Canadian Railroads > The unexpected

With railfans these days posting OSes here, on Yahoo, on Facebook, etc, it's a lot easier to know what's coming and prepare accordingly..... But there's still something to be said for lucking into a good consist/train. Yesterday morning I went out on a sunny morning, hoping to shoot CN 120 leaving Taschereau Yard. As I got off highway 20 at Norman, I heard CN 120 on the scanner tell the yardmaster they were only starting to switch, so they wouldn't be out anytime soon. I did hear CN 369 talking to the RTC about crossing over at Caron, on the West Island area of Montreal. I got back on the highway, as the CN tracks parallel highway 20 for a good distance. I caught up to CN 369 around Pointe-Claire and saw that it had an interesting lashup composed of a CN Dash9-44CWL and a BCOl Dash9-40CMu. It had to wait at Caron for two westbound VIA's to pass, so I was able to get ahead and wait for it at on overpass at Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue. It had clouded over a bit, but it cleared in time for CN 369 to depart. The sun angle wasn't quite ideal, but what can you do!  CN 369 was shorter than usual (416 axles) and the unit numbers were CN 2503 and BCOL 4608. After shooting CN 369 I was able to shoot CN 120 leaving the yard anyways.

Michael Berry

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The consist included two 369 mainstays - alumium and lumber from nothern Quebec. The first shot shows the reason that 369 had to wait for the VIA's to pass, some CN MOW crews were working on the south track.
 

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Does that train originate in Montreal or does it originate in Northern Quebec? I'd guess there would be a pair between Montreal and Senneterre and another between MTL and Jonquiere. Last summer I stayed at a friend's place across the river from the RR near Lac aux Sables and was surprised at the long freights I saw; IIRC one even had mid-train power.

CPR_4000 Wrote:
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> Does that train originate in Montreal or does it
> originate in Northern Quebec? I'd guess there
> would be a pair between Montreal and Senneterre
> and another between MTL and Jonquiere. Last summer
> I stayed at a friend's place across the river from
> the RR near Lac aux Sables and was surprised at
> the long freights I saw; IIRC one even had
> mid-train power.

CN 369 originates in Chambord in northern Quebec. Not only is it usually DPed, it often has a double DP set up north. See my post here for CN 369 up north: http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?15,3857631,3857631#msg-3857631

CN 365 runs from Senneterre to Garneau Yard in Grand-Mère but no further and CN 366 does the opposite run. Presumably traffic from Senneterre would leave Garneau westbound on CN 369 or CN X461 (which runs from Garneau to Montreal).

Michael

 

Thanks for the info, Michael! Maybe I'll actually explore that line this summer. On the way to my friend's place I crossed the Hervey-Levis/Quebec City line at St. Casimir but didn't see any trains. How does that work?

Nice images...nice composition!

611

CPR_4000 Wrote:
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> Thanks for the info, Michael! Maybe I'll actually
> explore that line this summer. On the way to my
> friend's place I crossed the Hervey-Levis/Quebec
> City line at St. Casimir but didn't see any
> trains. How does that work?

The line from Hervey to Quebec City has not seen any trains at all since about 2007 (with the exception of a single rail train a couple of years back).

Michael

Mberry Wrote:
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>
> The line from Hervey to Quebec City has not seen
> any trains at all since about 2007 (with the
> exception of a single rail train a couple of years
> back).

The track did look pretty rusty last summer.