Canadian Railroads > A morning at the "Railfan Park"

In Montreal, the "Railfan Park" (located on Sebastapol Street just off of Wellington) that overlooks the CN Pointe-St-Charles yard and RTM/Exo (formerly AMT) shop area has been around for a couple of years, but activity around the RTM shops has picked up this past year.

The RTM yard is now full of no-longer-in-use MR-90 EMUs from the now-closed Deux Montagnes line, as well as excess Bombardier bi-levels because of shorter trains during the pandemic (Picture #1). Also visible in this picture is progress on the elevated REM (light rail) line skirting the complex.

One change is that the two Mascouche line trains that travel around the mountain are now stored here during the day (between rush hours). This lead to some predictable activity between about 8:00 and 9:30 each weekday morning (and starting again around 3 PM each weekday afternoon).

Picture #2 shows Mascouche Line Train #1202 (F59PH 1346 pushing) passing by as it heads towards Central Station.

Picture #3 shows Exo F59PH 1340 moving about the yard on its way into the shop building.

In Picture #4, the CN Pointe-St-Charles switcher (CN 4774, 4729: GP38-2s) getting set to do some switching in the freight yard. They were busy the entire time I was there.

Picture #5 shows Exo Train #1202 now having backed out of Central Station and shunted into the RTM yard. This train also went into the shop building.

Pictures #6-8 show VIA #63 leaving Montreal for Toronto. It is bracketed by VIA 6416 and 908.

Picture #9 is another view of the stored MR-90 EMUs awaiting their fate. 

Pictures #10-12 shows Exo Train #1206 entering the RTM yard after having dropped its passengers at Central Station. This train was put on one of the remaining yard tracks (Picture #12).

These pictures were taken on April 5th.

Ray

p.s.  That's inbound Mont-St-Hilare Train #805 in the background of Picture #1. It just came off of the Victoria Bridge.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/07/21 04:44 by Ray_Murphy.

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I see the gallery cars are still there. 

On my recent visit to Quebec, I got off the island of Montreal pretty quickly, but I guess there wouldn't have been much going on Sunday morning anyway.  Even during "normal" times, isn't EXO just a Monday to Friday operation?

GTD

Thanks for all the pictures.  The elevated rail line is coming along, that will offer a new view into the yard.  The cab car certainly has a lot of horns...

cn6218 Wrote:
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> On my recent visit to Quebec, I got off the island
> of Montreal pretty quickly, but I guess there
> wouldn't have been much going on Sunday morning
> anyway.  Even during "normal" times, isn't EXO
> just a Monday to Friday operation?

There is weekend service on the Dorion-Vaudreuil line.

Ray

Is the facility being electrified?  Looks like the OCS pole foundations were installed but only a couple of support structures are up and no work going on? 

Looks like this cab car is shown with the required set(s) of bi-lingual horns. :)

rrcaboose

RRTom Wrote:
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> Is the facility being electrified?  Looks like
> the OCS pole foundations were installed but only a
> couple of support structures are up and no work
> going on? 

I think that was the original plan, but then the REM came along and I have heard nothing about main line electrification since.

Ray

rrcaboose wrote:
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>Looks like this cab car is shown with the required set(s) of bi-lingual horns. :)


Yes...the French Horns sound first followed by the English. I think if EXO went beyond the QC-ON border it would have to be reversed. :)

French horns on a locomotive would be wonderful.