneath the highway, which is always a challenge. I've shot here before a few times, so I thought I would try my hand at it again.

F40 6405 leads the way as the train approaches the Moodie Drive crossing. The skies were rather hazy so there was little chance of getting any type of good colour in the middle of the day. Besides, the forest fires in northwestern Ontario this summer produced large plumes of smoke that affected the skies over Ottawa for parts of July and August.

Here's another shot. Some might argue that the concrete pillars block much of the train, but the point of shooting beneath these spans is to place the train in a specific place with some context. That was my thought process, anyway. Some might disagree with this approach.

Once the train was through the concrete maze, I took a few going away shots of the trailing F40 at the rear as the train disappeared behind some brush.

So, despite losing a pretty cool level crossing that was photogenic for train photos, I think local rainfans will agree that they have also gained a key advantage with McKenna Casey Drive being closed off. The road is no longer busy and it now provides a quiet, safe place to get shots of trains without having to worry about traffic. 

As railfans in Ottawa, you have to take the wins, no matter how small they are.

Goodbye McKenna Casey, Part I

As if we haven't suffered enough as railfans in Ottawa. Now we are faced with the loss of one of the best level crossings to shot at in the city. Let me rephrase that. We're losing one of the best crossings to shot at in the west end of the city. My blog has always been heavily tilted toward Ottawa's west end. My friends in the city's east end might think differently.

McKenna Casey Drive is a rural road that, until recently, connected Moodie Drive with Strandherd Drive. At one point, it was likely a very pastoral, sleepy rural route, but in recent years, it was clearly being used as a short cut into the sprawling suburban swath that we call Barrhaven.

No more. With the advent of a Strandherd overpass over Via Rail's Smiths Falls Subdivision, McKenna Casey's connection to Strandherd seems like it will be severed, judging by the signs and the blocked crossing halfway between Moodie and Strandherd. I discovered this when I was out for a bike ride a while back and wanted to cut across McKenna Casey to get to Moodie, so I could take a direct path back to my area. When I arrived at the crossing, it was barricaded, which meant I had to partake in a small portage through the ditches to continue my ride.

It made me sad to know this crossing will be eliminated, but I am hopeful that this vantage point will still be accessible for photography. As I began to kickstart this blog again, I thought about this crossing and it occurred to me I have a number of interesting pictures from here, not to mention memories. It was one of the first places I took my oldest daughter to watch trains, when she was very young.

I even caught CN's Sunday 589 running light, back when CN used to regularly retrieve cars on this line on the weekends. 

The shot below is one of many I took of Via Rail corridor trains heading west from Fallowfield Station when they begin to gear up for their run to Smiths Falls. The trains, at this time, really began to pick up speed. The speed limit posted on this stretch of track is 65 mph for LRC passenger equipment.

To get an idea of what's happening, here's a map that clearly shows a stretch of the road being erased from the map east of the crossing.

You will notice from the map that McKenna Casey also crosses beneath Highway 416. Given that this road will no longer be a through route, I'm hoping that it could provide railfans with a quiet spot to watch trains without having to worry about traffic. I have attempted to take shots beneath the highway a few times. This was my favourite shot from those attempts in 2016.

Here's a close runner-up from the same year. 

I suppose it depends on what happens to this area once the Strandherd overpass is finished. I will miss getting weird angle shots like this, below.

Possibly the new Strandherd overpass will allow to an aerial shot and the new dead-end McKenna Casey could mean a quieter spot to railfan along the Smiths Falls Sub, free of traffic concerns. I can only hope.

Something a little different

As I mentioned in recent posts, I was lucky enough to spend some time in Stratford recently, which gave me the opportunity to take some shots of the Goderich Exeter Railway staging yard in the city, although it was quite empty for the most part.

You can read Part I of my series from Stratford here or Part II here. 

For the final portion of my Stratford pictures, I thought I would showcase one last shot I have attempted over the years, with varying degrees of success. I'm not sure what to call it, but it's kind of like a railway family photo where different railways get together in the same frame. But it's not quite a meet photo, as most have captured from time to time. This type of shot is a little different. The shot I have attempted a few times is a much more focused shot of the lead engines.

But before we get ahead of ourselves, I'd like to show off another few shots of a westbound Via corridor train bound for Sarnia. This train does one run to Toronto and back to Sarnia each day, so catching it is pretty simple. I was certainly not out to capture more Via Rail shots, but with no freight trains imminent, I figured I should capture what I could. 

Here's the first shot of the same consist I caught the previous day (see Part II link above). This time around, it was F40 6413 leading the way. Hard to believe these old warhorses will soon be gone when Via takes delivery of its new Siemens Chargers. I will miss the F40s. I've always liked them. 

The cut of hoppers in the GEXR yard was still there, possibly awaiting delivery the following day, which was a Monday. I hope the old Southern Ontario Railway geep tied up in the yard started okay. Two young railfans pointed out that someone had left the engine's trailing lights on. I had to strain to see the lights, but they were indeed left on. Oops.

