Still Standing: Glimpses of the Goderich Exeter Railway

It was a mixed blessing for railfans when Canadian National took back control of its Guelph Subdivision in 2018. At that time, its 21-year lease with shortline operator Goderich Exeter Railway expired, meaning that the GEXR railway had been severed from its London-Guelph-Georgetown operations and was forced to continue operating mainly on its Goderich Subdivision between its namesake town and its junction with the Guelph Sub in Stratford, Ontario. It also retained its Exeter Subdivision, which diverges off the Goderich Sub at Clinton and goes to Centralia. Stratford continues to act as the home base for this railway, which now shares the rail yard with Canadian National. GEXR's main customer base is agricultural, as well as the salt mine at the Goderich port on Lake Huron. 

GEXR has had three owners in its history. RailTex was its first owner when it began operations in 1992, followed by RailAmerica, which purchased the railway in 2000. Genesee & Wyoming, the shortline holding company with operations across North America, took over the railway in 2012 when it bought out RailAmerica. GEXR was initially known for its green GP9s that were named after Shakespearean characters, a nod to its base of operations in the Festival City.

Earlier in July, I paid a visit to family in Stratford and caught a few glimpses of the GEXR in its hometown, although the yard was largely quiet when I initially visited. Still, you can pretty much always find a few orange G&W painted units parked up against a bumper in the middle of the yard.

On July 20, after two days of watching really interesting CN action in the yard, I made my way back to the station, but it was quiet. There was a train coming from the east on the main line, but my time ran out waiting for it. I made my way across from the station to get shots from an adjacent street. In this shot, three G&W units, all GP38-2s, were sitting in the yard. The three roads represented were Goderich Exeter, Huron & Eastern (Michigan road) and the old Southern Ontario Railway. The SOR is another former G&W shortline in the Hamilton-Norfolk area whose trackage was brought back into the CN fold. Although all the units look alike, there is some interesting shortline heritage here in this shot.

Here's a shot that gives you some clues as to how it is for GEXR these days. On the final afternoon when I visited, the yard was largely empty. The hopper cars are the most common sight on the Goderich Sub these days, given the various crops and fertilizers that make up its freight services. Besides the hoppers, which are also used to serve the Godrich salt mine, the railway uses tank cars for servicing the salt mine as well. The coil cars are for CN customers on the Guelph Sub.

Which brings me to an interesting shot my brother took when he was in Goderich in June. He likes to snag images for me when he can, which is greatly appreciated. Take a close look at these tank cars.

You can see a box atop tank car TILX 220285. The key to understanding what is in that car is the material placard in the bottom right corner, which reads 3257. The placard tells us that this tank car is carrying an elevated temperature material, which would explain the box atop the car, which is used to maintain higher temperatures, I'm guessing. Since this car was parked in the Goderich yard, just up the hill from the salt mine, it's a safe bet that this car was carrying molten salt, which is listed as one of the common products carried in these special tank cars. 

Molten salt, unlike salt at room temperature, is a liquid and can be used in the industrial production of magnesium and aluminum. It can also be used in nuclear power generation. There are a number of other applications. I'm not sure what this car's contents would be used for in this instance, since I wasn't sure if it was an inbound or outbound car. Someone with a better knowledge of the salt mine might be able to shed further light on this.

My brother also caught the GP9 Goderich yard switcher 4001, which has been up in Goderich for years, which would explain why it has never been repainted in the G&W colours. At one point, this engine had its former road name painted on the side, but that has since been patched over.

Back to Stratford in July. When my family was staying in the city, we rented an AirBnB home just down Birmingham Street from the GEXR Goderich Sub trackage leading to the yard. My first day in the city, I caught a glimpse of a southbound train heading into the yard, although I was too late to catch it with any photo. Later during my visit, on my way back from the yard, I caught another southbound train on my way back to our AirBnB and managed to snag a quick photo through the front windshield. That's the old Southern Ontario Railway geep in the lead, pulling a long string of covered hoppers back to the yard.

And below is the Huron & Eastern geep trailing with the first covered hopper in tow. I moved a bit closer for this shot, but the sun was peaking out from behind the trees, which caused some windshield glare. I should have stayed put!

