Another online craft event for my wife on a Saturday - July 26, 2025 - meant that I would be heading trackside. Given the gift of several hours to spend train-watching, I always try to find a location that I haven't visited in awhile. Instead of the boring ol' Kingston VIA station platform! By 0800, I was already atop the Belleville Road overpass at Queens West, Mi 199.7 Kingston Sub! I wanted to catch at least two morning Venture trains at Napanee and overhead: 60/50 and 62/52, both of which are 'doublavay' consists and both eastbound into the morning sun. Meanwhile, my wife was at home getting her supplies and snacks in order. We were both ready to let our day begin, albeit separated by about 20 miles!
The trains I observed will be listed in this post with a photo or video link, if available, then by time, direction, train number, locomotive numbers or VIA Venture Set #'s, On-Time Performance (OTP) for VIA trains, YouTube video links and notes. Here are some links to previous kraftstravaganza days when both my good wife and I enjoyed our respective hobbies:
The fog on this morning was unbelievable! I estimated about 10 car lengths' visibility while driving to Napanee, and at one point on Highway 2 west of Odessa, only about five! I parked and ascended to the overpass, noticing that the nearby church had installed a moveable gate blocking its parking lot being used by the nearby scrapyard and its denizens. Thou shalt not park here!
0817 WB VIA No 41: Venture Set 22/2221, 27' late. YouTube video link here.
Looking east (above and top photo) and west to the scrapyard. No 41 then changed tracks to the north, since its station stop was done off the south track at Napanee. No 60/50, though no freights, would be coming the other way.
0841 EB VIA No 60/50: Sets 16 and 3, 12' late. Video screenshot below, Youtube video link here. The sun had burnt off almost all the fog. An unhoused man in a tent under the tree at the right would loudly yell expletives every 30 minutes or so, though apparently directed at the world, not at me.
1002 WB VIA No 61: 917 and 6 LRC cars, on-time. I am always amazed that a large farm with outstretched grain and soybean fields continues to prosper on Highway 41 as part of the commercial/fast-food 'cholesterol strip' in the background:
Looking east (above) and west (below) from under the overpass. The sun was already up and the day would bring heat warnings and temperatures around 30 degrees C. Shade was my best friend.
After these early VIA trains, it was time to head to Napanee station.
1043 EB VIA No 62/52: Set 30 and 13 pass the station on the north track nearly on time, making way for the inbound VIA No 643. Video screenshot below, Youtube video link here. This was not Set 30's first rodeo, but very close. Perhaps it's fourth revenue run since completing its break-in period.
1119 WB VIA No 643: Set 26, 20' late. Passenger stop made, Youtube video link here.
Stopped 643 and I emerged from the shade of a big tree off to the right for some photos:
The station lawn is crispy. For some reason there is a hospital bed, no mattress but with a headboard, just in front of the operator window. I did my best to make the 'safety railing' on the platform invisible.
1230 Lunch break for my wife and I. Yum, sandwiches! Meanwhile while munching, I mused about MR's 1,000 issues and this 2017 issue that mentioned my operations hero Frank Ellison, though it over-mentioned John Allen and his ground-breaking Gorre & Daphetid.
1237 WB VIA No 63: 903-3305-3313-3301-3475-3476*consecutive-*-6411, 35' late. One of four consecutive numbers on this day!
That grass is crispy, east of the station. A stand of sumac is off to the right, making it difficult to photograph westbound trains from this side of the station, except at the last minute as they round the bend.
1238 EB VIA No 40: 915 and 5 LRC cars, on-time. No station stop, as is the case with most trains at Napanee.
With VIA trains in both directions, I made a quick trip to my next destination, Townline Road. Great sightline, good light, few obstructions and not too many cars driving by. I missed empty potash unit train CN No 731 on the way, otherwise soon I'd catch the first freight in nearly five hours.
