Canadian Railroads > 20 Years Ago - Ontario Northland Edition

Ontario Northland SD40-2s used to show up in Halifax from time to time, paying back HP hours owed to CN.  But on April 1st, 2000 there were three trains during daylight featuring these visitors.

First up was 130 at Windsor Jct. passing the station sign there at 08:40.  Former UP/MP SD40-2 5379 looks like it's having a bad hair day, and ONT 1735 is tucked in behind.  At this time most road trains into/out of Halifax were in the 5000 ft., 5000 ton range, which a pair of SD40s could handle if everything was working properly.

20 minutes later, 148, the Chicago train, appeared.  They are about half a mile east of the first location, this time with SD70I 5608 and sister SD40-2 1736.  Uncommon for freights, they have taken the switch to the south track, likely to wait for 130 ahead to yard their train first.  I thought at first I had made mistakes in my notes, because I also have pictures of 106 and another 148 that day, but the slides are all in sequence and they jive with the historical weather data for that day (clear in the morning and afternoon, but cloudy around noon time).

In the middle of the afternoon, train 105 was getting under way at Moirs Mills, with SD40-2W 5250, SD60F 5524 and ONT 1735 again.  The track is level right here, but starts into a heavy grade in less than a mile, so the engineer is pouring it on. Apparently the way HP Hours works (or at least used to work, back then), is that the railway is charged HP Hours for the time the engine is on the property and serviceable, not the actually sunning time, so it makes sense to keep it rolling as much as possible.  These days, with computer controlled locomotives and GPS tracking, it may be a more sophisticated process, but not 20 years ago.

GTD

---

---

---

That third shot is really nice!
Fred

Nice look back.

Bob

Cool! I got to see 1735 in Cochraine ON in Sept 2012 but repainted. 

Jim

---