Canadian Railroads > St Thomas, Ontario 1978

St Thomas was a fascinating place to railfan back in the day. When I was there for an all too brief visit in Aug '78 i managed to record a CP freight, PC geeps and Chessie power. Here's sample of what I saw on that day. Corrections and additions welcome.

OOPS, I've just been informed that my first two photos are actually at Chatham, Ontario, not St Thomas, sorry for the confusion. I will leave it here on this post.

1 & 2) A CP freight rumbles past with a C-424 in charge. I believe it's crossing the CNR at this location. I believe the Ontario Southland now operates the former CP line from St Thomas to Woodstock.

3) I don't recall what RR's were crossing at this location. Help please. Very neat signal.

Brian N.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/11/21 10:00 by briancdn.

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4 & 5) The old Michigan Central shops were still being used by the Conrail to perform overhauls on GP7's and 9's. The shop is still in use today by the Elgin County Museum

6) I've seen very few three way switches in my travels, common on model rr's but not so much on the prototype

Brian N.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/11/21 08:22 by briancdn.

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Edmonton had quite a few 3-way switches just off their city center yards.... they were used in the alley/warehouse trackage. 
Corey

Chessie had a large presence in St Thomas. Here on a Sunday nothing was moving but there was a good selection of motive power around for roster shots. This was former C&O (ex Pere Marquette) territory. Neither CSX or NS have are active today in St Thomas.

1) It was nice to get a C&O lettered Geep

2) A GP38 in fresh Chessie paint

3) I never got too many GE's in Chessie paint. Here's a U30B in St Thomas

Hope you enjoyed the quick tour. Another major raifanning regret, I should have returned for a few days to record more train movements.

Brian N.

 

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briancdn Wrote:
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> 4 & 5) The old Michigan Central shops were still
> being used by the Conrail to perform overhauls on
> GP7's and 9's. The shop is still in use today by
> the Elgin County Museum


Are CR 5832 and 7432 (in the shop) the "Queen's Geeps" ?? ...as they were Canadian built by GMD, not EMD.

 

Thanks for this historic tour. Photo six  has an interesting three-way switch. Two lines curve right and one curves left instead of the middle line staying straight and then curving.
Bob



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/11/21 09:39 by refarkas.

ghCBNS Wrote:

> Are CR 5832 and 7432 (in the shop) the "Queen's
> Geeps" ?? ...as they were Canadian built by GMD,
> not EMD.

I don't think so. The GMD's were used at Windsor to my knowledge. I could be wrong though. Brian N.

> 3) I don't recall what RR's were crossing at this
> location. Help please. Very neat signal.

The photo is looking north on the former London and Port Stanley.  The double-diamond is the CN Cayuga Subdivision.  That is a neat signal!  I've never seen a photo of it before.  Interesting photos.

Rob Smith
Hamilton, ON

You should be happy with the pictures you do have of the St Thomas area. My dad and I drove through one time in 2007 after everything was more or less shut down. I didn't take many pictures but should have taken more since stuff has been abandoned since then. I guess it's just that kind of a place.

Jim

Glad you were able to share these memories. Some really nice work.

Great shots!!! Thank you for sharing your shots!

This is a lap turnout.

Victor A. Baird
http://www.erstwhilepublications.com

refarkas Wrote:
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> Thanks for this historic tour. Photo six  has an
> interesting three-way switch. Two lines curve
> right and one curves left instead of the middle
> line staying straight and then curving.
> Bob