Pop-up Post: One Day in July 2025

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:

• Four Days in September, 2023
• One Day in July, 2024
  
• Four Days in September, 2024
• Two Days in March, 2025 

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!

Someone has done a nice job planting pleasantly pastoral plants on the platform pleasingly.

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...

...and heading west, inevitably to repeat the speed-up, slow-down procedure all the way to Toronto.

1422 WB VIA No 53:  Set 5, only 12' late. Youtube video link here. A rare trip to the 'dark side' north of the north track, but with so many Ventures, there was nothing to lose but a little light.

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:

DPU ex-Citirail CN 3976:

1505 WB VIA No 47: 6406 and 5 LRC cars. Departed Montreal 2 hours late (unknown reason), here 75' late:

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...

...approaching from the west(above) then over the crossing (below) and on to Kingston:

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)! 

1640 EB CN No 372: leader CN 3272

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:

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!

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!

Pop-up Post: Two Days in March 2025, Day Two

After spending Day One near Gananoque Junction after capturing VIA No 60/50, the first of two doublavays at Bayridge Drive overpass, I headed slightly east on Day Two to capture VIA No 60/50 from the Sir John A Macdonald overpass near Mi 175 CN Kingston Sub (top photo).

0953 EB - VIA No 60/50 Sets 11 and 24 Youtube video link. It was a cold one-hour wait - trains from Toronto were late due to a Metrolinx trackwork detour (see below). I then headed to Mi 174 at Queens East, at the site of the former CN-CP interchange. 

On the north side of the mainline was formerly Queens 1 with a lead to the interchange, lifted in the 1990s. Now an expanse of ballast, a few tie remnants and invading brush, (which I had ample time to tame), I tried to include the old-timey westward-facing Queens East signal gantry in many of my photos. These signals are bound to be replaced, some year. One of the signal targets was loose and could be heard banging when the wind came up.

1052 WB - VIA No 643 Set 13:

 

1103 EB - CN No 372 2934-midtrain DPU 3976 ex-Citirail:

1124 WB - CN No 271 all (empty) auto racks, all the time 8843-8901:

1138 WB - VIA No 63 (unphotographed) 910-3463-3467-3341-3350F(uture)-3312R(en).

1235 WB - CN No 305 2949-midtrain DPU 2872:

1321 EB - VIA No 62/52 Sets 2/10:

VIA No 62/52 Youtube video link 2'20" late due to Newmarket/York Sub Metrolinx detour around 'three sides of the square'. One hour late leaving, took 1.5 hours to reach the Kingston Sub, schedule had been adjusted to accommodate the detour, but still! All I know is that minutes before I left home that morning, it said "expected to depart on time"!

These trains seen from the south side of the mainline at Queens East Mi 174 CN Kingston Sub:

1327 WB - VIA No 65 913-3478-3455-3342-3356F-3351F, 40(years)-3355F.

[1350 - wellness check from CN Police constable, who dryly noted this location is usually frequented by mentally distraught people, or family of the unhoused living nearby.]

1410 EB - VIA No 40 6411-3470-3465-3368(hand-painted blue)-3350?F-3369:

1416 WB - VIA No 53 Set 7 (unphotographed).

1441 WB - VIA No 47 917-3472-3371-3309R-33xx-3338F (unphotographed).

1450 EB - No 64 6440-3460-345?-3352-33xxF-3336:

Driving home via the Kingston VIA station, CN No 306 came out of the setting sun.

1635 EB - CN No 306 3108(CN100) - midtrain DPU 3919 ex-Citirail:

a large cut of Parrish & Heimbecker covered hoppers:

Day Three really didn't get off the ground. It was sunny but cold, and our grandsons were arriving for an afternoon visit, so I did not find myself trackside. However, this bonus pop-up post shows freight cars from the first two days!

Running extra...

I published this April 23 update on VIA's case in the Quebec Superior Court:

The Superior Court of Quebec has chosen not to intervene and grant an interlocutory injunction against CN. The Court's decision says that Transport Canada, as the authority responsible for rail safety in Canada, is best-positioned to decide this matter. VIA's CEO shared the outcome, and VIA does not view this as a loss. In fact the main legal case - a request for permanent injunction - is still ongoing. In the course of the legal process in Quebec, VIA  and Transport Canada (TC) were able to obtain key information from CN that had been previously unshared. These new insights will significantly support VIA's ongoing discussions with TC and CN. VIA claims that CN's latest data confirms that none of VIA's trains are detected at crossings any differently than other trains operating in the Corridor. VIA's General Counsel is reviewing the Court's decision and evaluating next steps in the legal, operational and administrative avenues.

YouTube recommendations:

• Thanks to Jim Lowe for this YouTube recommendation from Gatineau, QC. So many models I recognize and remember!
• I met Greg Wiggins at both of my OVAR presentations. A very humble and quiet guy modelling what I used to model, only much, much better.
• Yet another Youtube trip on the Canadian! Here's Part One and Part Two. Just like Day Three, Part Two gets truncated.

First past the post...

Jesse McLaughlin kindly updated me with OS's from all across America and as far east as Belleville as VIA's Venture Set 29 was delivered this past Wednesday. The first daylight delivery through Kingston since Set 11 was delivered back in December, 2023! Jesse also sent screenshots from various Virtual Railfan webcams along the route as the power changed from UP 6916 to CN 8918!