I took a quick shot of CAEX 471400 covered hopper, which had its Agri Industries lettering patched over at some point, but the patch was clearly fading amid the elements. This is another clue as to what the train was carrying, as GEXR is still very much involved in the movement of crops, seed, fertilizers and grains from the farming economy in this part of the province.

All in all, I was happy to be able to cobble together enough shots of the GEXR to put together a post about this fascinating operation in a picturesque part of Ontario. Here's one final shot of the GEXR right-of-way from the Birmingham crossing, which I took on a walk through the neighbourhood. This is facing northeast in the direction of Goderich.

This is one of my favourite railways. I was lucky enough to capture quite a bit more action from Stratford in my time there in July, which will be shared in several upcoming posts. Stay tuned.

Dive right into 2024 (Stratford Part IV)

Happy New Year, fellow friends of the iron horse. I was considering how to start the new year and what to write about when it hit me. Just start with some cool train photos. That was what I decided. There is lots of material left over from last year's adventures, which will be shared over the weeks and months to come. Sadly, I wasn't able to make it trackside over the Christmas holidays, but that's okay. There was very little snow after Dec. 25 and I was still working my regular hours at home, so the opportunities for something seasonal didn't materialize.

So let's start with some shortline summer action shots, shall we? On July 30 while in Stratford for a family reunion, I had a chance to stop by the Stratford station to see if there was anything going on in the yard. Luckily, there was. The GEXR crew had two geeps idling in the yard and ready for some work. Later on, CN 568 came passing through, which you can check out in this post. In the harsh early morning sunlight, I wandered around the yard from publicly accessible vantage points, as the crew assembled a string of hoppers that seemed to be destined for Goderich or other points along the GEXR Goderich Subdivision. Here's a shot from the crossing. The morning sun was washing out the sky, but I still like this shot.

I have a friend who takes shots from this vantage point, so I decided to follow his lead and get an overall shot of the yard action. This is in keeping with what I started last year, in the Year of Different. the goal is to get some railway images that aren't dominated only by the train. In this case, I wanted to get the grain elevator and the overall yard in the image. I didn't get all that I wanted, but I think this shot conveys the overall size of this railway operation.

Here's another example of a shot that is different. I wouldn't have taken this shot even a few years ago. The crew in this shot is getting ready to couple its two hoppers with a few more cars, some that are hidden behind the boxcar. It's the human element that I like in this shot, even though the morning sun did not do me any favours.

The engines went back and forth getting the cars the crew needed to take up the Goderich Sub, which allowed me to think about different shots and elements to capture. There's nothing like a good smoke shot! In fact, I dedicated a previous post to smoke.

As everyone knows, GEXR is a shortline owned by the Genesee & Wyoming Inc. shortline company, so it's not uncommon to see orange units in the yard that aren't technically GEXR units. In this case, the power was supplied by a Southern Ontario Railway GP38-2 2111 and Huron Eastern GP38-2 3510. Here's a closer look at the Huron Eastern logo, which is a small departure from the G&W logo.

While SOR has been absorbed back into the CN empire, HESR continues to operate close to 400 miles of track in Michigan's thumb area and into Flint and Saginaw in the lower peninsula of the state. Here's something that I thought was odd, though. Since I have been taking shots in this yard in Stratford, I have spotted more G&W units that are not GEXR than I have actual GEXR units. I would imagine the reason for this is that things are likely quite fluid between the various operations that G&W oversees across North America.

One more observation from this shot. The aftermarket horn on the SOR unit, as it was moving across the crossing, was more like a car horn than a train horn. It was quite pathetic, to be honest! I often see people on train forums that can rhyme off the actual make of horns on engines. In all honesty, that is a level of detail I just don't have room for in my brain.

Here's shot that required some editing, as the morning sun was playing havoc with my shots. I decided I would accept some form of distortion and shadow for the chance of getting a shot of the engines in action against the backdrop of the grain elevator. I liked how this turned out, despite the obvious imperfections. It screams early morning or late evening. 

Here's one final shot with a blue sky in it, as the sun was throwing me a bone. The shadows were harsh still, but the colours came through pretty well in this shot as the crew stretched out its consist before backing it up again to pick up more cars. I didn't stick around for it to depart, as my daughters were getting a little impatient, so I decided to wrap up my wanderings shortly after taking this shot and a few more.

