Sunday, July 31, 2011

Trackside Log for Sunday, July 31, 2011

Missy and I got off to a lazy start to the summer morning after sleeping in. It's great having a dog that will let you sleep in. Once we'd gotten up I turned on the scanner. After a short time I heard the Canadian Pacific Hamilton Subdivision dispatcher issue a clearance to train 627. I decided to take Missy and the camera out to Farr Street for a look.

  • 1114 Fenwick - CP 627 north - CP 8758-CP 9760 (video)

A northbound at near the noon hour is not great for photography around Fenwick but there was still enough overcast in the clearing skies to mute the sun enough for a half decent photograph.

Because I was feeling a bit nuts (again) I also recorded the entire consist of the train: [show/hide]

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Trackside Log for Saturday, July 30, 2011

Marcus and I hadn't made it trackside together in quite some time. Today we decided to head back to New York again for what promised to be a very sunny albeit somewhat hot summer day. Marcus was unfortunately delayed by the closure of the Queen Elizabeth Way so our departure was a bit delayed. Nevertheless, after a reasonable wait at the border for a holiday weekend, we made it to the former New York Central tracks. We exited Interstate 90 at Dunkirk and after finding nothing to photograph proceeded toward Westfield. We attempted to catch an ethanol train in Portland but narrowly missed the pair of BSNF SD40-2s pulling it eastward. We did stick around for another pair though.

  • 1151 Van Buren Bay, NY - CSX eastbound - CSXT 552-CSXT 467
  • 1200 Van Buren Bay, NY - CSX K849 west - CSXT 390-CSXT 674

The radio grew quiet and we were getting hungry so we drove to Westfield, picked up a bite to eat, and headed trackside. After only a few bites the first eastbound drew near.

  • 1249 Westfield, NY - CSX Q140 east - CSXT 4850-CSXT 7314-CSXT 7900
  • 1301 Westfield, NY - CSX Q114 east - CSXT 7392-CSXT 4543
  • 1312 Westfield, NY - Amtrak 48 east - CSXT 6094-AMTK 54-AMTK 58

We were not expecting the CSX GP40-2 to be a very late Amtrak train. I can imagine there were some disgruntled passengers today.

  • 1321 Westfield, NY - CSX Q115 west - CSXT 5208-CSXT 229-CSXT 247-CSXT 10
  • 1336 Westfield, NY - CSX Q157 west - CSXT 671-CSXT 5332 (video)

Once the angle of the sun became problematic Marcus and I decided to make a little side trip to visit the Western New York & Pennsylvania and the New York & Lake Erie. First up was Falconer where we discovered a C-424 coupled to a spreader. WNYP 4223 is ex-Morristown & Erie 4223 and originally Canadian Pacific 4223.

  • 1435 Falconer, NY - Western New York and Pennsylvania power - WNYP 4223

After a few photograph we drove north to Gowanda to see what might be strewn around the former Erie tracks.

  • 1534 Gowanda, NY - New York and Lake Erie power - NYLE 1013-NYLE 6764-NYLE 6758
  • 1540 Gowanda, NY - New York and Lake Erie power - NYLE 77
  • 1541 Gowanda, NY - New York and Lake Erie power - CR 5067
  • 1545 Gowanda, NY - New York and Lake Erie equipment - NYLE 7
  • 1548 Gowanda, NY - New York and Lake Erie equipment - Contrack coach

The above ex-Amtrak coach still wears its "Contrack" paint from the movie Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

  • 1554 Gowanda, NY - New York and Lake Erie power - NYLE 76
  • 1555 Gowanda, NY - New York and Lake Erie power - NYLE 78

After baking in the sun while photographing the collection of rather sad looking equipment we headed back toward the former New York Central and Nickel Plate main lines. First we stopped by Dunkirk again to see if anything had changed. Nothing had although we discovered that one of the parked coal trains actually had a pair of Union Pacific GE locomotives on the east end. With impossible lighting we drove on for Silver Creek where we determined that a train was lifting out of track 3. Before we could photograph what turned out to be a ballast train a pair of eastbounds rolled through.

  • 1708 Silver Creek, NY - CSX eastbound - CITX 2792-CSXT 8138
  • 1723 Silver Creek, NY - CSX K694 east - HLCX 6206-HLCX 6340
  • 1735 Silver Creek, NY - CSX ballast train west - HLCX 6302-CSXT 8848

The day was getting on so Marcus and I proceeded toward home again. We stopped off in Blasdell where we caught a pair of westbounds leaving the Buffalo area.