1254 WB CN No 271: CN 2903-2970 with about 90 empty auto racks:
1340 EB CN No 368: CN 2827, although expected green KKIX 3003 brought three fellow fired-up ferroequinologists to the crossing, not just to hang out with me (although we did). The main draw for Malcolm, Mary and John was that green SD. Just to prove it wasn't all a conjuring, here it is arriving Belleville at 1145 (photo posted to social media by Barry Silverthorn):
It turns out that 3003 had been wrongly sent east of Toronto - instead of Illinois - its intended destination. Once this error (I'll call it a misdirectomy!) was discovered by the CN brain trust, the errant unit was set out in Belleville yard. It returned west on July 29 to reach its eventual destination. This YouTube video link shows the unit heading through Michigan, just after a guy runs the crossing gates!
DPU CN 2534:
1402 WB VIA No 45: Set 21, 47' late. This crossing is subject to CN-imposed and VIA-perpetuated crossing speed reductions, so this speedster is making all of 45 mph at this point. Approaching the crossing from the east...
1455 WB CN No 305: led by CN 3040 with 40 tank cars on the head-end:
This is a regular move, all placarded UN 1863 aviation fuel for Hamilton airport:
1505 WB VIA No 47: 6406 and 5 LRC cars. Departed Montreal 2 hours late (unknown reason), here 75' late:
...approaching from the west(above) then over the crossing (below) and on to Kingston:
1640 EB CN No 372: leader CN 3272
Here's a subsequent pop-up post showing the freight cars on the six CN freights that passed me on this sunny, sweltering Saturday. Including two more consecutives!
DPU ex-Citirail CN 3976:
1517 WB VIA No 65: Sets 10 and 24, only 15' late! Youtube video link here. A rare westbound 'doublavay' therefore not subject to crossing speed reductions due to its 48-axle count.
1603 EB VIA No 644: Set 22, 40' late. Sunless on the south track...
1608 EB VIA No 64. Five minutes later on the north track, 904-8 LRC cars. The advent of Ventures means more LRC cars are available to form longer Montreal-Toronto consists. 98' late, left Toronto 2 hours late (again, for an unknown reason)!
DPU CN 2816. (No, not that 2816!):
Time to head home. Intrepid Napanee railfan Malcolm Peakman let me know that a Norfolk Southern unit was second on CN No 369. I headed for home, hoping to catch it near there. I did, at Vista Drive!
1730 WB CN No 369: ex-Citirail CN 3984-NS 1060 (below). The big, black beast would return the next day on CN No 372.
1735 EB CN No 306: its usual jumbled consist of auto racks, tank cars, boxcars and empty centre-beams (repeat!) with another consecutive (one number higher than 369's leader) that it had just met. This is ex-Citirail CN 3985:
DPU CN 8836:
Running extra...
A VIAritable riot of VIAdeo VIAriety this past VIAdnesday!
After the 'day-out-with-Thomas' that VIA RDC-4 6251 (above) recently enjoyed, profiled in last week's post, all was well mechanically and though it had been sitting at VIA's MMC for some eight years, the plucky Railiner is now on its way to Sudbury. Here's my video YouTube link showing it on the tail-end of VIA No 63. That same evening, VIA Panorama car 1721 completed its journey east from Vancouver on VIA No 2 (also profiled in the previous post) and No 68, joining VIA 1720 and 1722 as they ponder an uncertain future together at the MMC. Another screenshot from my video (below) or check out this YouTube link.
Speaking of the MMC, apparently a new urban park nearby has been completed. Not only does the overhead REM R-O-W allow viewing of VIA equipment from one side, this new urban park view now features ground-level (or slightly higher) viewing of another side of the MMC. Enjoy it VIAcariously in this YouTube link.
First past the post...
It was great to hear from Olive at the Kingston Canadian Film Festival this past week. The group is holding interviews to create a history of the building they inhabit - the Bailey Broom Factory on Kingston's Rideau Street. I had a vanishingly small role in the building's non-bulldozing, so I'm happy to help peel back the layers of this building's century-and-a-quarter story!
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