CN Tie Gang, August 2019

Out for my morning walk in early August, camera-in-hand (of course), I came across this hi-rail excavator beetling toward me on the south track just west of Mi 179 of CN's Kingston Sub. This fellow is responsible for dragging the ties out of the ditch, where they may have been deposited by a work train about two months ago (top photo). This was the creosote-soaked precursor to the approaching system tie gang. The gang finally made their way here on the south track on August 16.

The gang comprises men, machines and vehicles (actually, at least two of the machine operators were women. Two of the accompanying trucks were a fuel and shop truck (above) and a non-hi-rail pickup truck (below).

I will not try to put these photos in exact order, or to know exactly what's going on in each photo, or what each machine does exactly. The overarching concept is...old tie out, new tie in. The old ties are piled beside the track for subsequent pickup. With all kinds of laser-guided mechanical monsters all in a row, it still comes down to guys with handtools:

 These guys were likely getting track hardware ready for installation and spiking:

Due to this gang being strung-out, passing trains did a lot of whistling. Approaching the working limits, approaching trains call the foreman for directions. Since safety is important, the foreman contacts all other operators and foremen within his limits and asks them to stop work to 'clear' for the approaching train. Some machine operators transmit the phrase 'Hot rail!' as the train gets close. The train is then given track and speed instructions and is asked to use bell and whistle past workers and machinery. This leads to lots social media questions about 'why the trains are whistling so much all of a sudden in Kingston??' Some track machines were dirtier than others.

 Some of the smaller machines lacked a cab:

 These machines were always in the biggest 'knot'. Spikers:

 Shaking in some ballast:

Tie cranes operated near the front of the gang, placing the ties located by the excavator next to the hole created by the old tie removed. Extra ties ride on the attached track cart.

Among the most mesmerizing was the tie injector, of which there were four. It's important to remember that not every machine works on every tie. Maybe every fourth tie. This keeps the gang moving along quickly and likely removes potential bottlenecks.

Star Wars. The ties are lifted, tamped and lined by these precision pieces of machinery at the tail-end of the gang. The last machine completely finishes the track profile - ties, ballast and all.

Since this is a 24-hour gang, they 'own' a work block between interlockings and work 12 hours on-12 hours off. The day shift is done. All the workers collect in one central location (here at Tim Hortons in Collins Bay - lucky!) to be transported back to the hotel. This is only about half of them. I'd never seen so many CN trucks at this little mini-mall! Likely a dozen. Then, the night shift would arrive and carry on. In this way, the gang spends zero time travelling to and from the work site on-track, and they know exactly where the previous shift left off. (Photo taken through car window while leaving the mini-mall parking lot.)

The gang changed ties on the north track a couple of days later. The Herzog MPM IV tie pickup train was operating on the south track on August 22 and 23. Interestingly, the grapple operator would 'tap' a grapple full of ties on the side of the (former) well call before dropping the ties into the well.

The ties will likely be taken four miles east for piling at Queens then loading onto scrap tie gondolas to be taken...wherever CN takes scrap ties!

As of August 30, the gang's machines were on flat cars in Belleville yard. The local Best Western still had several CN and OWS (Oil Well Service) contractor hi-rail trucks in the parking lot. CN No 518 behind CN 4789-GATX 2264 arrived in Belleville with four black gondolas of old ties behind the power, likely from Kingston: 

Running extra...

Summertime insomniac 24-hour read: Another Great Day at Sea - Life Aboard the USS George H.W. Bush by Briton Geoff Dyer. Nice short chapters as we follow Geoff under, over and through this city on the sea. To quote dustjacket reviewer Steve Martin (surely not THE Steve Martin), "Dyer stows himself away...with all his hilarious tics in place. A rare kind of non-fiction, with sentences that keep on giving long after your eye has sailed on." That there's some pretty good writing, too!

BTS stands for Back To School!! Also By The Sea, Bed Time Snack or some Korean boy-pop band.

Also in Belleville, VIA 901 is one of three original-paint VIA P42's - eastbound on August 30.