Happy Canada Day!

A small break from our regularly scheduled programming to wish a Happy Canada Day to all of the Beachburg Sub's Canadian readers.

Lake Huron sunset

I've been lucky enough to visit the following provinces of Canada:

British Columbia*
Alberta
Saskatchewan
Manitoba*
Much of Ontario
Quebec
New Brunswick
Prince Edward Island
Newfoundland and Labrador
Nova Scotia (Cape Breton especially)

* - These two provinces are technically on the to-do list since I've only technically been to each. I switched planes at the Winnipeg airport and visited a glacier just over the Alberta-B.C. border.

No matter where I've been, this country never fails to astound me, especially its people. This country has is amazingly diverse in every sense of the word, but everywhere I go, I still get that feeling of pride in being Canadian. We are incredibly lucky to live in such a wonderful country.

For example, where else would you find the following?

Southwestern Ontario joke: Where's Drumbo? Just down the road from Innerkip, duh!

Weeds on the Citadelle Hill, Quebec City, 2010

Looking down from Signal Hill, St. John's, NL, 2005

Beautiful Louisbourg National Historic Site, Cape Breton Island

Nothing more Canadian than this. The Rockies, a grain train and the Canadian Pacific. Summer 1991, Banff Alta.

Samuel de Champlain Monument, Nepean Point, Ottawa

Happy Canada Day to all, from the Nation's Capital. Bonne Fête du Canada mes amis! (And, hey, Happy Fourth of July to all readers stateside).

Cheers!
Michael

Postcard from Chemical Valley

This week, I am starting a new and likely occasional feature on The Beachburg Sub. I plan to offer a single photograph and tell the stories attached with that single image. I am doing this for a few reasons. One, I have a number of photos that don't really fit in with any particular theme. Second, I feel like this format allows me to roam a little bit and tell some stories that I am not always able to explore in more regularly structured postcards.

So, with that, here is my first postcard, from beneath a bridge in Sarnia's Chemical Valley.

This shot, taken last Dec. 22, was shot beneath a bridge that carries Vidal Street above the CSX Sarnia Subdivision. You can see the shadow cast by the overpass in the shot. The road you see, partially in shadow, is the former stretch of Vidal Street, which once crossed three CSX tracks via a level crossing. That crossing would often produce traffic headaches as CSX trains would often block the crossing as they shunted cars in and out of the Dow Chemical refinery.

The overpass was built in the early 1980s to ease traffic flow and deal with safety concerns. The map below shows where I took the photo and gives you an idea of the track alignment. The old road just above the one labelled 33 is the former stretch of Vidal Street which once passed over the CSX tracks at a level crossing.

Fast forward to today and the old stretch of Vidal Street is part of a ghost town. The Dow Chemical refinery is long gone, having been closed in the early 1990s. In its place, all that is left is a vast expanse of concrete, old settling ponds, a few rail spurs and a small cogeneration plant. There has been talk of a business park on the old Dow site, but very little has happened here since most of the old refinery was dismantled.

That means this stretch of the valley remains pretty quiet, especially along the rails. CSX still uses some of the tracks here to park tank cars or queue them up before delivering them to other chemical plants further down the line. The image I took makes it look like the tank cars are parked on the main line, which is what I thought when I took the photograph. But the map shows you that this is not the case.

I vividly remember crossing these tracks when I was a child and often having to wait for the Chessie System painted geeps to clear the crossing long enough for my frustrated parents to drive by. Of course, as a kid, I was happy to sit in the back seat and watch the trains ply the rails. Sometimes, we would catch a glimpse of Dow Chemical's orange SW locomotive, which performed switching duties on the refinery's tracks.

Last December, when I visited this spot, I hoped I could catch something happening,  but this was all I was able to capture. I'm not a fan of photographing stationary cars, but in this case, the image sparked a flood of memories of busier times.

The path through the downtown: the Point Edward Spur

I have written a few posts about a curious little spur through downtown Sarnia called the Point Edward spur. The line used to go into Point Edward, a small village surrounded by Sarnia, but today is ends at the Cargill grain elevators on Sarnia Bay. The line winds through city parks and parallels Front Street, making its way around office buildings, a band shell, condos and a number of other things in the downtown.

You can read my first post about this spur here. The second post can be here.

I was lucky to receive some photos from my brother Marc who was in downtown Sarnia on April 27th. He happened to have his digital SLR with him when he heard a nearby horn, telling him that the CN local was making its away along the spur, which hugs the St. Clair River in different spots. The train was making its way to the Sarnia Yard.

The first shot above, shows the local returning from the grain elevators, with 7248 on point, being aided by a slug and safety scheme-clad 4136 sitting third.

Here's a closer view. You can just make out a piece of Sarnia's government pier to the left of the lead unit, which is where the grain elevators are located.

 

One final going away shot shows how close the track runs along Front Street in the downtown, with no fencing. The shot also gives you an idea of how the line is at street level for much of its run. You may also notice that the flowers were beginning to bloom in southwestern Ontario way back in April. Up here in Ottawa, we were only beginning to see the first hints of the crocuses (or croci? I've seen both usages) at that time.

 

You will also notice the covered hopper trailing behind the motive power. CN maintains this spur solely to service the Cargill elevator. The facility has two tracks where hoppers are spotted to take on grains, oilseeds (canola for example) and fertilizer, that are dropped off at the elevators by cargo ships. The elevators handle 500,000 tonnes of grain and 100,000 tonnes of dry fertilizer per year. That equals out to 30 freight ships docking at the elevators last year. CN movements to this elevator vary, according to the season and the amount of product to be offloaded. Here's a shot I took of some hoppers being loaded in December 2013.

 

 

Those who checked out my previous posts about this line will notice that the motive power on this line has changed over the years. In the 1990s, this line was served almost exclusively by SW1200 switchers, but that has changed as these old engines have disappeared from Sarnia. Another big change is that the line no longer hosts a small rail yard for ferry consists, since the ferry was retired when the new St. Clair Tunnel was opened in 1994. You can see the remnants of that old rail yard behind a downtown park (see map below). Nothing has been done with this land, although many different proposals have been floated about for its future use.

 

Here's a quick map I sketched out with the help of Google. See the legend below for an explanation of the arrows.

 

 

Red arrow - This is where the spur branches out of Sarnia Yard. Click here for photos I took of a train on this part of the spur last summer.

 

Green arrow - This is the site of the old CN ferry, which operated until the new St. Clair Tunnel was operational in 1994. Click here to see a post with shots of this old yard in its prime.

 

Teal arrow - This is where the spur crosses over Front Street at an angle.

 

Orange arrow - This is where the spur crosses back over Front Street and enters Centennial Park on its way to the grain elevator. This was also the point where the Point Edward Spur used to proceed on into Point Edward. There was once trackage here that was used for car storage.

 

Yellow arrow - End of the line. Cargill Grain Elevators.

 

I'm hoping I can do some shooting alongside this spur when I plan my next visit to the area later this year.