Canadian Railroads > Making Space in the Yard

September 17 was another one of those "hurry up and wait" days for the crew of Z120 when they arrived in Halifax.

In the first photo, ET44AC 3222 was leading 3169, 3839 and GP9 4141 through the big curve near mile 9 at 11:16.  They had already been been taking to the Yardmaster (who works out of Moncton) that 522 was pulling cars out of the west end of Rockingham Yard and they would have to hold at mile 7 until the switch job was finished.

522's power that day was ES44DC 2232 (curiously, an anagram of Z120's leader) and they are shown here near mile 6.5.  Z120's power is visible through the trees between the locomotive and containers on the opposite side of Birch Cove.

Trains have sometimes been held up for an hour or more waiting to get into the yard, (and they get paid by the mile, not the hour), but they were lucky this time, and were able to to proceed along the Transfer Track after only a short wait.  The brush has recently been trimmed here, but there is fresh growth showing already on the Japanese Knotweed in the foreground.  The invasive species seems to grow well in the ballast along the tracks.

GTD

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