Looking through my photos from Stratford this summer, I can see I have a lot more to share. This early morning bit of shunting was fun to see but there were a few more surprises the yard still had to offer me. However, it wasn't until I returned to Stratford in November that these surprises were fully revealed. All in all, it was a fun bit of railfanning on a pleasant July morning. And that wasn't counting the mainline freight that came through later on.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas break. Here's to more rail musings and conversation in the year to come.

Lament for a lost shortline operation

I’ve written a fair bit in this blog about a fascinating railway called the Goderich-Exeter Railway in southern Ontario. In recent years on family trips to areas where GEXR operates, I’ve tried to capture some activity on this shortline with little success. That changed in 2017 when I finally caught a little activity in Kitchener, including this train working the Kitchener yard.

… and this pair of engines that had just pulled up into the GEXR offices next to the Kitchener Via Rail station on Victoria Street.

Without getting into the history too much, the GEXR took over CN’s operations on its Guelph and Goderich Subdivisions in 1998 and, by all accounts, did a great job attracting more business along the line.

I have also mentioned in this space that I once lived in Kitchener and often saw the railway in action, but I never bothered to photograph it, since I was not in the habit of taking rail photos at the time. When I was working for the Kitchener-Waterloo Record newspaper, I planned to do a business magazine feature on the GEXR right around the time when I was laid off. What might have been…

So it’s with a little bit of sadness that I learned recently that CN resumed operations along the Guelph Subdivision last year once GEXR’s 20-year lease on the rail line expired. I’m only mentioning it now since I recently travelled in the area where GEXR still operates.

The good news is that GEXR still maintains operations between Exeter, Goderich and Stratford, which is one of the areas where I was recently (closer to Stratford, actually). However, I can’t help but wonder how much of the railway’s revenues were derived from this stretch of track. To my uninformed eye, I would imagine that the Guelph Subdivision accounted for the lion’s share of the revenues. It makes me wonder if GEXR parent company Genesee & Wyoming will be terribly interested in maintaining the old Goderich Subdivision as a standalone operation. I hope so.

The bad news is that I have seen first hand what happens when CN takes back shortline operations. Now, I won’t get into what happened to the remnants of the old Ottawa Central operations, since there is a massive difference between OCR and GEXR, but I think it’s still a fair comment. CN is great at being a mainline transcontinental railway. As a local service operator in smaller centres? Well, I can’t imagine many people would think that service will improve along the Guelph Subdivision. I hope CN maintains the level of service and finds ways to keep expanding, but I am skeptical. Does any major railway know how to do carload business effectively anymore?

I also wonder what will happen to the Waterloo Central Railway, which operates on part of the Elmira trackage in north Waterloo. That rail line’s freight operations, such as they are, have been handled by GEXR for years on an as-needed basis outside the hours where the Waterloo Central would operate. I'm not sure what the fate of this line is, as it is, generally speaking, not essential to CN's goal to use the Guelph Sub as a through route.

It should also be noted that CN also took over the majority of the operations of the Southern Ontario Railway, which operated in the Hamilton-Caledonia-Nanticoke area. That was another line I recently saw.

It’s an interesting trend that flies in the face of what we typically see today. Most Class I railways are not in the habit of taking back their former operations on secondary lines from shortline operators, but CN is the exception. I suppose an optimist would suggest it’s a good sign that the economics of operating on these lines has attracted a big player like CN again, since that obviously speaks well of the regional economy.

Truthfully, I worry about this move, purely from a railfan point of view. I think freight railways have an important role to play in moving goods in an environmentally friendly manner at a time when we are looking to reverse the effects of climate change. Railways also help maintain the economies of towns that otherwise cannot attract big business. Ask Renfrew County or the Pontiac Region in Quebec how their efforts to attract big business are going now that they have no rail access.

Here in Canada, there is no turning back from rail abandonment. We have no effective legislation to preserve rail lines as they do in many jurisdictions in the United States.

So this summer, I was pleased to finally see some GEXR activity when I was in the Stratford area (stay tuned for that post). I have always been a fan of the underdogs, which is why I had a real affinity for the GEXR. I hope CN treats these operations better than it did to the old OCR operations in Ottawa.

One can only hope.

