Rolling stock madness

The top photo is a bit of a tease, even though it's not much at first glace. This is my initial shot when I caught up with CN's Arnpror Local, otherwise known as 589, recently. I call your attention to the lone tank car in tow. Do you see the yellow badge on it? I was surprised when I grabbed a few shots of the unique tank car, which I had never seen before. Seeing this tank car reminded me that I have amassed a collection of rolling stock photos over the last few years. This week, I decided to share a few photos of the standout shots I have spied trackside along with a number of shots my brother took trackside in Sarnia. I will share better photos of the tank car in the photo below soon.

The first image is a beautiful shot my brother grabbed of an old Boston & Maine covered hopper, which was repatched for ATEL Leasing Corp. As common as it is to see generic railcars with marks belonging to leasing companies, it's always interesting to see the old markings of a fallen flag remain on a car. In this case, the car looks very much like it did when it plied the rails of the Boston & Maine, which became part of Pan-Am Railways Guildford Rail System (later Pan Am Railways) in 1983.



Here's another from my brother in Sarnia Yard. This hopper is one of many CSX predecessor cars still bearing the markings of its former railway. I am fascinated by CSX's history, since it includes such colourful railways including the Baltimore & Ohio, Chesapeake & Ohio, Seaboard Coast Line, Louisville & Nashville, Western Maryland and many others. In this case, Seaboard System was the combination of the component railways that made up the Family Lines System. Since it was such a short-lived railway, I find any of its relics to be great finds.

Here's another shot from my brother in Sarnia Yard. These boxcars, which are patched for a leasing company, still carry faint markings for the Maine Central railway, another of my favourite fallen flags. These cars don't have the prominent original markings like the two cars photographed above, but they are still great reminders of railroading's past.

This shot, below, was taken when I caught up with a Canadian Pacific freight train in Bedell, Ontario, in July 2014. Like most railfans today, double stacks don't really excite me much, but there was something about the symmetry of the Canadian Tire containers that I liked, so I snapped a few shots. I like this image for some reason, but I'm not sure why.

 



This car I found in Walkley Yard in August 2013. It was perched on a spur near the Rideau Bulk facility. So, what's the big deal with this car? Well, it's incredibly rare to see a coal/aggregate car in Ottawa for starters. Even though the city has a number of stone quarries  on Moodie Drive near the Smiths Falls Subdivision, none has rail service. I sometimes see a modified orange CN hopper in the local yard, but this was the only time I saw this UP car. I'm not sure what it was doing in the yard, but I'm glad I caught it.

This tank car below is very much like any other Procor tank car. These cars are everywhere throughout the North American rail network, but what I found interesting was the little logo next to the Procor logo. I figured it had something to do with what the tank car holds. I checked the hazardous materials placard and found that this car holds sulfuric acid. I don't see many of these cars up here, so I thought I would add in this seemingly mundane shot.

This shot, taken August 2013, shows a Wisconsin Central boxcar resting on the same spur at the Rideau Bulk facility. There are always a few boxcars at this facility, which makes any visits to Walkley Yard worthwhile for railfans. These cars have been tagged repeatedly and repatched. I took the shot because I have not seen many WC cars up here.

This shot, taken, March 2013, is probably a fairly common site elsewhere but I've only seen these hoppers in Ottawa a few times. The car belongs to American Railcar Industries and is your basic four bay covered hopper. I've seen this paint scheme on these cars before but am not sure who the previous owner was. It was a nice splash of colour on a day when the rail yard was full of tank cars.

 

 

I was particularly pleased with this image, taken August 2014 in Goderich. Sadly, I've yet to see any live action in Goderich in my visits to the town, but this string of hoppers in the Goderich yard was a nice consolation. I used this image in a previous post about Goderich but I figured it was worth another look. I call this shot the manmade rainbow. The position of the sun and the composition of the sky made this a near perfect shot for me.

 

 

This last shot I included for two reasons. One is this car is patched for Cabot Carbon, a Chemical Valley company that once had a full fleet of its own black hopper cars that CN spotted and hauled away. Those cars even had the Cabot logo on the side. So, this car brought back memories for me. The second reason I chose this shot is because this car is so odd looking. The car doesn't have the Cabot logo and seems to be a hybrid between two cars (in appearance anyway). It's not quite a box car, but has the dimensions of a boxcar. It's not quite a hopper car in appearance although it clearly has the trappings of a hopper car. This car was spotted by itself in Sarnia Yard one cold morning a few years ago.

 

 

This final shot was taken in Markham through a hole in a fence trackside. Again, there isn't anything that stands out in this shot, but I liked it because of the diversity of the containers. You can see the Hapag-Lloyd, JB Hunt and CN trailers, but also the Stolt tanks. It's a fairly representative shot of modern railroading.

 

 

So that is my brief recap of some of the best rolling stock shots I have amassed in the last few years. Hopefully, it at least illustrates that it's not just the head end of a train that is worth a look.









