Canadian Railroads > MLW Monday in the Valley

Even after the end of MLW operations on the mainline railways in Canada c. 1997 I was lucky to live close to a shortline that was exclusively MLW-powered.  The Windsor & Hantsport was only a 40 minute drive from Halifax, and featured 8 working RS-23s and a number of parts units strewn around the shop in Windsor.  Operations were fairly reliable, with two or three round trips between the mines and Hantsport, Monday to Friday.  The primary commodity was gypsum, although a wayfreight was run to the CN interchange at Windsor Jct. periodically to pick up loads of grain and cooking oil, and sometimes deliver pulpwood or gypsum.

On October 27, 1998, RS-23 8037 was leading 3 sisters and about 20 empty hoppers up the hill to Mt. Denson.  The units on the gypsum train always faced west, the thought being that their radiators worked better in that orientation, and the improved cooling was needed for the loaded trains.  A few years later the gypsum trains were reduced to just 3 units for 20 loads, and in 2005 the MLWs were replaced with 2nd hand GP9RMs, leased from Cando Contracting.  Although the WHRC has been dormant since 2010, not officially abandoned, most of the rails are still in place but are slowly being reclaimed by nature.

This is what the same location looked like last Fall, https://www.google.com/maps/@45.0465857,-64.1609779,3a,75y,20.63h,84.39t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s1xOlsZPRdibwjK_MIw_AGQ!2e0!5s20230901T000000!7i16384!8i8192?authuser=0&entry=ttu

GTD



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/20/24 18:22 by cn6218.

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Well-crafted scene.
Bob

Great shot, Geoff!

texchief1

Nice pic!!