Canadian Railroads > More Pictures from Trenton, NS

ghCBNS gave us some pictures of the former CN H-S van recently installed in Trenton, NS (see http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?15,4022224,4022224#msg-4022224 ).  I made a trip up there this past week and discovered a few other things that weren't mentioned in the post.  I didn't include a picture here, but the van now has all 5 digits of its road number (79294), although the colour is still somewhat less that prototypical.

​In addition to the caboose, there are a couple pieces of "art" alongside the site of the former car works on the west side of Trenton's main drag.  Although I didn't realize it at the time, yesterday was the anniversary of the first pouring of steel in Canada, in 1883, at Trenton.  This sculpture of a ladle has some random fountain action to animate the scene.  In the bright sunlight Wednesday it managed to produce a small rainbow for my camera.

The other big apparatus is an axle hammer, that once churned out 65 axles in an 8-hour shift at the car works.  Apparently it could be heard, or felt, all around town.  No doubt it caused the deafness of several generations of workers.

​Another ex-CN van seems to have shown up in the area since my last visit.  CBNS 2000 (former CN 79636) was almost hiding in the weeds in from of "Trenton University".  The plant has been idle for the last year or so since the bankruptcy of a company manufacturing wind turbine towers there.

GTD

 

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Going back to May of 2007, Greenbrier had just shut down the plant, after it had been making railcars since 1912 (with several pauses for bankruptcies and reorganizations).  Although some metal bashing has continued since, it has mostly been the wind turbine towers and specialized forge work (for a company that makes roller coasters, among other things), not rail related.  The 6 shorter stacks in the picture are still there, but the two taller ones have come down sometime in the last 9 years.

​Going back even further, PSC van CBNS 2000 looks like it has fresh paint in the Stellarton yard in 1997.  I did shoot this van working once, on the point of a movement shoving coal hoppers up the hill at Pt. Tupper, but I don't seem to have a scan of that handy, so this will have to suffice for now.

GTD

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Thanks Geoff....A reminder of what Trenton once was! Not much left in Pictou County now other than Michelin Tire and Northern Pulp (and both still see rail service from CBNS)