Showing posts with label July. Show all posts
Showing posts with label July. Show all posts
Throwback Thursday 14 TH B GP7 77 at Guelph Junction July 18 1984
on Tuesday, May 30, 2017
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| The CP/TH&B Goderich Turn pauses while switching with TH&B 77 &401 at Guelph Juntion, near Campbellville, ON, on July 18, 1984. Reg Button photo, author's collection. |
Today’s Throwback Thursday takes us back to July 18, 1984; it’s late in the day at Guelph Junction, located 39.2 miles up the Galt Sub from Toronto. Guelph Junction is an interesting place on the Galt Sub, and is the location where the Hamilton Sub joins the Galt Sub (from the south) and where the Goderich sub branches off northward to Guelph (cut back from Goderich in the late 1980’s). What remains of the Goderich Sub is owned by the city of Guelph (the only municipally-owned common carrier railway line in Canada) and now operated by shortline Ontario Southland Railway. Interestingly, the two branches are not directly connected to each other, but a pair of wyes (facing north and south) are used to bring trains on or off the Hamilton/Goderich subdivisions. Guelph Junction also marks the end of CTC territory originating in Toronto, and where OCS track warrant territory continues another 74 miles to London (except for CTC islands at Wolverton and London). A GO transit storage facility was located here for a number of years, used to store GO commuter trainsets used on the Milton line in the evenings or on weekends. Discontinued a few years ago when a new layover facility was constructed in Milton, use of the yard is now confined to OSR/CP interchange to the shortline. At one time, the Goderich sub featured a daily-except-Sunday passenger train from Hamilton to Goderich, usually powered by one of the road’s quaint 4-4-4 Jubilee engines, and included an unusual reverse move at the junction to cross the Galt sub (northward train would pull around south wye, back down the Galt sub, and carry on northward around the north wye and onto Goderich). If a Jubilee wasn’t available, or if the regular engine broke down, a spare engine stationed at the junction would be used to power the local passenger train. Often this was a P-1 or P-2 Mikado, which made for quite the interesting little passenger train! Additional passenger service was provided by a CP gas-electric doodlebug based out of Guelph, and often made several round trips between Guelph and the junction (about 15 miles) per day.
Through the viewfinder, we observe a pair of TH&B geeps, GP7 #77 and GP9 #401. The subject train (though apparently absent of cars this day) is the Goderich Turn, operated north out of TH&B’s Aberdeen yard to its’ namesake port on Lake Huron. An interesting operation, the train commonly operated with TH&B-supplied power, often with just a single unit. This is especially interesting considering the steep descent down the Niagara Escarpment from Guelp Junction and the TH&B units’ lack of dynamic brakes. The pair of units on today’s train is an interesting anomaly, considering TH&B’s common practice of using borrowed engines to power its’ own trains. It appears that the train is making a switching move at the time of this photo – note the conductor with his large shoulder-slung radio appears to have just lined the main line switch back to the normal position. Most of what is visible in this photo is now gone – the CP Chevy van undoubtedly disposed of after years of service, and the station demolished to make way for additional GO Transit storage tracks, the TH&B geeps, and even the train order semaphore, a Guelph Junction landmark for decades. But for at least a moment back in July 1984 we can imagine what the geeps’ 567 engines sounded like while switching at the Junction.
‘Til next time,
Cheers,
Peter.
Throwback Friday 4 CN 1349 at Thorold in July 1995
on Friday, March 3, 2017
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| CN 1349 heads southward down Pine Street on the Fonthill Spur on July 17, 1995. Reg Button photo, author's collection. |
Today’s Throwback Thursday (or as it turns out, now Throwback Friday) features one of the more interesting aspects of railroading: street running. Often mutually unpopular to the local municipality and the railroad, street running is increasingly hard to find. I find that to be a shame, since street running often yields details not otherwise captured in our day-to-day photography, such as the latest model year of a car in the photo, a popular local establishment’s sign, or even fashion trends of people captured in the frame. With that in mind, let’s get to our subject photo.
It’s July 17, 1995, and we find CN SW1200RS #1349 leading two cars up the middle of Pine Street in Thorold, ON. It appears that train #549 has been sent to lift two boxcars from the industry in the background – the Fraser Inc paper mill (now Book Depot). The short train is now heading south down the Fonthill Spur, riding up the small hills that pose little challenge to automobiles and trucks but an interesting challenge to the train. Fraser Inc’s facility was featured in Trevor Marshall’s post (here) on his Achievable Layouts blog and provides many more interesting photos of the plant. At one time it appeared to be quite the industry, handling both outgoing paper loads as well as tank cars of chemicals and hopper cars of additives used in the paper making process. Today, however, the business as well as the street running required to serve the industry are gone, and Pine street is a bit less interesting (to me at least). Street running is not gone altogether from the area though, as CN successor Trillium Railway still uses a small piece of track down the middle of Townline Road to serve Interlake Paper. They even have a CN-painted MLW S-13, required due to sharp curvature on the line. Interestingly, CN 1349 must have liked paper mills as it would go on to be CANX (Canac) 1349, one of the plant switchers at Marathon Pulp in Marathon, ON until the plant closed in 2008. One other interesting aspect of the photo is that it appears Pine Street is in the middle of getting a makeover, judging by the cement truck and dump truck – as the small time capsule of an image has recorded for posterity.
Cheers,
Peter.
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