Canadian Railroads > 3-Way Meet at Oxford Jct.

On January 22, 2005 I was out for the day in Northern Nova Scotia, and heard on the scanner a 3-way meet shaping up for Oxford Jct.  Oxford Jct. is 46 miles west of Truro on the Springhill Sub.  It once had a wye connection to the Oxford Sub, which took off in a northerly direction to Oxford and Pugwash, eventually making its way along the Northumberland Shore of Nova Scotia to Pictou, and then a connection with the main line at Stellarton.  It was mostly abandoned in the mid '80s, with the salt mine in Pugwash staying active for a few more years, until the province paid for a transload facility to be built at the junction for the salt, so they wouldn't have to build another bridge when the Trans Canada Highway was twinned.  Even that is gone now, and the east leg of the wye is out of service.  There is still a siding, and a backtrack where Oxford Frozen Foods unloads reefers of onions to be made into onion rings.

The plan was for 14 (the eastbound Ocean) to take the siding, while 15 went past on the main.  14 would then stay there until 307, the daily freight from Dartmouth and Truro went past as well.

At 15:30 Laurentide Park was trailing into the siding on the rear of 14.  I relocated to the hill just east of the switch, hoping to get both trains in one frame, but even though 15 appeared only 2 minutes later, 14 was out of sight.  Having received a clear-to-stop signal at the other end of the siding, they weren't going all that fast, but would have  been starting to pick up speed when I snapped this picture.

I didn't have long to wait for 307.  They showed up at 15:45, and unlike 15, they were moving at track speed.  The RTCs had standing instructions not to meet trains at Oxford Jct. if it could be avoided.  The siding is in a dip, and if a train has to stop, somebody calculated that it would cost an extra $500 in fuel to get a typical train rolling again.  Of course, the CN RTCs aren't too concerned about VIA's fuel consumption.

GTD

---

---

---

That was very interesting and has made my day and got me thinking of a nice winter trip on the "Ocean" next January February !:)
Thank you for sharing this story and the pictures and stay safe out there !!! :):):) 

I like Pic 3!!