Canadian Railroads > Chasing 507

As all the other assignments in the Halifax area have changed over the years, 507 has been a constant for at least the past 20 years.  It's the morning roadswitcher job out of Rockingham Yard.  When the Chester Spur still had customers, it would be up there almost every morning, pulling racks of loaded Volvos or delivering steel to Drummond McCall.  These days the crew usually starts with a transfer to Ocean Terminals (HOT), and Bedford Quarry gets switched 3 days a week.  But on May 19, 2013 the pair of GP38-2s really got to stretch their legs on a trip to Brookfield.

They started off light engines in Rockingham, and are shown running past the pond at Bedford Quarry in the first picture, just after 08:00.  At Kinsac, they picked up cars set out there by 408 that morning, and then proceeded west on the Bedford Sub, passing mile 29 with some lumber, tanks, covered hoppers and empty gondolas.  In the final image, after dropping the gons at Milford, they're approaching Stewiacke with the remainder of the train.  They would likely have shoved the covered hoppers east on the Cement Spur, after dropping the lumber loads on the track nearer the main line.

The collective agreement allows 500-series crews to work within a 50 mile radius of their home terminal.  Brookfield is just within that 50 mile (as the crow flies) radius.

GTD

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Realy nice trio.
JB

Lovely shots; there are scads of elements in the first photo that you've really done a nice job of intergrating and avoiding. The second is very powerful; that so-called GM spartan cab was good looking (no Alco/MLW rounded roof, but still nice, and an open cab door didn't ruin your day if it happened).
Fred

Like these three, each has great elements.

#2 has an interesting prop with the "mini" pole line

I thought the 4713 looked suspiciously fresh for being a zebra, even in 2013. I looked thru pictures on rrpicturearchives and it looks like this one got a fresh zebra repaint around 2007

There are a handful of locos out there that have been painted in stripes, well after that scheme had been retired.  It might be the Transcona Shop, where many of the smaller GM units are maintained, that is responsible for this (P.S. Don't tell upper management!).  4732 and 9410 are two others that seem to have received the treatment.

Thanks for the other compliments.  I don't normally go for the "framing the train with a tree" effect, but this time it seems too obvious to ignore.  The fact that the light power fit between the poles was also a bonus.  The "mini" pole line in the second picture isn't really short, it's just part way down the fill towards the swamp on the far side of the track.

GTD