Canadian Railroads > Big Transfer from Dartmouth

Last Sunday, CN had accumulated a considerable number of cars in Dartmouth that had to go west that night on 121 out of Rockingham.  With no easy connection between the two sides of Halifax Harbour, a train must go west on the Dartmouth Sub to Windsor Jct. and then reverse direction to go 10 miles east on the Bedford to Rockingham.  It's the reversing direction that makes things complicated.  With sidings at Kinsac (mile 20) and Sandy Cove (mile 28), the power can run around there, but it's a long complicated procedure with hand brakes, brake tests, and track warrants from the RTC, that can easily add another hour to the operation.  And sometimes the train won't even fit in those sidings.

With 200 axles, many of them on autoracks, train 505 had to go almost 45 miles to Alton before they could run around there in the 6300 ft. siding, and then make their way back to Rockingham.  4136 and 4700 are the regular power for the Dartmouth switch jobs, and the gypsum power, 5747 and 5710, were added to make sure they made it over the hills without any additional assistance.  CN removed the code line at the end of last year here, and in the process cut back many trees, including the ones at mile 15.  I figure it will be a couple years before the alders grow up enough to impede the view again, so I'm trying to take advantage of it while I can.  The crew made pretty good time, all things considered.  They went west at Windsor Jct. at 08:18 that morning, and were back from Alton (36 miles) here at 10:42.

GTD 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/21/20 05:50 by cn6218.

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Quite the combination of power to have a GP9 leading. Thanks for posting.