If you like a cool, wet spring, well, this is the one for you! No matter, when there are trains to watch and time to kill, power windows and parking in the leeward direction are your best friends. Having paced this train all the way from Mi 178 Kingston Sub, then Mi 180, then Mi 184, it was only right to see it yet again as it approached Belleville Yard. BCOL 4653-CN 2572 are westbound at 0927 (top photo).
Lots of auto racks, but this one stood out: CMO 800057 Union Pacific Bi-Max. In the yard, HTTX 93863 with tarped LAVIII APC's for Saudi Arabia:
At 1005, VIA No 61 with two engines, 6424-6453 lead four LRC cars into Belleville:
These are video captures.
Flooded tracks north from Belleville yard, the former Campbellford Sub. to Corbyville. City of Belleville crews were working on a blocked culvert just to the west. The track goes only a little farther north:
After VIA headed west, I could hear the distinct, though faint, chug of GE's. I was not getting skunked, as happened on my last visit. To the Batvan! CP never seems to go particularly fast, and I knew no CN trains would be around, based on signal indications. Nothing to lose! Headed south on Mitchell Road: CP 9737 approaches eastward, leading 30 assorted cars at 1015...
...then it's intermodal, with 8945 mid-train DPU...
...fishing lures, tires, travel mugs and weedwhacker line...
...and things we don't see on CN intermodals...
...under the watchful eye of a foreman out of his hi-rail pickup for the inspection on the south side, and tail-end DPU 9668 plodding toward Smiths Falls:
Next up, back on The Other Railway was CN No 149 at 1040. Watch the video here.
A very creative hostler produced this locomotive consist. CN 2113 with the 15th anniversary 'flaming unit' privatization logo - bleu-blanc-rouge BCOL 4608- and the double-oh-seven 8007. The latter has a cabside numbering job that only my limited modelling skills have heretofore produced:
CN eastbound intermodal with solo engine CN 2853 emerges from the yard at 1048 and meets the still-oncoming 149. Watch the video here.
...clothesline, motor oil, T-shirts and hockey pucks:
At a farm crossing near Shannonville Road, it's telephoto time. Looking east toward the CP crossing over CN. Interesting track profile, eh?
L-U-L-L at the farm crossing then VIA No 51 with engine 900 and six LRC cars at 1125. Watch the video here.
Sampling some more video captures:
Some things do change in Belleville, though. I was surprised to find myself on this new road which bypasses the Stella-Jones creosoting plant and the former CN yard office/dispatching centre which has had many uses, including its current recycling usage. Not necessarily helpful for railfanning, as it seems to end in some of the new subdivisions in Belleville's north end.
Running extra...
If you're watching American Idol, (Katy Perry was speechless) you may have enjoyed the musical talents of Alejandro Aranda and his original songs from his audition. Dude has guitar, piano and vocals in his musical quiver. For sheer woohoo content, Katharine McPhee's Black Horse has no rival. Both are standouts from Idol finales. Watch Sunday at 8 for the Alejandro Show.
On my HO scale Hanley Spur layout, this week I decided to replace my rock-cut surface with a proper limestone treatment. Read more about the process here. Also on my layout is CN 4530, an Athearn GP-9. This week I found a suitably grimy online auction site image of the same unit (below). Soon, a new MLW stablemate will join it on my Hanley Spur layout!
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