I encouraged my good wife to enjoy a four-day Crop & Create online crafting event that included live sessions over four days beginning last Thursday, with Day Four being last Sunday. The fact that this intense kraftravaganza would keep her fully-occupied, thereby allowing me some extended time trackside, in some awesome late-September weather had absolutely nothing to do with my enthusiasm. Nothing. Okay, nearly everything! I took the opportunity to visit some previous haunts in the Kingston area and watch whatever CN and VIA trains came by. Over the next four pop-up posts, you'll see what I observed and photographed. I'll do my best to keep it interesting, and not just a withering watch-a-thon of wedge shots!
Day One took me from Mi 184 to Mi 176 of CN's Kingston Sub. The start and finish of CN No 377 Engs 3803-2890 (top and below).
I wanted to catch some morning eastbounds at this location. I don't remember that power pole from my last visit, and I instantly christened it 'the Pesky Pole'. It got cropped out as VIA No 60/50 met CN No 271 Engs 2238-2605 right in front of me, at the Taylor-Kidd Boulevard overpass just east of Mi 184, east side:
VIA No 50 Eng 907 bringing up the rear of this J-train as 271's empty autoracks trundle west. I also quickly christened Loyalist Township's squat blue water tower 'the Pepsi Can'.
Tricky lighting looking east from the overpass:
VIA No 61 Eng 909 heads west under the overpass with the new, hastily-slapped-together Lakeside-er-something-erother subdivision in the background. I was once told that beaver ponds used to be found in this (previously) wooded area. Not any more...dam! Too late to lodge a complaint.
CN No 149 Engs 2984-3041, doublestacks for Chicago:
OOCL reefer units keeping the Pepsi cold:
The sun was shifting to a illuminate a west-side Pesky Pole. VIA No 643 Eng 6438:
Second morning J-train from the west side of the overpass, no pole! VIA No 62 Eng 912/No 52 Eng 916:
After checking in at Mi 183, the at-the-time trainless grade past the Amherstview Golf Club, I moved east to Coronation Boulevard level crossing at Mi 181.7 with its newly-installed crossing gates. I quickly christened the gate-aligners 'the Angel Wings':
Westbound VIA No 63 Eng 6446 disturbed three trackside vultures eating some rail-road kill:
Ex-Citirail 3934 leads backlit, with tail-end DPU 8893:
South side September sunshine illuminates VIA No 40 Eng 6414:
The all-wrap consist is still running and only two days ago was book-ended by another (!) wrap unit. VIA No 45's consist was previously led by Eng 6437, now Eng 904:
With no freights in my future, it was time to pick up another coffee. An ETU squawk while leaving McDonald's drive-thru took me to the north end of Golden Mile Road. CN No 305 was approaching led by ex-Citirail 3978 with DPU CN 3068. Find the train!
I went west to the intermediate signals west of Mi 179 at Riley's Garden Centre along Bath Road. The sign says they're taking a couple of weeks off, so the parking lot was wide open! Not shown: VIA No 65 Eng 914, but here's VIA No 64 Eng 6421 while the late-September skies keep shining:
Westbound VIA No 53 Eng 6401 near the detector:
Second eastbound same location as the first (just above) except in this case VIA No 42 Eng 917 with the kaleidoscopic kornucopia of HEP stripe-schemes amid the equally-kaleidoscopic changing leaves:
Not a very remarkable train, but I'm revelling in the total lack of peripatetic photo-bombing traffic as I stand on Kingston's Railfan Walking Trail. Notice how the city of Kingston installed yellow-and-black bollards to protect the trail users that exactly match the VIA wraps? VIA No 47 Eng 919 (above and below):
So the Morning and the Evening were the First Day. Let's see what Day Two brings...
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