Summertime at the Station, July 2020

Railfanning checklist for the latest Saturday at the Station on July 25. Ice water with lemon? Check. Sandwich? Check. Blanket to throw over the raised van liftgate to keep out the sun? Check. Lawnchair to sit in the shade? Check. Book manuscript to work on? Check. After getting on-station (pun intended) the first non-intermodal train was at 0913 westbound with 3810 hauling all empty autoracks perhaps CN No 271:

One can still find a fallen flag or two among the graffiti. SP speed lettering (top photo) and the Can Opener Courtesy of Conrail (below):

The first of two westbound intermodals at 0852 had big power: 3158-5726-5709 and with a mix of domestic and export containers, it was probably CN No 105. These are not only Trailer-Train well-cars. Look closely to find CN, FEC, CP, AOK, and UCRY among the yellow. And not all T-T cars are yellow. DTTX 888730 was a blue 3-pak. Who says taggers aren't sympathetic to railway practices? Hand-painted car number, no less:

Trying some modified photographic techniques. Black & white (above) and Head Sizzled Washed Out (below) heading up the hill to Mi 177 Kingston Sub. That's how the heat makes one feel! The second westbound intermodal looks very much like the first, except it was all export containers: Cosco, MSC, OOCL and Maersk and included a red T-T 3-pak DTTX 885058. There were BNSF, and GTW well-cars, at 1003 with 2895-3044, perhaps CN No 149:

The more colourfully-adjusted rest of the train continues to do its best to head west through the station.  These two photos are shared simply to show that the entire nearly two miles that are visible here are full of just one train. And then some!

Giving us a look into the jungle book, it's 3205 in the lead and DPU 3132 on this eastbound at 1037. CN pays little attention to right-of-way weed-whacking, or perhaps more accurately now, wood-cutting.

CN's Heritage Fleet scrap tie cars usually give a good account of predecessor roads to CN. Today was no different, with BN cars lettered for WC, BLE hoppers and this earlier acquisition from the Lake Erie, Franklin and Claron/CNA 330312:

It's nice to see these old warhorse covered hoppers still traversing the former Grand Trunk. In this case it's GTW 138266 after the DPU. Still in pretty good shape, with minimal graffiti despite those conspicuity stripes!

Eastbound at 1100, it's VIA No 62/52 6419-3461-3313-3368 roller-painted blue-3306 Renaissance-3312R-6417-909Love the Way-3456-3357Future-3301R-3339R-3316F-6401. A platform-filler, reminiscent of the early years of VIA at Kingston!

Days of yore-gonna-miss-it-someday westbound late 1970's at Kingston - L.C. Gagnon photo:

VIA No 53 was next, keeping right on-track (pun intended) for the two trains per hour rule this day. The light for almost all this day's photos was coming from the south side, giving us this tableau of tower and towering clouds:

The big picture: VIA No 53: 6415-3336-3355F-3317R-3338F-3478-901 pulled in from the east at 1151:

The blue construction fencing is for the road work taking place at the west end of the station parking lot, soon to be linked to John Counter Boulevard's new station entrance. Heading west to do more work down the road, VIA 901 smokes a bit - one of only four VIA P42's not wearing the 'love the way' wrap.

An eastbound freight at 1235 with 3243-DPU 2990 possibly 322 or 310 or 306. That DWC car on the tail end was a last-minute photo decision!

It was both a fruitful and freightful morning as the sun rose higher in the sky and it was time to gas up and head home. 

Running extra...

Check out fellow blogger Steve Boyko's latest about trainwatching in Winnipeg. In March. The first photo is a snowy field which proves Steve is not only out standing in his field, but he's as intrepid as he is prolific!

That manuscript I was working on, beginning July 1, is now complete. It fills a one-inch binder, handwritten. Some would say...write what you know. I'd counter (not Counter Street) that with...write what you want to know more about. I'd rather be learning on the journey of writing, rather than waiting until I've completed the journey of learning then starting to write.

What better way to railfan local than to write about Kingston's railway history? Not being a division point or even a subdivision point, Kingston still had a lot of interesting goings-on going on. Belleville to the west and Brockville to the east were much bigger railway towns. But the railway knowledge of Kingston seems to be limited to Canadian Locomotive Co., the dilapidated CN Outer Station and maybe 'that old steamer stuffed and mounted down by City Hall.' Is that all there is? I think not.