Canada Day 2019

COMFORT 

We recently had the rare pleasure of seeing significant swaths of Canada through the windows of a Skyline dome car on our Kingston-Edmonton round trip aboard VIA. What better way to celebrate Canada than with a few photos taken through this unique portal? Along with each photo presented in this post, I've provided a short commentary blending my observations of the trip with the Canadian character. Happy Canada Day!

Two New Zealanders (top photo) joined us in the air-conditioned Skyline, specially garbed in sweaters and down jackets for the cool conditions. 'CANADA' and red toques! The chilling cold and the undying wind require preparation to deal with, but when properly dressed, we can laugh at the cold. Even if it's air-conditioned cold!

Rivers, roads and rails. From earliest days until today, Canadians know that there is always much more to explore. Not content with their solid brick buildings, frame structures or modern subdivisions, we want to see more of our country. On skis, on rafts, by helicopter or Red River cart, there was always another horizon beckoning us onward. And that will never change. High on the CP trestle over Parry Sound:

EXPLORING

Miles and hectares and quadrants, full of trees. And lakes. And plains. And tundra. Why? This land 'that God gave to Cain' is one gigantic wilderness that we have managed to somehow shoehorn humanity into, despite its best efforts to push us back out. Beautiful sunsets from a cozy dome car, but in years past, a sunset over the gathering gloaming meant another day of back-breaking hard work ahead. West of Red Lake Road, approaching the Ontario-Manitoba border:

WILDERNESS

Grainy photos of bewildered immigrants arriving in Winnipeg, shown in our history textbooks, flashed through my mind as we waited to head west again. The cities spit out immigrants as fast as they could, eager to make way for more, as the settlers went on to seek their fortune in an unforgiving land. The railway was there to make this happen, using its fan-like network to propel prospective pioneers deep into that very same wilderness.

GATEWAYS

The sheer immensity of the land dwarfs us. As we move farther into it, we are met by waves of grass, by towering stands of trees, by a sea of mountains. Set on conquering it, civilization sprouted like weeds among cobblestones - though the endlessness is truly unending. Once the distant seashores are reached, the unending seas at our gates beckon again. Saskatchewan:

ENDLESSNESS

Where new civilization began, commerce followed. Minerals, crops, furs were duly discovered and warehoused for sale. Proceeds were held close and privately lent out to promote more further profits. Solidly built, certain town buildings were visible signs of prosperity and commercial promise. Young, Saskatchewan:

GRIT

This immense land makes one realize that there has to be something bigger than oneself, something greater, grander and omniscient. Realizing that each person was not alone, houses of worship sprung up and were populated by those perhaps not God-fearing but in a stronger sense than today, God-knowing. Neighbours and friendships were made, sustaining each other in success and struggle, birth and death, sorrow and joy. West of Melville, Saskatchewan:

FAITH

Darkness breeds doubt. Survival seems shaky, the night seems interminable, and even passengers wonder if the rain will abate. The raindrops provide a spiderweb-like pattern across the window, whipped by the wind. But the darkness is overcome by the light, tomorrow always comes, and once again, our future seems assured. Northern Ontario:

DARKNESS

That particular blue-sky type of optimism comes on a day when everything seems possible, when the moments pass slowly and we hope they will never end. There are no bounds, and the ceiling is unlimited. A land like ours begets this opportunity and in no small way, continues to ensure its bright future. Saskatchewan:

OPTIMISM

The next generations want a share of Canada. In the past, survival. Today, openness and inclusivity are words used in a land where survival is assured, and we continue to welcome newcomers and learn to live together. Simultaneously, we harness and expand the sheer size of our country using technology. A child's hand reaches toward the future. Toronto:

OPPORTUNITY

Running extra...

An evocative scene, taken from our bedroom window (I really can't use the VIA terminology 'Cabin for 2' despite my best efforts!) near Yarbo, Saskatchewan (below). Departing Kingston on June 1, we returned June 26.

There will be more photos of this 'trip of a lifetime', rest assured! Since there are 1400+ photos, it takes a while to savour, sort and share them. I will not, however, inflict a 24-part series on our trip upon Trackside Treasure's patient readership!

Happy Canada Day, and to Trackside Treasure's readers in America, Happy Independence Day!

-Eric

On Sabbatical

I learned something today...that 'sabbatical' dates back to the Old Testament book of Leviticus, and is derived from the Hebrew 'shmita', relating to agriculture, as told to Moses. More easily-apprehended defining bullet -points of knowledge:

• An extended absence.
• A field left fallow (this may be where The Fallowfield Effect came from?) 
• Leaving the land in the seventh year and withdrawing from it.
• Used in a sentence, "I'm taking a month off to get my shmita together!"
• In modern usage, an absence in the career of an individual to fulfil a goal. 

Now, I'm not sure how one needs an absence when my new career is retirement! Doesn't matter. Trackside Treasure is about to enter its eleventh year. I'm not very good at math, but that's like, gotta be at least two years more than the seventh year. Did I mention I'm not very good at math? (I've learned there are three kinds of people in this world - those who can count, and those who can't.) It's time for a sabbatical.

Of course the next question is, how shall I sagely spend my sabbatical month? The correct answer would include one of the following:

• travel, preferably to a mountaintop, preferably one that hosts momentous mountaintop moments, or yurt-ing with yellow-haired yaks on the Mongolian steppe
• scholarly research, ideally in bibliotherapeutic Byzantine book-room, pierced by shafts of light illuminating the floating dust of a bygone era (note to self: sign up for creative writing course.)
• deep reflection (I have a room full of mirrors where I sometimes go to just reflect)
• immersing myself in nature in order to humbly absorb Mother Earth's intrinsic pulse, something like that. (My guess is sitting on the front porch, dozing with can of beer in hand, hat pulled down over eyes, something like that.) 

