Canadian Railroads > More 120 in Nova Scotia

I've been sitting on some pictures for a while now, so here is 120 from Friday, last week.  Things were all fouled up in Dartmouth.  It seems that 407 had a failed unit, so robbed 511's power for their train.  That meant that 511 would only be able to take half a train of gypsum back from the mine, so a plan was hatched to have 120 drop one of their units at Kinsac, so 511 could add it to the consist when they went west with the empties.  120's crew didn't seem too keen on that, expressing concerns to the RTC that they might have trouble starting again after dropping the unit. (It turned out they had 4 ES44ACs, and Kinsac is on virtually level track next to a lake!)  The RTC said he'd check, and called back a few minutes later to say he couldn't raise anybody, and they'd be sticking with the plan.

That meant if I planned my locations carefully, I could get two or three tries at 120, With the high percentage of clouds that day, that seemed like a good way to increase my chances of success.  The first location was a walk-in, at mile 23 in Wellington.  My concern about the clouds was not unfounded, as you can see a bit of a shadow on the first cars of the train.  Just to hedge my bet, I brought along a second body and shorter lens to get two chances here.  The train was already slowing for Kinsac, 3 miles ahead as they passed me at 09:58.  The approach signal to Kinsac is at the curve in the background.

I did get another chance at them just about an hour later at Moirs Mills (mile 9), and although there was full sunshine, it was almost right on the nose, making that shot less than stellar.  But I did make up for it with a slight variation on the Birch Cove theme 15 minutes later as the three remaining ES44ACs passed mile 7 on the Transfer Track and some last remnants of fall colour.

GTD

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Truely first-class photos. Excellent work.
Bob

Good stuff Geoff.

Andrew