Canadian Railroads > Thursday's Trackwork Delays

The track crews have been busy on the Bedford Sub in Nova Scotia lately, resulting in trains being somewhat off their usual schedule. Even trains like 511, the gypsum turn between Dartmouth and Milford, that don't rely on a connection to anything, else were running late yesterday. 408 didn't arrive in Dartmouth until after 08:00, but it was well after noon before counterpart 407 was rolling westward at mile 29 in Enfield. At least they had a pair of SD70M-2s to break the routine of GEVOs on every train we see these days.

I had been expecting 511, but got 407 instead. Another foreman got a TOP behind 407, and the RTC mentioned that he would have to give the track back in about half an hour for 511, which was just leaving Wrights Cove at that point. Normally there are no sunlit [on the nose] shots of 511 in the morning until after they leave Windsor Jct., but with this very late departure, that wasn't going to happen now. However it did open up one other location that is usually no good until later in the day. As it turned out, they were slower than expected traversing the Dartmouth Sub and I was able to get to this location about a mile before the junction in plenty of time to catch the empty train, at 13:20.

Meanwhile, back in Halifax, there was a rare twist of numerology going on, with DPU CREX 1517 (from 120) assigned to local 517. They were doing essentially the same job as I had shot 2 days previously ( https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?15,4523583 ), but with arguably more interesting power this time, even if it was another GEVO. I positioned myself slightly differently on the Tower Rd. bridge this time, to try and get a more broadside view of the ES44AC, but I'm not sure the framing worked as well for the rest of the scene. (Time was 14:31.) At least I finally got one of these things from the front and not nose-coupled.

GTD



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/06/18 19:20 by cn6218.

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All that left one more goal for the day: to get the loaded gypsum train on its way back from the mine. If things go well, 511`s crew can get into the mine, drop the empties, pick up the loads (and not have to wait for any more cars to be loaded), do a brake test and get out of there in a bit more than an hour. They weren`t quite that quick, but by 15:48 Dash-9 2680 was leading the loaded train back through Windsor Jct. and slowing for the 15 mph switch to the Dartmouth Sub.

GTD

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Good video.

Ken

Interesting:  I noticed that the NGCX open-top hoppers were all NAMED.... look closely underneath the "National Gypsum" logo on each car and you'll see NAMES, with some of thsoe being PLACES such as "Cleyborn Plant" .... much like the old ROUTE ROCK GP38-2 engines' names under the cab-mounted engine #s back in the late 1970s.

rbx551985 Wrote:
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> Interesting:  I noticed that the NGCX open-top
> hoppers were all NAMED....

Yes, they are named either for local employees (in Nova Scotia) or for some of the plants in the US where the rock is shipped.

These cars were new in 2003, and most were delivered with the names already on them. Apparently a few have been added (including the plant names) since then. I thought the original cars went up to NGCX 122, but some more may have been added since then. I noticed NGCX 132 on this train for example.

GTD



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/07/18 10:46 by cn6218.