Trackside Treasure: March 2025

In Part 1 of this series, I documented a delightful day adjacent and adrift astride the CN Kingston Sub on Saturday, February 8. In this post, we finish the day and in Part 3, it'll be a pop-up photographic panoply of freight cars from the day.

The third of four CN freights, all-auto rack 271 deigned to distribute its mile or more of empties far beyond the length of Kingston's kapatious platform! A long time running...

1158 WB - CN No 271CN 8932-5670 (top photo).

1203 WB - VIA No 63 904-3472-3460-3371-3309-3308R(en)-3309F(uture):

Tail-end car lets its high-red show, unlike a more hip Kingstonian blow-at-high-dough (I shot a still, in my home town, perhaps?) tragically, I can't come up with anything better to this mundane-but-someday-soon-to-disappear-view.

1252 WB - CN No 305 3275 mid-train DPU 3356:

1320 WB - VIA No 65 907-3464-3471-3341-3329F40(years)-3350 F40-3323R:

No 65 arrived 20 minutes early and met 30-minute late No 40.

1325 EB - VIA No 40 6408-3477-3459-3373-3370-4103:

Turbo-era signage on the fence has lasted long enough to see not one but two iterations of Turbo train produced by Rapido Trains Inc. I prefer seeing the Turbo 2.0 at the 14:10 mark HO-scale Kingston to all that Guildwood precursor - it's almost as alien as the 1:07 mark!

Departing east with a cornucopia consist comprising veritable VIAriety :

1413 WB - VIA No 53 913-3364 F40-3342-3340-3466-6412:

No 53 arrived 15 minutes late. Meeting No 64 at 1415.

1415 EB - VIA No 64 917-3464-3472-3302R-3361F-3314R-3306R. A mini-railfan gets the best view of all, pumping his arm for the 'honk' sign enthusiastically engendering two toots from the departing crew:

1445 WB - VIA No 47 910-3456-3353 F40-3360F-3366 F40-3312R snowed-in car view:

1525 EB - VIA No 42 Venture Set 21, arriving 25 minutes late.

Not road apples at least, road-salt Venture view:

Running extra...

Positive! Nik Delja of the Bytown Railway Society reached out this week to let me know about some recently-posted Youtube videos. Many of these were filmed by the late Bruce Chapman. This video shows the 1974 CP RDC fantrip that came to Kingston from the 8:00 mark. A great resource to wallow in nostalgia!

Negative! This happened this past week. One never knows what one will read next on social media! For April 1, the group will be changing its name from Canadian-Passenger-Rail to Canadian-Passiveaggressive-Rail:

In-between? American readers - you are welcome here. If you're in doubt where Canadians are coming from, this updated Youtube video will help. In the meantime, travellers heading from the US to Canada are taking it personally. And they shouldn't:

With cash from returning empties in hand thence a brief stop at Tims, bagel and brew in hand, I headed to Collins Bay for a few minutes before my next stop. This pop-up post will show the passage of usually nocturnal Southwark-Toronto CN No 321 at 1115. But first, coffee in hand but not cellphone, I roundly botched the shot of 'doublavay' (Venture J-train VIA No 62/52 with sets 14/16) at 1059. With two sets and 48 axles, this double-Venture is able to skirt CN's imposed crossing speed reductions and arrive more-or-less in time, once split at Brockville, at Ottawa if not Montreal - 11 and 29 minutes late, respectively.

Let's call it the 'X' train because almost every car - mostly tanks, gons and covered hoppers - are leased. CN 3278 slowly hauls 321 into view from out of the undergrowth: