Canadian Railroads > CN's Gift to Motorists...

Among the longest (>200 cars) and arguably the slowest CN trains we see in Montreal are the potash unit trains.

A week ago, I went to the Courcelle Street level crossing in the St-Henri neighborhood of Montreal and noticed two trains parked several hundred yards west of it. After a while I could see one of the trains was getting a crew change, and eventually its headlights turned on but it didn't move.

Then the crossing gates came down and a westbound train appeared. It was a train of potash empties, led by 5631, 8018 and 2981 (Picture #1). The time was 10:29.

This train finally cleared the crossing at 10:35, and no doubt the long lines of cars blocked by it were happy to see the last Canpotex car. But in the meantime, the train that had been re-crewed started up, and its power (3222, 2821 up front) reached the crossing at exactly the same time - and this time the train was potash loads (Pictures #2, 3).

Typical of the loaded potash trains, it had a mid-train DPU (CN 3968, still in its CitiRail paint scheme; Picture #4) and an end-of-train DPU (CN 2961, Picture #5). It finally cleared the crossing at 10:44.

Picture #6 shows the weathering on the older Canpotex cars.

Ray

---

---

---

Pictures 4, 5 and 6...

---

---

---

At least those trains kept moving once they occupired the crossings. Norfolk Southern and CSX in Toledo both have developed habits of blocking multiple consecutive crossings for hours with their PSR monsters because they don't have crews available or the tracks ahead are congested by other monster trains making set-offs or pick-ups in town.