Thursday, April 20, 2023

Railstream Webcam Highlights, Part 4


My highlight-reel images from late-February to mid-March, 2023 showing Railstream webcam images from Geddes Street level crossing over CN's Kingston Subdivision in Belleville, ON. (All images courtesy Railstream, LLC). It's not as if I observed every train, maybe only 2% of each day's trains. More oddities plus exceptional locomotives and cars that led me to saving and sharing them in this post. Previous months' highlights can be enjoyed in these previous posts:
  • Part 1 - end of October to November 2022
  • Part 2 - December 2022
  • Part 3 - January to early-February 2023
Blue BCOL 4645 DPU on CN No 372 - Feb. 19

CNA 404835 skolrwai graffiti on CN No 368 - Feb. 20

SOXX 526658 526657 fifteen new gondolas on CN No 368 - Feb. 20

GTW 384662 westbound - Feb. 22

CN air cars 0065 and 0093 on wesbound intermodal - Feb. 25

ONT 6000 6001 6003: 3 of 4 new grain covered hoppers on CN No 372 - Feb. 25

'Breeding pair' of ex-Citirail 2772-2793 on CN No 149 - Feb. 26

Cat excavator on HTTX flat car on CN No 372 - Feb. 27

Grove crane on HTTX 93300 also on CN No 372 - Feb. 27

LB45 on HTTX flatcar on CN No 305 - Mar. 2

Rare National Steel Car logo NSCX 54158 on westbound - Mar. 2

VIA 8509 trailing VIA No 42 - Mar. 2

Heritage-not-Heritage IPO25 CN 8898 westbound - Mar. 6

New car from Kingston Invista TILX 526030 westbound - Mar. 8

Westbound VIA Siemens test run No 627 - Mar. 9

Looks like a buffer loco! VIA 910  trailing No 42 - Mar. 9

'Open-door' VIA 6438 and Chateau Jolliet to go on No 1,  trailing VIA No 67 - Mar. 12

Rarely-seen baggage car. VIA 8621 trailing No 42 - Mar. 16

Running extra...

And the latest event to crash the internet is the CP-KCS merger. One day in and over-reacting rail enthusiasts are bemoaning the loss of everything CP, already calling it a fallen flag. It was impressive that CPKC (as it is now called in a 1970's recall reference to the inimitable disco group KC and the Sunshine Band) contracted with sign contractors to change CP yard signs all over the network to CPKC on the same day. So many sign photos! Get [That Old Sign] Down Tonight! Please Don't Go [CP Sign]! Or perhaps a Wild Cherry reference: Change That Funky Sign Right Now, Boy! Or Quebec disco chanteuse Patsy Gallant: [No Longer Just] Mon Pays or perhaps Back Back to the [Kansas] City!

An interesting data sheet on Trailer-Train TTUX Uni-Level Railcars. To show operator egress after loading a vehicle, a burly trucker is thoughtfully included in the photo!

97 Hours on the Canadian for $11,257. Wot, no spa on the Canadian? No, not in the "state of On - tarr -io", chum. This couple looks pretentious even just looking out the window, never mind the spa product ad snuck in to the video. Every move they make is cinematically filmed in slow motion, even imbibing a Diet Coke! Dude, you're in Prestige. Time to drink booze from breakfast to bedtime! At least this video shows the 'extra course' served to Prestige Class passengers which until now has remained top secret! Sure, the two front seats in the Park car dome are reserved for the only two (!) bougies on the train, but the window is snow-encrusted. West of Jasper, the Park car lounge is much more crowded, and some Prestige Class passengers adopt a rather strange Economy-class of sitting (below) I think they call that social justice. Egads - reference made to power on the Canadian as two P42DC's. How have I missed this also-secret motive power? Oh wait...

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Compare the Park Car lounge screenshot with this CPR photo from the 1950's.

http://www.trainweb.org/oldtimetrains/photos/cpr_rolling/Budd_equipment_Park_car_interior.jpg

It's like the suit-and-tie crowd has been replaced by the People of Walmart (R).

Steve Lucas

Eric said...

My parents insisted on dressing up when they took the Canadian west in 1994, Steve. That seems like...a millennium ago now!

Seriously, I've taken some heat and online drama about Prestige Class non-dress non-codes. The rich need not point fingers at 'millennials' because it seems to me they are even more entitled than the youngsters. The response I hear repeatedly is, "We're paying this much for our trip and we'll wear whatever we &*(#) want to wear. If it's T-shirts and sweatpants, so be it!"

I've never seen the point of a three-class Canadian a la VIA!

Thanks for your comment,
Eric

Anonymous said...

It's a terrible video!
Thank goodness they weren't on the train when I was last month.

Eric said...

Bougies gotta bouge, I guess A.
At least it's less obtrusive than a whole camera crew, soundman and producer.
But still, wow.

Thanks for your comment,
Eric

Anonymous said...

Haha, well, yes.
There was a (small) film crew on my train, but unobtrusive and The Canadian was only part of their assignment.

A belated thanks for your buffer car information. I was always checking back for updated pre-trip information. While it was a shame that a Manor was behind the Park, it wasn't *that* big a deal. More of an issue was the single Park dome for Sleeper Plus and Prestige, when Economy had a deserted dome. Could have done with another dome - would easily have been filled.

Eric said...

OK, glad to hear that. Yes, the sleeper Skylines are back, and I had a very small role in their new display cases. The domes really are the place to be, even when there's not THAT much scenery to look at!

Eric