Canadian Railroads > The New Main Line

There were once two tracks all the way from Windsor Jct. to the Halifax station in the south end of the Nova Scotia capitol city.  In the early '90s the north track (westward main) was undercut to provide double-stack clearance all the way to the Halterm container pier, and it became the defacto freight track, while the south track  was primarily used for passenger trains (by then only the Ocean) and the odd light engine move.  Eventually CN decided they could save some money by not maintaining a track for VIA's exclusive use, and the south track became a storage track for intermodal cars in 2000, and early in 2001 they started removing it between Southwestern Jct. (mile 4.3) and HOT (roughly mile 1.2).  Concurrently with this, the directional ABS signals were deactivated and removed, and the track became known as the HOT-ROCK connecting track, under control of the Rockingham yard master.

On April 7, 2001 the Ocean was making the move from the old north track to the south, and would enter the main line at mile 5, just around the curve ahead.  The switch beside the Park Car is lined normal, even though the train is changing tracks.  The first freight through after the changes misread the switch and ran though it on the way downtown.  On the way back west with their HOT pickup, they split the switch and went on the ground.  The manual switch was later replaced with a power one and "route indicators" (dwarf signals), controlled by the yard master.  The power switch was removed a year or two before the yard masters, and the former HOT-ROCK is now OCS territory from mile 5 to 1.8, dispatched by the RTC in Edmonton.

GTD

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First-class photo made all-the-better by your caption.
Bob

cn6218 Wrote:
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> The power switch was removed a year or two before
> the yard masters

So, there are no Yardmasters at Halifax now?

Thank you for the many tours of the railroading in your area.  Being from the northwestern US, I highly doubt I will ever get a chance to see your area physically.

Thanks for a touch of today's railroading.

Meanwhile in Europe one reads of the 3rd and 4th track being done in the busy locations.

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/30/21 12:25 by mundo.

In reply to https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?15,5389817,5390353#msg-5390353

wyeth Wrote:
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> So, there are no Yardmasters at Halifax now?

The Yard master in Moncton does double duty for Halifax (Rockingham and HOT) as well as Gordon Yard in Moncton.  He (or she) has cameras for observing shoving moves, and the crews can tone him from the train like they do the RTC, when they need instructions.  

Halifax is a bit off the beaten path.  I once described Nova Scotia to a Californian as, "You go to Maine, and then you keep on going."  And honestly, you probably couldn't justify coming here just for the railfanning, there just isn't enough frequency or variety.  At least the province has some other things to offer for people interested in history or geography.

​GTD