Making up for lost time: Catching up with GEXR in Kitchener

My two years spent in Kitchener-Waterloo seem like a lost opportunity to me, in some ways. I worked in Kitchener for two years and, for the most part, enjoyed my time there immensely. But as I look back, I wonder how much railfanning I could have done, had I had a mind to do so when I lived there. At the time however, I was not into railfanning so the only photo I have from my time in KW is a shot from Kolb Park of the train trestle over the Grand River, which you can see inthis post.

However, I had the opportunity to turn my regret into something positive when I visited KW with my family in November. On a gloomy, misty Sunday, as my wife attended a conference, I took my girls with me to Kitchener so they could visit The Museum, a kids-focused museum on King Street in Kitchener. I made sure to plot a route that took me past the Kitchener Via Rail train station on Victoria Street.

When we reached the station, I finally saw some active Goderich Exeter Railway freight operations in action. This was the first time I have photographed this fascinating railway. You will remember from my numerous posts about Goderich, Ont. that I have tried to capture some active GEXR operations for years, but have always had to settle for some static images, like this shot of a pre-Genesee &Wyoming livery GP9 parked in the GEXR Goderich yard, just up the hill from the salt mine on Lake Huron.

I've finally seen some live GEXR operations.

Well, wasn’t my timing just perfect when I saw a duo of GEXR geeps and a tank car back into a spot in front of the GEXR offices, right next to the Via station. I have always told myself it would be cool to get some photos in this spot with those iconic vintage industrial buildings in the background.

I began from this angle, since the two units were still moving. I wasn’t sure how long my window would be to catch this tiny consist (which was about as long as the Arnprior Turn, incidentally). The two units then stopped and the crew began to shuffle around outside, which allowed to try some different shots and get a bit more detail.

The first unit, obviously of UP origin, is a leased unit from Locomotive Leasing Partners, still in the UP sergeant’s yellow. This is a fact of life for short lines. Very few seem to have their own fleet of colour-coordinated motive power now. I was pretty happy with this shot, which I framed between the Via station (left) and the GEXR building (right).

Upon closer inspection of the G&W painted unit, I was pleasantly surprised to see it was in fact a Quebec Gatineau Railway unit. This short line is just across the river from me in Ottawa, but I have yet to get some solid information as to when it would be best to shoot the QGRY’s operations near Buckingham. I still have it on my to-do list, but this contact might be the next best thing until then. 

I tried to get a close up of the “Kitchener” sign that was perched on this pipe next to the short consist. I’m not exactly sure if this pipe is connected to an underground fuel storage tank or serves some other purpose. Given that crews seem to change here and the railway has a small yard just to the east of this spot, I am speculating that this might be a servicing point. Someone who is more knowledgeable than me can let me know.

One last overall shot. I really like how the old industrial buildings provide the ideal background for these units. There is a timeless quality to this scene, which could be taken at any time. The crew on this consist must get the occasional railfan on the platform. They didn't seem fazed by my presence.

I thought I was done so I took my girls to the museum where they had a ball. On the way back to our hotel, I was happy to see another GEXR train doing some shunting near the station, although it was blocking a fair bit of traffic on Lancaster Avenue. Much of the train seemed to be comprised of covered hoppers, which made me wonder if it was carrying the products of the fall harvest.

I was in a left turn lane trying to get onto Lancaster. After waiting through too many light cycles, I pulled a U turn and made my way to St. Croix Street, since the train didn’t seem to be in a rush to clear the crossing. I was able to get this fleeting glimpse of the head end of the train, which finally backed into the yard and cleared the crossings. This was taken just off St. Croix Street, behind a plaza that was next to the Guelph Subdivision tracks.

The lead unit reminded me of the old Seaboard System/Family Lines System locomotives that sometimes made their way to CSX’s Canadian operations near Windsor and sometimes even Sarnia. Upon closer look, the unit turned out to be QGRY 6908. You can just make out the G&W style logo on the short hood. 


What’s interesting about this little bit of luck is that, just the day before, I had a chat with a friend from Kitchener and I was telling her that living with regret isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I told her that I really resent people telling me that’s it unhealthy to live with regret. I understand the sentiment, but I really do believe that resenting something in your past is never a bad thing, if you use that resentment as motivation to make things right.

This is one time when I was thankful for resenting missed opportunities.

