The Prince of Wales Bridge: Oh, no, not again

Just when you thought it was safe to put this piece of Ottawa's rail past and future on the back burner, the Prince of Wales Bridge has once again made headlines. The bridge, which has not seen action in many years, has long been neglected by its current owner, the City of Ottawa. After years of rejecting calls to preserve the bridge for use as an interprovincial light rail link, the city has finally come around to the idea of using the bridge for commuter trains in the future. So, all is well right? Well, not so, apparently.

As many locals know, the Prince of Wales Bridge was once a key piece of the Canadian Pacific Railway's rail network in Ottawa. It once played a key role in connecting the CP Ellwood, Prescott, Lachute and Maniwaki Subdivisions in the National Capital Region. In the final days of the Canadian Pacific's presence in the region in the late 1990s, the bridge was lightly used although it did connect CP to its last remaining customers on the Quebec side of the Ottawa River. After CP left Ottawa, the bridge was purchased by the city as part of the deal it struck to buy the Ellwood Subdivision, which is now the O-Train Trillium Line.

In recent months, the city has been busy putting the final touches on the O-Train Confederation Line. The new electrified light rail line crosses over the old  Ellwood Subdivision. The contractor building the line is in the midst of constructing the new Bayview O-Train station, which will allow commuters to transfer from the electrified Confederation Line with the diesel-powered Trillium Line (there will be no rail connection like a diamond due to interoperability issues between the two O-Train systems).

The problem that the city has now is that the old rail line that leads to the bridge was removed, which is a no-no under federal laws. This is the position of the Moose Consortium, a organization that has plans to establish a private regional commuter service on the existing rail lines in the capital region. Now the city is in big trouble, it seems, with the Canadian Transportation Agency, which is the body that grants permission for rail lines to be removed. Making matters worse for the city, it appears that it okayed permanent structures to be built atop the old rail line. Now the city has until the end of the month to explain to the federal agency why it has removed rail without following the proper procedures, according to local coverage.

In my former life as a journalist, I spoke to the man behind the Moose Consortium Joseph Potvin and he told me flat out he was going to make sure that the city lived up to its obligations as the owner of the rail line and the Prince of Wales Bridge. He told me more than once that he would do everything he could to make sure that the infrastructure at Bayview was kept in some sort of operational condition. He says fixing this mistake will cost the city $20 million.

Here's what I am wondering. If the city is serious about using this bridge for rail, which finally appears to be the case, why is the city building over this line? If what Moose is saying to true, why would there not be a plan in place to preserve this rail?

Here's the biggest question in my mind: Am I the only one who noticed when the Trillium Line was rebuilt that the Trillium Line's connection to the old trackage to the bridge was disconnected and buried? It's been several years since this part of the rail line was removed, but nothing was said then. While I appreciate that the removal of the 250 or so metres near the new Bayview Station is much more noticeable, I wonder why nothing was said about the original disconnection of the Prince of Wales trackage years ago.

I can only shake my head as a railfan and as a taxpayer that this situation is resolved properly.

A little fun on the 401

When my family recently travelled down to the Sarnia area for the Mother's Day weekend, I once again played one of my favourite games. Whenever we travel Highway 401, I bring along a camera to see if we can get some shots of trains at speed. I've done this many times, with varying results. At the very least, it's a good way to pass the time on what is always a very long ride.

Here's what we got this time around.

When we were passing through Kingston Friday morning at around 110 km/h, a westbound Via Rail train from Montreal overtook us. My wife snapped a pretty cool shot of wrapped P42 912, a renaissance-painted Business Class coach and a wrapped coach.

This stretch of CN's Kingston Subdivision is a gold mine for railfanning, even if you're in a car. A little further west of this spot, the subdivision crosses under the 401 near Montreal Street (I think), which is where we caught a glimpse of this freight heading east. I was a little disappointed with our timing. Had we travelled a little slower, we would have met this one at a better spot along the highway. Oh well.

Not the best shot, but it still works for me. There's just one unit pulling some centre beam lumber cars and a few gondolas and some covered hoppers (out of frame). Maybe a local? I suspect my friend Eric Gagnon might be able to comment on this.

One the way home to Ottawa, we didn't have the same kind of luck, but I did manage to snag a shot of some GO Trains idling near the 401 east of Toronto. You can see some of the glare from the window, which I was not able to photoshop out completely.

