Canadian Railroads > Almost Caught Up - May 13th

Last Sunday was another fine day, at least in the part of Nova Scotia where I was. I was also able to shoot more trains (although perhaps not quite as much variety) than the previous day, while still only venturing about 50 miles from home. First up was 120 at Brookfield, mile 57 of the Bedford Sub, at 09:13. The power was all DC, with 2333, IC 2717 and 2267 up front, and 8008 as DPU. Due to some malfunction at the mile 59 detector, they came to a stop shortly after these two shots and called the RTC. It turned out to be a false alarm, but that gave me enough time to get ahead for one more view at mile 25 (09:55) before they met 407 at Windsor Jct.

GTD

---

---

---

407 might normally have left Windsor Jct. and met 120 at Kinsac, Sandy Cove or Alton, but with 6000 feet of train, that wasn`t an option this day. I doubled back to Lantz for this view at the signals at 10:43 and then rosterized some surprisingly clean autoracks on the train.

VERY surprisingly, CN was running a gypsum turn (511) on a Sunday. They were a few miles behind 407 on the Dartmouth Sub, and I moved east to shoot the empty train at mile 29 in Enfield, at 11:07.

That was it for the morning, but three trains on a Sunday isn`t bad, and the day wasn`t done yet.

GTD

---

---

---

I returned home to have lunch, but since 511 would be returning with the loads, I was at Windsor Jct. at 13:21 to get them coming off the main line onto the Dartmouth Sub. The GMD/EMC locomotives seem to be the preferred power for this job, and this particular pair was into its second week at this point.

Being a Sunday, the Ocean would also be in the picture soon. Something had delayed them downtown by 10 minutes or so, so I had plenty of time to relocate a couple hundred metres to the Cobequid Rd. crossing near mile 15 for the going-away shot of Chateau Dollier and Tremblant Park at 13:38, on the rear of the otherwise Renaissance equipped train.

GTD

---

---

---

That just left the yard jobs back in Halifax to complete the day. 121 is still getting out of town too late for a sunlit shot.

I heard 517 toning the RTC to get a clearance to go from Rockingham to HOT, and got them with 9524 leading the train under Mumford Rd. at 15:57. The cranes in the background are at the Ceres container pier at Fairview Cove.

16 minutes later they were pulling into the yard at Ocean Terminals, to run around the train before shoving it onto the Halterm pier, and then pick up cars for that night's 121.

The light held out, and with all that done and 9590 leading on the way back to Rockingham, 517 rolled underneath me near Quinpool Rd. in sweet light at 18:15.

GTD

---

---

---

Very nice set of photos! Nice use of the pole line in the first two, and having been to Halifax twice on Ocean cruises, I appreciate seeing your stuff from the port area.

Andy

A nice day's work, and your last image is particularly strong.
Fred