Underpass Road

Last spring, my brother  Marc was driving near Watford, Ontario, east of Sarnia, along the CN Strathroy Subdivision. He spotted a CN freight train headed west toward Sarnia and decided to get some shots of the freight. Marc ventured down a picturesque side road, Underpass Road, to get some shots. He ended up capturing some great shots of this train. His first shot captured CN SD70M-2 8914 and ex-BC Rail C44-9WL 4644 emerging from the brush alongside the right-of-way as it heads over Underpass Road.

Here's a clearer shot of the locomotives. You can see from the trailing cars that the units are pulling a mixed freight, my favourite type of train.

This shot shows a great profile of the train, with a tank car, a few steel coil cars, a large gondola and two hoppers.

My brother headed up the road and got a close up of this tank car and box car. The real bonus in this photo, though, is the view through the underpass. You can literally see for a country mile beyond the tracks. In the distance, you can see the silo. As I have mentioned before, Lambton County is very much like the prairies, only with more trees. This shot illustrates that effectively.

Also last year, my brother was doing one of his regular tours of the train yard with his son when he spotted another BC Rail unit, Dash-8 40CM 4619 tied up with a few CN units. You can also see a few other CN units a few tracks over.

Finally, in late January, my brother caught an eastbound train emerging from the Paul Tellier tunnel. Full credit for framing the three units coming through the gantry. Well done, Marc.

 

That last shot illustrates just how different winter can be in different parts of Ontario, let alone Canada. While Sarnia enjoys many a winter day without snow, Ottawa is buried in 50+ centimetres of snow. I should mention we received 51.2 cm in a single day earlier this week. A record for the capital and we didn't even need to close the schools. 

The story behind the post: CASO's long lost St. Clair branch

Last week's post was nearly three years in the making. When I first started this blog in 2013, one of my first ideas was to trace the history of Canada Southern's St. Clair branch between St. Thomas and Courtright. Up until late last year, the post was in various stages of disrepair, owing to my utter lack of photographs of this line and my limited knowledge about this ghost of railroading past. Thankfully, in the past few months, several elements came together to get this post online. The end result reminded me of how much work it is to examine history, especially when there is very little to go on.

The Hotel Bedard, a railway hotel at the end of the CASO St. Clair branch in Courtright, Ont. The building, which faced the St. Clair River and served boat traffic in its heyday, was torn down in recent years.

Truthfully, this post's genesis happened long before I even started this blog. For years, I had no idea that a rail line terminated in Courtright. But one afternoon, as I was driving down the old Highway 80 (now County Road 80), I saw something in a farmer's field that sparked my quest to learn about this railway line. I was merely glancing out the window what I saw was I thought looked like a small railway bridge in the middle of a farmer's field. The bridge had to be an old railway bridge since nothing else made sense, seeing as the structure was nowhere close to any road or even private drive. That was my first indication that there was history begging to be discovered.

Years later, as I was beginning to wonder what to do with my old railway photos from the early 1990s, I began to actively search for railway blogs online. After a while, I came across one of the most extensive railway history websites about railways in Ontario, CanadaSouthern.com. This site has to be the most definitive source of information and photographs on CASO that you will find online. Searching around that site, I found information about the St. Clair branch, a rail line with deep historical roots in Lambton County.

Once I read about that branch, some elements began to come together. I already had purchased this photo (above) of the Brigden train station years before not to mention a shot of the Hotel Bedard in Courtright. I didn't know for sure what railway the Brigden station served. Soon after, I found some other photographs, including a shot of the Oil City station, that began to fill in the picture of what this old operation looked like.

Last year, I found a document that outlined the operations on the branch. In November, my Dad was able to find some historic photos of CASO operations in Petrolia that helped me fill in some more gaps in my knowledge. Finally, my brother was able to determine that the old CASO station in Petrolia was long ago moved to Bright's Grove where it has served as a private residence ever since. My brother was able to get a shot of the old station, which helped fill in another gap.

Finally, I was able to search through some very active Lambton County history groups online where I discovered a few more images that illustrated certain elements of this rail line. Finally, I tracked down a shot of the old Courtright station from the Moore Museum.

All these elements came together late last fall when I began to piece together the history of this long vanished rail line. I had to rewrite sections of it several times, since my understanding of the line changed several times. For example, I didn't know that Oil Springs was on a spur off the St. Clair branch, which dramatically altered the post, since I had originally written it with the understanding that Oil Springs was on the main line. The end result was last week's post, which was years in the making. It was definitely the more labour-intensive post I have put together for the Beachburg Sub. I would have liked to share it back in 2013, but better late than never.

This leads me to a question. I have been asked by a few readers whether I have done any research into old branch lines and subdivisions around the Ottawa area. I have stayed away from doing any historic posts about old subdivisions in this area, simply because there are better sources of information out there than this blog. Several rail history buffs have written books about Ottawa's rail past, which would be the best resource for those interested. However, if people are interested in hearing about old subdivisions in this area on this site, I'd be glad to take a crack at it. For example, I have uncovered an old right-of-way in the Crystal Beach area of the city, which I am researching right now. Feel free to leave a message with your thoughts.