Canadian Railroads > Switcher Saturday - CP S-11 Down and Back the Prescott Sub

This pair of photos is from September 24, 1977, showing regular eastern Ontario switcher S-11 6620. In the three years I was shooting in Ottawa, 1976-1979, this unit was based at Walkley in Ottawa, or down in Smiths Falls.
1. The first photo was taken at 1340, as 6620 heads cab hop with 437179 toward the Prescott Sub; this is the connector from the CN Walkley Line (south leg of a wye), which CP had to access from their north-side yard location to head south. To shoot from the sunlit side would have meant being in the ditch, almost useless. K64 handled this one well; 1/250 at f4. I once had a wooden kit to make one of these vans; I never built it before I divested myself of the modelling side of things. I knew a black hole when I saw one.
2. The return trip was not so auspiciously photographed. This is one hour later, at 1440, and the move has 5 or 6 tanks cars, pushing through the crossovers to get from CN to CP yard tracks. I would love to hear from someone what the source of these tanks might be, that a 1-hour turnaround would make sense (airport?). I have no idea what I was doing to get this Frankenphoto. I wrote in my log book that I was set at 1/60 at f4. I can tell from the washed-out slide that a puffy cloud had bit the sun, so the f4 was appropriate, but how I had come to set my shutter speed at 1/60 remains lost to the mists of time. I had hoped by adjusting the brightness on the scan I could darken the shot sufficiently, but the exposure is so far gone that the colour started going wonky and I couldn't figure out a colour adjustment that would work.
Fred

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great front pix for modelling purposes
Don

Nice shots of a rare MLW model. I got a cab ride in one at Glen Yard in Montreal shuffling passenger cars around.
Brian N.

Nice shot(s) Fred. 

From what you described, your train was going to Uplands.  When I was car-checker (summer job) at CP Walkley Yard I had the opportunity to ride the switcher to Uplands (Usually 7028, an ALCO S-2)  This trip I seem to remember, took about an hour or so.  The times I rode was always at night towards the end of my 15:00 to 23:00 shift.   

Because of a weight restrictions, nothing larger than a CP Rail DS-6 (6620) was allowed beyond mile 55.6 of the Waltham sub. (Campbell's Bay, QC)  .  CP Rail still had shippers in Fort Coulonge (67.1), Davidson (69.0) and the odd car to Waltham (77.5)  back in the mid-seventies.

Gerry Gaugl
Ottawa ON

moonliter Wrote:
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> Nice shot(s) Fred. 
>
> From what you described, your train was going to
> Uplands.  When I was car-checker (summer job) at
> CP Walkley Yard I had the opportunity to ride the
> switcher to Uplands (Usually 7028, an ALCO S-2) 
> This trip I seem to remember, took about an hour
> or so.  The times I rode was always at night
> towards the end of my 15:00 to 23:00 shift.   
>
> Because of a weight restrictions, nothing larger
> than a CP Rail DS-6 (6620) was allowed beyond mile
> 55.6 of the Waltham sub. (Campbell's Bay, QC) 
> .  CP Rail still had shippers in Fort Coulonge
> (67.1), Davidson (69.0) and the odd car to Waltham
> (77.5)  back in the mid-seventies.
>
> Gerry Gaugl
> Ottawa ON

Thanks for the contribution, Gerry. I wondered if that might be the destination, given the time involved.
Fred