Trackside Log for Saturday, August 20, 2005

Saturday I was to meet Marcus in the Hamilton/Burlington area. Unfortunately I got a bit of a late start. At any rate, I heard on the scanner that CN train 399 was still working at Aldershot when I left St. Catharines. I didn't expect it to still be there when I arrived, but there it was when I passed by on the 403. I headed over to the Plains Road overpass and waited. First up however was CN train 271.

• 1004 Bayview Junction - CN 271 west - CN 2421-CN 5457
• 1017 Bayview Junction - CN 399 west - CN 2601-IC 6067-GTW 5950-WC 7527

I phoned Marcus to see where he was and met him at Bayview Junction where we saw Via train 93 west headed toward Niagara Falls with the funky wine tasting car.

• 1037 Bayview Junction - Via 93 west - VIA 6408

Shortly after 93 CN train 421 west headed through Bayview Junction for Port Robinson. Just after Bayview Junction train 421 becomes an eastbound as it rounds Hamilton harbour.

• 1052 Bayview Junction - CN 421 west - CN 5411-GTW 5925-CN 4711

Before 421 left for Port Robinson it had work to do in Hamilton yard where CN train 422 west was already working. When 422 reaches Bayview Junction it will become an eastbound.

The next train in the parade was CN train 394 east which we also caught at Bayview Junction.

• 1102 Bayview Junction - CN 394 east - CN 5546-IC 6032

Marcus and I headed over to Aldershot where we waited for train 422.

• 1124 Aldershot - CN 422 east - CN 5718-CN 5386

We noticed two LPG cars parked on the north track at the west end of Aldershot yard and that the angle of one car was odd. Also present was a mobile crane and quite a few men. Apparently this is why train 399 was so late. From what I could tell the drawbar on one car broke while 399 was pushing backward. This drove the first car into the car behind it lightly damaging both but also rendering them imovable.

The next train in the parade was CN train 385 west which had finished working Aldershot yard and headed past the two disabled cars.

• 1148 Aldershot - CN 385 west - CN 2585-CN 2647

Train 385 was closely followed by CN train 550 west which was to head to Bayview Junction on the south track, cross over to the north and then head back to the disabled cars.

• 1203 Aldershot - CN 550 west - CN 7032-CN 4135

Marcus and I broke for lunch and headed back to see what was up at Aldershot. Train 550 had coupled the two disabled cars and was proceeding to shove them back toward Aldershot yard at about two miles per hour. Upon close inspection I noticed that the west car was resting on the draft gear of the east car and not on its own truck. That was quite precarious looking.

Train 550 now east was taking a long time to get back to Aldershot and stopped several times to let other trains pass.

• 1304 Aldershot - CN 332 east - CN 5792
• 1311 Aldershot - CN 435 west - CN 5744-WC 5926
• 1331 Aldershot - CN 154 west - CN 5788

Finally after 30 minutes train 550 east crept its way to Lemonville Road at Aldershot. It stopped here where the mobile crane was waiting. This was to be the rerailing site. I took a few photos of the fiasco.

• 1337 Aldershot - CN 550 east - CN 4135-CN 7032

While CN was messing around with the two LPG cars train 393 west departed Aldershot yard.

• 1350 Aldershot - CN 393 west - CN 5274-IC 6005-WC 6925

As I hear it 393 derailed near London later that day.

At this point I'd had enough fun and decided to head out to visit friends and family. All in all a pretty good morning with twelve trains in about four hours.