Canadian Railroads > Then and Now

I was skunked anyway in the sunshine department this morning for 120, so I thought I'd try a location that used to be a favourite, but has become rather overgrown of late.  Moirs Mills, a bit more than 9 miles from the Halifax VIA station, used to have two tracks, ABS signals, and a reasonably well kept right-of-way.  On March 9, 1997 the morning intermodal train was 130 instead of 120, and for some reason they were on the passenger track, rather than the usual north track (closer to the camera) that would became the Transfer Track and then the entrance to Rockingham Yard.  The power is typical of that era, with a new SD75I and older SD40 hauling what is probably a 5000-ton train.

Today, there was still brand new power (the ES44AC), but we could only dream of BC Rail cowls and standard cab Dash-8s in 1997! And today's train was pretty close to 10,000 feet.  There is now no guesswork involved in which track the train will be on, but finding a stretch clear of vegetation is the big challenge (assuming the sun does decide to shine).

But 18 years later, there is still a patch of wild blueberries growing out of the bedrock in the foreground of both pictures, and at least CN hasn't fenced the whole thing off yet.

GTD

---

---

---

Great comparison! Also a nice lashup on CN 121.

Michael

Love these. Looks like new condos in the background everything else pole wise is unchanged. Cool.
JB

I tried to remove the magenta cast from the original image.  See what you think.

KG

---

I am impressed with the first three wells behind the locomotives. I wasn't aware that there were all-purpose cars actually hauling Pigs in Canada.

Rick

KG:

Yes, it's an improvement.  I probably should have taken 30 seconds to do a white balance myself.  There's really no excuse when there is snow in the scene already.

Rick:

Remember, that first scene was almost 20 years ago.  TOFC, or in well cars, were still fairly common back then, and we still see them very irregularly now.  The CN 48 ft. 5-packs in the 67xxxx series have fifth wheels (also popular with the hoboes, since the ends have a solid floor), and there are a few other cars that show up from time to time.
GTD

Thanks for sharing! I always enjoy seeing the pictures from the late '90s as that is when I was just getting into railfanning aruond the Halifax area.

Andrew C