Nostalgia & History > South of the Border Philadelphia Way

Fifteen years ago CP intermodal trains 556/557 sometimes drew big MLW units as seen here in South Philadelphia in 1992. MLW M636 #4709 and M630 #4562 are on train 557 near the Walt Whitman bridge along Columbus Ave. on a May day.

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RDG630 Wrote:
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> Fifteen years ago CP intermodal trains 556/557
> sometimes drew big MLW units as seen here in South
> Philadelphia in 1992. MLW M636 #4709 and M630
> #4562 are on train 557 near the Walt Whitman
> bridge along Columbus Ave. on a May day.

Nice shots. I wish I had some good Philly stuff in my 1990s D&H coverage, but I never got south of Binghamton that much.

One note, though: the Toronto-Philadelphia side of that train was 558 -- not 556, which was the Montreal-Bingo-Philly-Alexandria train.

Funny that this was posted. Just last night I dug up some video of a January 1993 trip some friends and I made to Chicagoland, including night video from Beverly Shores IN. Beverly Shores hosted a nice South Shore depot, and parallel CSS&B and Conrail mainlines..at the time we had forgotten Conrail also hosted CP trains running on CSXT trackage rights from Chicago to Detroit. I was always a big fan of the CP MLWs, and was disappointed to learn most of them had been place in storage earlier in 1992. So we were stunned to hear a strange throaty bark and a distinctly Canadian horn hurtling out of the night down the Conrail mainline from the west...it was CP train 500 with a big 4700 leading 2 sisters and a lone SD40-2. What a sound they made charging through Beverly Shores at 50mph! We learned quickly after that the big MLW's were back for a last hurrah that year, and I enjoyed many good shots that winter and spring shooting the MLW's running on the CSXT trackage rights through Michigan.

Thanks for the pics!

RDG630, Nice images. South Philly never looked so colorful, except during the Mummers Parade. Gerry

P'burgMike, Those CP trains ran on the CSXT, ex-C&O, exx-PM, line, not on CR. In fact what could have been CR, the ex-NYC, exx-MC, line was and is owned and operated by Amtrak from K'zoo, MI, to Porter, IN.

GPUTZ....not so fast. I'm not referring to the old MC line. CP trains did indeed run on the CR (former NYC) on the section I was referring to: Between Porter IN, and Chicago. Beverly Shores, IN is in this section. They ran the CSX ex PM from Porter via Grand Rapids and Lansing to Detroit.

P'burgmike, according to Google.com/maps, Beverly Shores, IN, is 6 or 8 miles northeast of Porter, IN, not west of Porter toward Chicago. Of course, the Amtrak line is not shown on Google at all, and Google has "Porter" on the northwest side of I-94, which is incorrect. So, that map is not as good as it could be in those areas. Perhaps Google has misplaced Beverly Shores also. I'll check further later. Gerry

GPutz: I stand corrected..all those northern Indiana lakefront spots have apparently blended together in my mind over the years. I'm obviously thinking of Ogden Dunes (where the NYC does parallel the Southshore) and not Beverly Shores (where it does not)..that's what I get for recollecting without my notebook!

P'burgMike, that's OK. I'm just trying to keep it all straight in my mind, and it doesn't help when some of the maps are wrong. Gerry