It was a stunning sunny day in Fenwick thanks to a fresh layer of snow. I left the scanner on and ventured out to see a couple of the day's trains.
Although I haven't done much this year, I really do enjoy photography in the snow. I'm quite pleased with these winter photographs.
This morning I was just about to get my day going when I heard an unusual sounding horn approaching from the south. I noticed the day before that maintenance of way crews had dropped off some brand new ties. My guess was that the approaching train was this.
My guess proved to be accurate. I don't often see the hi-rail trucks pulling rail cars, so I was pleased to photograph this one.
Happy New Year.
After spending a nice New Year's Eve with my family I returned home for New Year's Day. I wasn't expecting much, but I turned the scanner on at home anyway. Luck was with me and the Hamilton Turn made an appearance in town. I waited for its northward return trip for a photograph in the excellent sun drenched, snowy landscape.
I was lucky with the clouds floating through the sky. Just after this photograph one interfered with the sun.
Today was unexpectedly a busy day for the Canadian Pacific's Hamilton Subdivision. First up was the Hamilton Turn, train 540 south, headed toward Welland Yard. At the same time empty ethanol train 641 north was pulling into the yard.
It took several hours for both train 641 and train 540 to switch Welland Yard. The plan was that both trains would be combined for the journey north to Kinnear Yard. During this activity train 255 north waited at Brookfield from about 1000 until train 641/541 departed at about 1300.
Train 246 was also delayed at Vinemount from about 1030 until 1330 when the empty ethanol train met it. Eventually it made it to Fenwick.
During the confusion in Welland Yard it was announced that an empty wind turbine train was also getting ready to depart the yard. After train 246 pulled in, it was able to leave. It tripped the detector at 270 axles.
This wasn't a very efficient day for the Hamilton Subdivision. Two trains were parked for three hours each and an empty ethanol train had to wait for a local to switch the yard. Train 255 finally passed through Fenwick at approximately 1600 after working the yard.
Today Sam was going to be visiting with her friend in Syracuse. Since they were going to be spending their time engaged in knitting interests, I decided to leave them to their own devices and find someplace trackside to see what CSX as doing. The weather wasn't great, but it was relaxing. It took quite a while before anything rolled down the tracks, but eventually a quick trio arrived.
Just after the third train passed by I got a call from Sam asking me to meet her at her friend's house. That signalled the end of my time trackside. By the time we departed Syracuse for home it was dark.
Sam asked me along on a short trip to Syracuse, New York to visit a friend. The idea was to drive leisurely there with a few photographic diversions. I decided to follow the Falls Road line in search of anything interesting. In Medina we encountered the Medina Railroad Museum and their New York Central painted E8s and former Waterloo-St. Jacobs passenger equipment.
Next we headed back toward the CSX mainline and had some time to park trackside to wait for any traffic that might be in the area.
The weather was getting darker and we were due in Syracuse for about 1700 so after the intermodal train we drove straight to our destination.
Today I had the scanner on in the background and heard a clearance for an SD40-2 to depart Welland Yard for Kinnear Yard. I decided, since catching SD40-2s is quite difficult any more, to drive over to Farr Street to have a look.
I was a little amused to see a trio of SD40-2s with a single covered hopper in tow. Mind you, they accelerated very quickly out of the slow order in Fenwick.
Tonight was even foggier than yesterday. I decided to continue my experimental dark fog photography. Once again I had both trains 254 and 247 as subjects. The first train, Canadian Pacific 254 south, didn't work out as well as I'd hoped but my photograph of train 247 north was more interesting.
Framing photographs in this much fog was mostly guesswork. I really didn't know if I had the camera pointed correctly or not. At least, thanks to the artificial horizon function, I knew the camera would be level.
Tonight there was a bit of fog around town so I got to thinking what the scene would look like with a train illuminating it under those conditions. Since trains 254 and 247 usually meet in Welland Yard at night, I waited for them to approach town before driving over to Sumbler Road with Missy to experiment.
I think the results are interesting.
Today I happened to hear horns approaching town so I walked over to the Canadian Pacific Hamilton Subdivision to see what it was.
I was somewhat surprised to see the three SD40-2s that I'd photographed in Waterdown earlier in the week.