And, as we usually do, we came across an endless container train. We usually see a few of these when we travel the highway, although we often catch them mid-train. Still, a good collection of trailers to see, if that's your thing.

Here are two final shots, which illustrate how tough this game can be, although I have to hand it to my wife for being a gamer. Here's a shot she got from the passenger seat, shooting across the driver's seat and across the westbound 401. The first shot is completely untouched.

Another wrap! Here's my attempt to work with one of the shots.

You get the idea. It's sometimes a game of diminishing returns, but it makes the drive much more fun, for me at least.

Perfect afternoon in Wyoming

My family recently made a quick trip to Southwestern Ontario to attend two family gatherings. It was a hectic weekend, which was not made any better when bookended it with an eight-hour car ride each way. I did manage to get some quiet time in Wyoming, along the CN Strathroy Subdivision on the Saturday. It was a perfectly sunny afternoon, with the temperature reaching 20C. I sat at the Wyoming Via Rail station, hoping to catch a freight train. After about 40 minutes of waiting, my limited window was waning, as I had to head back to my Dad's house in Petrolia and get ready for a family reunion in Thamesville, near Chatham. While waiting for a train, I snapped a quick photo of the CN Wyoming sign, which is right at the end of the Via Rail platform. You can see the old ramp used to load rail cars off to the right.

This platform, which is in remarkably good condition considering it hasn't been used in some time, feeds a disconnected siding* running behind the Via station. This track used to feed the Wanstead Farmers Co-operative elevators just west of the station (see photos below). It's a bit of an anomaly. The rails are still in place and you need to cross the tracks to get to the Via Rail station. But it's obvious that the line hasn't been used in a long time. You'd have thought CN would have pulled this old trackage long ago, as it still crosses Wyoming's main street.

The train finally did emerge from the east, right around when I was ready to pack it in. I figured something might happen since the signal you see in the photo was mostly blinking yellow as I sat at the station and switched to straight red. I hoped that meant something might be coming from the east. I'm glad I waited.

The only let down was the fact that I was on the shadow side of the train, although beggars can't be choosers, since all other vantage points on the other side of the tracks were private property, so I had to make do with my spot as it was. What a surprise as the train came into view. I was expecting the usual two units leading the train, but there were a few more. In fact, there were five. I can't recall the last time I saw five units up front on a train. I figured there were a few units being taken somewhere, possibly for maintenance or possibly for assignments further west.

I was happy with this shot, especially after colour corrections. You can't really see it, but the old CN trackage is buried in the grass. It starts in the bottom right corner of the shot and makes its way on an angle to the main line.

The train was flying through town, so I tried to get a few different shots that incorporated different elements of Wyoming. In this shot below, you can see the town's water tower and the tiny Via Rail station.

And in this shot, you can see the five units crossing Broadway Street, Wyoming's main street. You can also see the CN communications tower and my Mazda 5, making its first cameo on the blog.

There were a few cool pieces of rolling stock on this mixed freight, like this unit strapped to a TTX flat car.

And here's another oldie, a RailBox boxcar in its original scheme, not the repatched TTX scheme. Following it is another flatcar with unknown contents beneath a black tarp. I'm so glad I caught a mixed freight instead of a container train.

I tried to incorporate the Wanstead Farmer's Co-op in a shot, so I framed the end of the train with the elevators. You can also see Wyoming's Home Hardware on Broadway.

So, that was my meet with a rumbling westbound CN freight on its way to Sarnia Yard and beyond. I was pretty happy to be able to spend some time in Wyoming and catch a freight rolling through town. I've had this spot on my wish list for years, so I can now cross it off. Mission accomplished.

* - A reader pointed out that the disconnected trackage running behind the Via station was not a siding, but a spur. I always assumed that a spur was a track branching off a main line that leads to a dead end. I assumed a siding was a track branching off a main line that reconnects to the main line at the other end. And, yes, I do understand what the purpose of a siding is, which the track in Wyoming likely was not intended for (it was for local service). So, I'm open to being corrected, but this Wyoming siding branched off near the Co-op, in the photo above, and reconnected to the main line further east, beyond the station. Hence, I called it a siding. Please let me know if I'm off base.