Dimensional Load Meet, February 2000

CN No 317 was a weekly Montreal-Toronto freight that routinely handled dimensional loads. Operating on weekends to reduce impact on the fewer VIA trains and fewer roadswitchers, this train and its eastbound counterpart CN No 318 were responsible for successfully planning meets with opposing traffic. Depending on the width of the dimensional loads, requireents for a meet location were tangent track and a stopping place between crossings . The Rail Traffic Controller would inform 317 ahead of time where the approaching train was, and leave the planning within a given block to the two trains.

Such a meet with hot eastbound intermodal CN No 104 took place just east of Mi 180 Kingston Sub, at Collins Bay at 0820 on Monday, February 28, 2000. An overcast and snowless morning, I was able to drive less than a mile from home to witness the meet. To show how little traffic there was to complicate meets, CN No 104 was the first train 317 had met since departing Montreal. Your humble blogger positioned himself along Bath Road to photograph this sitting duck:

The first dimensional load on 317 was a generator heading to the Henday Generating Plant on the Nelson River in northern Manitoba, eight cars deep aboard heavy-duty 12-axle flatcar LNAL 340320. Manufactured in Bristol, UK this would be one of 15 Alstom transformers ordered by Manitoba Hydro over four years. This one measures 35 feet in length, just over 13 feet in width and just over 15 feet in height, weighing in at a whopping 480,600 pounds. (It's from Britain, so we're keeping it in Imperial!)

On IPEX 101 rode an Indeck Power Equipment Co. Keystone O-Series steam generator boiler heading to Wheeling, IL. While Keystone is headquartered in Pennsylvania, these Indeck boilers are manufactured in St Hyacinthe, Quebec. IPEX 101 is a yellow 8-axle depressed-centre flat car with TrailerTrain-like lettering. Today, the car wears red paint.

CN has online tools for classifying dimensional loads. To my untrained eye, the transformer might be designated a D-6, largely based on width. Power on both trains: CN 5250-5355 on No 317, CN 2557 solo on No 104. The crews decided to meet on the tangent track just east of Collins Bay. No 104 approaches, reaching water level at one of the lowest elevations on the Kingston Sub. Lake Ontario is just to the left of this photo.

The crew from 317 walked back from the power to station themselves behind the LNAL car to supervise the meet:

Closer, at walking speed...

The rest of CN No 104 crept by at five or ten m.p.h., accelerating.  Proceeding east toward the IPEX car, about to pass under the Bayridge Drive overpass.

The rest of CN No 317 was 10 CN covered hoppers, Incobrasa covered hoppers BRIX 97123-97039, empty centre beam bulkhead CRLE 21058, two NCIX covered hoppers and CRLE 10452 double-door green hi-cube boxcar. Then it was on its way west, perhaps conducting more orchestrated meets.

WHERE THEY CAME FROM

Indeck in St Hyacinthe. Four photos from Googlemaps:

Ready to ship at Indeck. Note concrete counterweights welded to car deck due to offset centre-of-gravity of the boiler load: 

 WHERE THEY WERE HEADED 

Henday Generating Station near Gillam, MB. Henday is named for the intrepid 18th-century explorer Anthony Henday.

Indeck's facility in Wheeling, Illinois:

Running extra...

Election Night Special! By the time you read this, or even the time I finish typing it, the U.S. presidency may have been decided. Or not. I'd rather sacrifice promptness than democracy! Live television brings the unexpected! I've been biden my time on posting that one, but timeliness trumps further delay!

As Remembrance Day approaches, we focus on democracy and those who died to defend it. And only 50% of us go out to vote?! All gave some, some gave all, and some cared little. The 21st Battalion cenotraph in Kingston's City Park shows little of the King-and-Country (now a gospel group!?) lie-about-your-age pre-Greatest Generation who felt just that strongly about serving the Empire and not just tweeting about it.