Springtime at the Station, April 2018

Periodically, it's not a fowl idea to flock trackside. To form a 'V' and also an 'IA' to make 'VIA'. It was a nice evening - I did not need a down jacket. I was not ducking out of anything. I was going to see trains, not celebrities like Goose Willis, Geese Witherspoon or even Ryan Gosling. But a couple of local waterfowl were helping VIA cut the grass (top photo) as VIA No 68 was departing on April 23. Video of VIA No 68 arriving.

Video captures of No 68 looking west (above) and east (below) of the Princess Street overpass. Consist: 6415-3464-3326R-3328R-3303R. (R=Renaissance, F=Future, or Forty!)

VIA No 68 meets No 55:

In between trains, there was MRP 2018 to read. MRP is my most favourite, not-to-be-missed model railroad publication each year! I had just picked up my copy at Leading Edge Hobbies:

A few intervening trains:

• VIA No 55 at 1737: 6428-3458-3322-3370-3339R.
• VIA No 46 at 1748: 6438-3475-3356F-3323R-3363.
• VIA No 67 at 1824: 6455-3456-3302R-3371-3317R.

Video capture of friendly engineer of No 67 with Future banner (above) half an hour before non-stop VIA No 646 streaked through with 914-34xx-3350F-3341-3344-3331:

Video capture:

and another video capture with the Shaughnessy Effect:

Double-ended VIA No 647 pulled in at 1901: 910F-3359F-3345R-3342-3318-3471-912F:

VIA 3359 with evening light on the VIA Forty logo and English Future wrap:

Old-timey GE going-away sepia shot:

And 912F on the tail-end. One of the few times you'll see Business Class car on the tail-end:

You've always got time for Tim Hortons, even when No 69 is in the station:

A few more intervening trains as the light began to fail:

• VIA No 69 at 1934: 6442-3473-3367-3347-3360F.
• VIA No 68 at 1934: 9xx and four LRC cars (behind No 69).
• VIA No 668 at 2014: 917-4004-4008-4111-4109.
• VIA No 54 at 2016: 6426-3470-3316F-3315R (which left on south track ahead of No 668).
• CN No 377 at 2030: 2964-2996-ex-UP 9473 leaser-5424.

As the sun was hitting the horizon, the English-text 40 Years banner was in the flash foreground:

Running extra...

There's a new near-hospital food truck in town: Otter Creek Farms. Not your average poutine. Produced with surgical precision!

Looking forward to this Tuesday's Associated Railroaders of Kingston meeting, at which fellow Kingston railfan Paul Hunter will be presenting a 1978 trip aboard Amtrak that he and and his father took. Just past Amtrak's rainbow-era but just ahead of VIA's!

May 4 - VIA No 46 with 6436F meets westbound CSX coal empties from Becancour, QC on CN No 377 from six storeys up: