Canadian Railroads > (Not Really A Road)Switcher Saturday.

Rockingham must have been short of real switchers on June 23, 2000 because SD60F 5563 got assigned as 507's power that day.  I didn't get to see how the crew got the train out to Bedford Quarry, although it's possible the unit was initially heading west, and they ran it and the two cement cars around the wye at Windsor Jct.  5563 is somewhat notable for being the last new GMD diesel purchased by CN (1989) until they started buying SD70Is in 1995.

In the first image, 5563 is backing into the "New" quarry to pick up some empty centrebeam cars.  At the time, this track was used for a variety of commodities.  CN would load ballast and rip rap from Municipal Contracting, windmill towers were unloaded here, and apparently so were bundles of lumber.  The Bedford Sub also still had two tracks here in 2000.  The south (closest) was mostly used by the passenger trains, while freights going to Rockingham would be on the north track, although there were exceptions.

In the second image, the crew has moved on to the "Old" quarry, and has left the centrebeams on the north track, and then crossed over to the south to spot the two loads of cement. They would have already had an OCS clearance for the north track, but would have needed another one to occupy the south here.

Lastly, with the work all finished, they're heading for Rockingham and passing the two approach signals to Windsor Jct., about 4 miles behind them.  The original signals here were directional ABS, and when operations were changed to both directions on both tracks,  the double head on the left was added.  The north track continued straight through at the junction, so a simple clear signal was fine, but the south track had to go through a 45 mph switch, so a signal that could display clear-to-limited was required.  Because nothing is lined for the south track right now, the signal shows yellow over red, or clear-to stop.

GTD

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Good stuff as always. I am enjoying these older pictures you are posting.

Andrew C