Canadian Railroads > Shoving Through the Cut

There are two main yards in Halifax, NS: Rockingham Yard and Halifax Ocean Terminals.  Trains generally terminate and originate at Rockingham, so there are a number of transfers daily through the roughly 5 mile long cut that connects the two.

There are some fairly heavy grades (1%), so trains are usually pulled by a pair of 4-motor diesels, or a newer 6-motor unit (as in yesterday's post).  But last month, after I had emerged from quarantine, I found 507 making the unusual move of shoving the transfer all the way from Rockingham to HOT.  I'm not sure the exact reason for this.  Perhaps the runaround was plugged with other cars, or this cut was too long to fit.  Years ago, CN had a transfer caboose available for this job, but these days the conductor has to find a comfortable spot on a well car to ride the 5 miles or so.

Spanning the cut in the background is the recently rebuilt Quinpool Rd. overpass.  There are about a dozen of these 100-year-old concrete arch bridges that have been rebuilt, or still need to be, between the two yards.

GTD



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/03/21 08:02 by cn6218.

---

---

I bet that was a breezy ride.