If there was one downside to this railfanning experience, it was that the weather was pretty awful, as I had to contend with rain and mist, which made for some interesting touch-ups. If you want to see much better photography of GEXR operations, check out Steve Boyko's Kitchener Rainfanning post from his blog, Confessions of a Train Geek. I'm glad someone had decent weather in KW!

Guest Post: Riding the rails with Sarnia's little-known short line

Beachburg Sub readers are by now familiar with the photo contributions of my brother Marc, who lives in Sarnia. Recently, Marc and his children had the unique opportunity to take a tour of a small Sarnia short line railway's operations first hand. What follows is his account of this incredible behind-the-scenes look at a busy railway in action - Michael

Sometimes it’s not what you know, but who you know. 

I’m a causal rail enthusiast, with a rekindled interest in the local Sarnia rail scene. As mentioned by Michael in previous posts, our family has a long rail history, going back three generations. My career took me into the aviation field, but my young son brought me back to watching trains. My son and I often take a break from the family’s weekend errands, and visit the Sarnia Via Rail station to watch the action in Sarnia Yard. We’re lucky to see so much on this busy line. Forgive my lack of proper terminology and my photography shortcomings…I’m not expert. I’m just a dad who likes to take his kids to see the trains.

SW1200 1511 arriving to meet the kids with bell ringing! Background is Imperial Oil, one of Sarnia’s biggest refineries. I like the silhouette of the engineer shown here.

A family friend knew my son was obsessed about trains, and she kindly offered to arrange a tour of her company’s facility: Sarnia’s little known, but very busy short line railroad: VidalStreet Industrial Park Inc. (VIP).

Arial view looking west at the VIP site. Note the rail storage yard, bottom center (red arrow) Part of the Lanxess and Cabot site to the left (blue arrow). Imperial Oil above and to the left of VIP (yellow arrow), along with a few smaller refineries. St. Clair River (and Michigan) shown above Imperial (white arrows).

VIP operates on the former Fibreglass Canada site in Sarnia’s Chemical Valley. Fibreglass closed its doors in 1991, leaving 600 people out of work, and an abandoned 30-acre site. I remember it being a huge loss for Sarnia at the time. A group of Sarnia businessmen bought the site in 2005 and started the VIP short line railway.

1201 being refurbished. It was a former CN unit. Photo from VIP. Switcher No. 1007 is also in the fleet, a former Dow Chemical unit. Dow operated a large site in Sarnia for many years on the CSX Sarnia Subdivision.

VIP has three SW1200 engines: 1007, 1201 and 1511. They have three spurs: one servicing Imperial Oil, one connected to the Canadian National yard, and one servicing Cabot Carbon and Lanxess to the south. They are not connected to CSX’s lines, but are able to service these customers through the CSX/CN interchanges.

Riding in the cab of 1511, looking South towards Lanxess and Cabot Carbon. Servicing Cabot is a dirty job, as shown on top of the cab. Carbon-black dust from hopper loading makes for dirty engines. My son commented: “Daddy, the engine needs to go to the wash-down!”

VIP services local industry in several ways: They took over much of the shunting from CN: assembling, storing, and delivering consists in and out the CN yard. They have a large storage yard, holding 700 cars. They also offer trucking, warehouse and transload services. Cabot and Lanxess do not have much rail storage available on site, and use VIP to hold, deliver, and retrieve empty cars on a daily basis.

Ready for our ride! Lanxess site in the background. Among many other products, Lanxess is the world’s sole producer of food-grade butyl rubber, used for chewing gum. Check out the old crossbucks!

It was a great morning to see the Chemical Valley from behind the scenes. Our tour started at Kenny Street in Sarnia, continuing though VIP’s yard, through a section of Imperial Oil, and past the St. Andrew St. level crossing. We stopped short of the CN yard, and headed back. The train’s horn startled the kids!

Looking north along the swampy line. Heavy rain has flooded many areas.

Approaching the St. Andrew St crossing, with your friendly VIP guide standing guard.

It was a short tour, but a great experience for all of us. I haven’t been on an engine since I was a kid, when a friendly CP engineer in Banff took time from his break and let me and Michael come see inside the engine. (It was an SD40-2 towing a disabled Via F unit - Michael)

My three year old was excited beyond belief. We are lucky to have a friend who went the extra mile for us.

 

Thanks to my brother Marc for contributing this first-hand account of the VIP operations in Sarnia. Please feel free to leave a comment to let him know what you think.