Canadian Railroads > L508 in Daylight

On February 16 manifest train L508 from Moncton, NB made a rare daylight appearance at the east end of its run.  I forget the exact circumstances, but schedules frequently get upset in the winter, and with plenty of snow in Moncton, the train didn't get away from there until midnight or later.

By 08:48, after dropping cars in Truro, they were entering the Dartmouth Sub at Windsor Jct.  While Moncton got plenty of snow, in the Halifax area we got rain and then had a flash freeze, as evidenced by the glare in front of the train at the junction.

5 minutes later 508 was passing the westward approach signal to Windsor Jct. in Waverley, NS.  They had cars to leave in Burnside (likely scrap gons) before ending their trip at Dartmouth Yard, about mile 12 of the subdivision.

Just after noon, counterpart L507 (same power as 508, new crew) was passing the eastward approach signal to Windsor Jct. on the way back to Moncton.  Normally, VIA 15 would have been ahead of them here, but the passenger train was delayed by half an hour at the Halifax station. 

Better Late Than Never

Also complicating things was the fact that Z120 was not yet in.  507 would take the siding at Sandy Cove (mile 27) to meet them, while VIA would only get as far as Kinsac (mile 20) for their meet.  The Ocean would end up waiting for hours in Cambellton, NB until 14 (delayed by almost 12 hours at that point) left St. Foy, QC.  In the end the passengers were bused the last few miles from St. Lambert to Central Station.

GTD

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Great pics. Is that signal on the rights side of the track in pic #3 actually obscured by the grade crossing or is that just an optical illusion?

It does look like that lower light could be a problem.  I think if you're up high enough in a locomotive cab it must be visible.

At Kinsac, 3 miles to the west, they replaced a 2-position searchlight with a taller 3-position LED signal a couple years ago.  The upper light was obscured by an overhanging tree, so when the train approached, the clear signal (green over red over red) looked like Stop (red over red) until they got much closer.  It didn't take long before somebody took care of that with a chainsaw!

GTD