  • 1926 Blasdell, NY - CSX V818 west - CSXT 315-CSXT 75
  • 1938 Blasdell, NY - CSX westbound - CSXT 5304-CSXT 5436-CSXT 7884

The shadows were quickly deepening so we decided to end our quest and drove back to Canada and to Kelsey's in Fort Erie for supper.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Trackside Log for Wednesday, July 27, 2011

It was a pleasant clear summer morning and I decided to pass by the Southern Ontario Railway's yard in Garnet en route to work this morning. I hadn't dropped by in a while so I wanted to see if any of the motive power had changed recently. As I approached I could tell that no, nothing had changed. The two CEFX GP20Ds were still the only power on hand.

  • 0926 Garnet - SOR 596 south - CEFX 2019-CEFX 2014

I took a few photographs anyway before completing the journey to work.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Trackside Log for Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Today I decided to create another 360ยบ panorama view of a former crossing between two railways. I took the camera and tripod to view what remains of Dunnville Diamond.

  • 1820 Dunnville - Dunnville Diamond

This photograph starts facing north at the left of the photograph. This is the Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo Dunnville Subdivision (now operated by Canadian Pacific). Next is the abandoned Canadian National Dunnville Subdivision facing east which has been obliterated by the Bick's Pickle plant. Facing south is the Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo Dunnville Subdivision again followed by the Canadian National Dunnville Subdivision right of way facing west. That brings us back to facing north where we started.

As an aside, the Bick's Pickle plant and the associated pickle tank farm in Delhi are scheduled to close in November this year. More information can be found in the Hamilton Spectator's article about the closure.

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Trackside Log for Sunday, July 17, 2011

I awoke to the sound of Canadian Pacific locomotive horns this morning. It was a bright sunny morning and hadn't heated up too much yet so I figured I should go out to photograph something now before it became oppressively hot. Missy and I drove to River Road to photograph the southbound.

  • 0732 Fenwick - CP 246 south - CP 8849-CP 9700

After we had arrived back home I turned on the scanner to hear that train 255 was about to depart Welland Yard. Well, it still wasn't overly hot so I popped back out to Chantler Road to see it too.

  • 0810 Fenwick - CP 255 north - CP 9759-CP 8553

Once the train had moved on I returned home once again. I left the scanner on for the rest of the day but aside from Job 3 and a CN transfer to Trillium, neither of which travel to Fenwick, all was quiet for nearly twelve hours. Then I was startled by the Hamilton Subdivision dispatcher talking to a southbound. I got my camera and headed out to Chantler Road again to intercept it.

  • 1934 Fenwick - CP 626 south - CP 8753-CP 9643

Sadly even the ethanol train had boring power. Oh well, at least I was able to make a pretty photograph out of it. I've been meaning to photograph that angle for quite a few years but for various reasons never actually made it happen until today.

Friday, July 08, 2011

Trackside Log for Friday, July 8, 2011

Tonight, just as Missy and I were approaching our driveway, we heard the sound of a southbound Canadian Pacific train approaching town. Since it was a nice bright, sunny (albeit humid) evening I quickly fetched my camera and drove to River Road for a photograph.

  • 1839 Fenwick - CP 254 south - CP 8827-CP 8885

Air conditioning was sounding quite attractive to me. I then headed home to avoid the humidity.

Sunday, July 03, 2011

Trackside Log for Sunday, July 3, 2011

This was another day of the Canada Day weekend that Missy and I chose to spend relaxing. However, upon hearing train 255 obtain a clearance from Brookfield East to Kinnear, I took Missy over to Welland Yard for a look. Before it arrived I photographed the recently delivered GP9s for the yard jobs. The first, CP 8249, still has the metal plates over the grille behind the cab that once carried the yellow stripe of its original maroon and grey paint. At that time it was numbered CP 8830.

  • 1334 Welland - CP power - CP 8249

Well, actually I only photographed one of the two GP9s. I was interrupted by the arrival of train 255.

  • 1348 Welland - CP 255 north - CP 8881-CP 8882

The consecutively numbered ES44ACs on the train was interesting. After the train had rolled off northward I returned to take a quick photograph of the other GP9.

  • 1357 Welland - CP power - CP 8231

After the half hour of entertainment I took Missy back home only to head back out again later in the afternoon. Train 246 south was approaching with a pair of CSX locomotives in the consist.

  • 1717 Fenwick - CP 246 south - CP 8795-CP 9629-CSXT 108-CSXT 7606-CP 6061

The clouds were toying with me but I managed a reasonably decent photograph of the train. At least it wasn't raining or the middle of the night.

Friday, July 01, 2011

Trackside Log for Friday, July 1, 2011

Happy Canada Day.

Missy and I spent the holiday relaxing at home. I left the scanner on in the background to see if Canadian Pacific would send anything my way. In mid-morning a southbound was approaching.

  • 1049 Fenwick - CP 246 south - CP 8626-CP 9501

It was all very quiet on the Hamilton Subdivision until train 255 north arrived on the scene in the early evening.

  • 1934 Fenwick - CP 255 north - CP 9754-CP 8787

So it was an all GE day. Rather boring.