Canadian Railroads > Fall sun

CN 120 departs Montreal for Halifax in sunrise light at 0830 Oct 12, 2014. The leaves have not fallen in Montreal yet. But the days are getting short.

KG

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120's timekeeping is uncanny. You can almost count on it to be in Halifax 24 hours after it left Montreal. This morning, the same 4 GEs, with some empty gypsum gondolas added in Moncton, were blasting through Windsor Jct., 10 miles out of Rockingham yard in Halifax, at 08:40. The fall colour here has peaked, and most of the leaves are now gone in the higher elevations like Folly Lake. It was cold enough over night to have frost this morning too, and 120 heads into the resultant ground fog after passing my location at the beginning of the Dartmouth Sub.

At the other end of the day, the Ocean crosses the Shubenacadie River at about 70 mph, trying to make up time, with about half an hour of sunlight left on Thanksgiving Day.

GTD

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Great pictures guys!

Andrew C

The going-away shot of 120 and the mist is excellent.

KG

Super cool seeing the trains in two different spots along the journey. Great work both of you.

A.J.

Perhaps during the long days of June Geoff and I can duplicate the same feat with the westbound train #121. It arrives in Montreal in the early evening. Does that mean it leaves Halifax exactly 24 hours earlier?

KG

kgmontreal Wrote:
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> Perhaps during the long days of June Geoff and I
> can duplicate the same feat with the westbound
> train #121. It arrives in Montreal in the early
> evening. Does that mean it leaves Halifax exactly
> 24 hours earlier?
>
> KG

121 usually leaves Halifax at 2030 ADT, unless they are delayed for some reason (usually because 120 was very late arriving, but that doesn't happen often). They are often ready to go earlier than that, but are held until 2030 to make the meet with 408 more predictable. Unfortunately, during the longest days of the summer, that only allows about 30 minutes of daylight before the sun goes down, so it is difficult to shoot 121 actually on the move.

On June 22 (almost the longest day of the year), 121 was on the roll through Bedford at 20:22, and even those extra 10 minutes probably made the difference between this shot and something considerably more murky. I can often get a shot or two of them doubling the train together, but it's not as wide open as this.

GTD

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