 I figured I should also catch trailing P42 906 in the Via wrap design while I still can. It's not easy catching these engines in a single frame from the side, especially on a station platform. They are long units. I will say this. Via's wraps really do improve the look of these beasts, in my opinion. I know a lot of railfans don't like this scheme, but I like it. It's something different and it really does make the Via logo and the passenger train stand out. Both good things.

So with that business out of the way, this is the latest attempt at a family shot. I attempted to capture it as my one last frame before I packed it in for the evening. I have tried this type of shot before. This time around, I was reasonably pleased with the outcome. Unfortunately, my shot was a little off balance so I had to adjust the photo a bit, which trimmed a tiny bit off the top of the F40. Still, I love seeing two railways represented in the same shot. Both of these units are getting on in years and I'm sure one day this will be a shot I will appreciate more.

I will group together a few similar family shots in a future post, simply for the sake of exploring the idea of a different type of railfan photo. I hope this shot also explains that I am not anti-wedge or dramatic close-up, as some might have guessed, based on what I have written in this blog in the last little while.

As the light was fading fast, I didn't push my luck and headed back to the hotel where I was staying. It was a fun weekend in Stratford, which also included a quick trip to St. Marys to see the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and snag a few shots of the town's beautiful Via Rail station. Sadly, there were no trains coming through on the day I was there. Also, the pouring rain made it very difficult to get any shot at all, but here's a quick shot from the platform. You can see the town's water tower in the mist behind the station. You can also see the raindrops in the shot. Unavoidable, sadly.

That was the extent of my railfanning in Southern Ontario this summer. Now that my children are back at school, I do intend to try and catch up with the Wednesday Arnprior Turn here in Ottawa. Anyone who knows when it passes by in the morning these days, feel free to leave a message. I get the impression it has run later in recent weeks (around 10 a.m. or so). Any info is welcome.

Making the most of it

I don't need to tell any of you that 2020 has been a write-off in many respects. For me, it's been a challenge at times, particularly with this blog. Last week, I shared some photos of a nearly empty, quiet railyard in Stratford, since there was nothing happening when I arrived. Later the same day, I made a return visit, just in case. This is what I saw when I returned.

Nothing special right? Well, no quite. First of all, that string of hoppers was not there earlier in the day when I surveyed the yard, so it was obvious to me that a local spotted the cars at some point during the day, when I wasn't around. So that was disappointing. Those cars might have been headed for the salt mine in Goderich or an agricultural spur somewhere on the GEXR Goderich Sub. I'm not sure of the customer base on the CN Guelph Sub. I am just guessing it was headed for Goderich since I was at the same place last year and saw two orange GEXR geeps towing a string of covered hoppers toward the Goderich Sub.

Anyway, you will see that the two signals are showing red. What made that significant was that the signal on the left is a searchlight signal, which is dark unless something is imminent. That was my clue that something was coming. Exciting right? Well, not exciting exactly, since it was clear to me by the people on the station platform that the train that was coming was a Via Rail corridor train heading west for Sarnia. Not exactly was I came to see, but I decided to make the most of this grain elevator backdrop.

This shot, above, was my favourite. I have a few others where P42 906 is closer, but I much prefer this shot, since is incorporates more of the hopper cars and grain elevator. You will notice on the extreme right that I did purposely try to keep the flatcar in the shot as well. I figured, if I couldn't catch a freight train, I might as well keep as many of the freight cars in my shot as possible. I also like what the weeds add to the scene. To me, it screams secondary route, small town. That's the type of image I love to catch.

Here's a shot of the corridor train from a closer vantage point. I included it just for comparison's sake. I've noticed on a lot of railfan sites that these type of shots are usually the preferred image. I have been moving away from these images for quite a while. This is not to say that my way is any better. It's just a personal preference. I find I am much more interested in the overall scene, rather than how much of my frame is filled with the actual train. Still, I like how this shot at least keeps the grain elevator in the shot.

Here's one more shot of the train at the station, with an idle F40 on the tail end. This father and son were checking out the railway action along with me. At one point, they walked off the platform to check the signals, which were just beyond the end of the asphalt. This is a big difference I notice in smaller cities and towns. There is a much more liberal attitude toward railway property. I don't agree with this. I also saw another local resident cutting across a large piece of CN property that was clearly being used as a storage area for various pieces of construction and MoW equipment. I suppose if the railway has no active presence in the town, people don't worry so much about being caught. I still think it is always a bad idea to trespass on railway property. 

The worst example I ever saw of this attitude was when I saw multiple people crossing through CN's Dundas Subdivision yard in London, Ont. to take a shortcut. Given the railway's active staff in the yard and the frequency of trains on this busy route, I can't think of many things that are as reckless as this.

Anyway, before I left Stratford and headed home to Ottawa, I did manage to sneak in one last trip to this rail yard the next evening to catch the same Via Rail corridor train en route to Sarnia. I managed to try something a little different and was pleased with the end result. That will have to wait for another post.