Canadian Railroads > Yesterday and Today, CN 120

Yesterday (Saturday) looked promising weather wise for photography, although 120 was rather late again (Friday's 120 didn't arrive at Rockingham until well after dark).  They spent over three hours in Moncton, dropping local intermodal and picking up junk for Halifax, and for some reason moved the DPU (2526) up to the head end, meaning they didn't get away until about 10:30 (normal departure should be something like 06:00).  A friend and I figured we could meet them at Folly Lake about 13:00, but it turned out to be after 2 pm before the train finally showed.  We did manage a number of different shots, including the first one here, part way down the east side of Folly Mountain.

​A new location has opened up at Mile 59 on the Bedford Sub.  A new detector has been installed there, replacing the one at mile 61, and the process of clearing a space for it has removed enough alders and other bushes with large thorns, to get this view of the train passing the approach signal to Hyde in Hilden.  This was briefly shootable after all the brush under the pole line was removed a few years ago, but it quickly grew up again.

​Finally, we went for another overhead shot from the bridge into Laurie Park at Oakfield.  The overcast was getting thicker, and the remaining shots in Halifax were positively gloomy.

​GTD

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We've got another storm coming to the east coast tonight, but today was literally the calm before the storm.  And although 120 was late, there was still plenty of light in Windsor Jct. for this shot of two SD70M-2s and a GEVO leading nice clean intermodal double-stacks towards Halifax.  Unlike Friday, when VIA 15 had to wait almost an hour for 120 at Folly Lake, this time they had a pretty good meet with the Ocean at Sandy Cove (about 12 miles west of Windsor Jct.).

​Although the clouds were moving in by now, I was able to get one more series of bonus shots with the train pulling into Rockingham Yard.  An hour earlier, there were still cars from Saturday's 120 where the power is.  Frozen switches and derails haven't been speeding up the work any!

​GTD

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Today's snowstorm in Toronto and Montreal should further delay 120, hopefully to the advantage of the Halifax fans.

KG