Now, time for some positive affirmations:

• I will let you know how it turns out. You'll be the first to know.
• I will recharge my batteries - if the acid has not all leached out of them. 
• I will return on Canada Day, prolifically posting a prophetic post profiling this magnificent nation.
• I will stop making positive affirmations. Now.

Legal Disclaimer:

Do not fear. This is not the end of my quiet corner of cyberspace, the alliteratively-named and somewhat catchy Trackside Treasure. To paraphrase Old Winnie, this is neither the beginning of the end, nor is it the end of the beginning. You will never hear me type the phrase (I type loudly!), "Haven't posted in awhile". You think it's easy keeping up to this torrid pace of posting once a week? Because it is! Will I be walking the median at a local intersection, sign in hand reading - lots of money, ample food, need ideas though - all while holding a thought bubble above my head? Well, no. Not legal in the state of Alaska. Professional driver on closed course. If interest in this blog lasts longer than one hour, see your doctor. Your mileage may vary. May result in the condition known as 'hot-dog fingers'.

(see above)

-Eric

CNA Port Hawkesbury boxcars

A series of boxcars for the Port Hawkesbury (Point Tupper), Nova Scotia paper mill entered service in 1998. Spiffy when new! CNA 406280-406499, were 220 6241 cubic-foot, 50-foot hi-cube single-door cars built by Trinity in 1998. These cars handled calendarized paper from the efficient mill to US printers. The cars were notable due to their unique 'Canadian/Canadien National' and reporting marks utilizing a rather large font, as well as a low, centred CN logo on the opposite end of the car:

GTW 406383 on CN No 369 September 19, 2015 (top photo) and a GTW 406434 with its CN logo and Canadian National lettering painted out, at Kingston on CN No 307 on June 17, 2002:

GTW 406418 is still running around with CN multimark and lettering. On CN No 376 at Belleville, ON on November 25, 2016:

GTW 406476 on CN No 376 at Kingston on Nov. 3, 2018:

My observations: Date, car number, CN train on. When noting observations, I note them as 'CNA Ports BO'. Between 2001 and 2006, the CNA reporting marks were patched-over with GTW, as they remain to this day:

First observation: Apr 3/98 CNA 406317 and three others Dest Port Hawkesbury NS No 308

Aug 1/98 CNA 406356 Dest. Port Hawkesbury NS No 368

Mar 19/99 CNA 406450 Dest. Port Hawkesbury NS No 308

Mar 27/99 CNA 406299 Dest. Port Hawkesbury NS No 308

Jun 24/99 CNA 406438-403349-406295-406470-406436 No 305

Jul 18/99 CNA 406349-406391 No 305

Apr 26/02 GTW 406417 No 308

Jun 17/02 GTW 406434 

Aug 30/02 GTW 406421-CNA 406446 No 307

Oct 1/02 CNA 406421-406448 No 307

Sep 6/03 GTW 406378 No 308

Nov 22/03 CNA 406347-406337

Nov 25/04 CNA 406351-GTW 406445 No 308

Mar 17/05 CNA 406421-GTW 406370 

May 22/06 CNA 406462-GTW 406398 (last non-GTW?)

Sep 9/06 GTW 406341 on No 369

May 8/07 GTW 406348

.....

May 24/15 GTW 406421 WB

Oct 21/15 GTW 406416 WB

Feb 2/17 GTW 406496 WB

Lots o' links:

• Nice photo of CNA 406381
  
• 2018 pdf on the Port Hawkesbury mill
• It's educational! All you could want to know about Port Hawkesbury
• More history of the mill and its corporate changeovers
• Pressreader history of the mill

An interesting wrinkle. Just outside this class of cars - an 8-car series built by Gunderson in 2003 - here's CNA 406274 at Belleville with the small-logo 'www' website scheme in April, 2021. (Image courtesy RailStream, LLC):

Another variation: CNA 406404 at Townline Road in September, 2023. The original 'Ports' lettering including 'Canadien National' appears to be painted out, with GTW reporting marks AND the website logo added:

JANUARY 2023 UPDATE: A follow-on series of cars, also built by Trinity between November, 2022 and January, 2023 numbered GTW 406500-407289. GTW 406527 shows the clean, reporting marks-only scheme on January 27 (Two images courtesy Railstream, LLC):

Then things got weird. GTW 406660 with wet-noodle logo, along with 406662. On CN No 377 March 29, 2023 (below). Other noodled observations include GTW406806 on CN No 372 on May 16, 2023.

Aerial photo of the paper plant. Note loading spur with boxcars:

Running extra...

Four of CN's business cars headed through Kingston on May 20 on a late-running CN No 120 and meeting CN No 305. Power car Pacific Spirit, dome American Spirit, entertainment car Tawaw and theatre car Sir Sandford Fleming. Thanks to Malcolm Peakman for the heads-up! Video captures:

Looks like Alejandro Aranda will continue making music his own way, with the opportunistic Laine Hardy taking the American Idol competition, unlike my previous prediction. A star-studded finale including Checotah, Oklahoma's own Carrie Underwood!

Springtime in Belleville, May 2019

If you like a cool, wet spring, well, this is the one for you! No matter, when there are trains to watch and time to kill, power windows and parking in the leeward direction are your best friends. Having paced this train all the way from Mi 178 Kingston Sub, then Mi 180, then Mi 184, it was only right to see it yet again as it approached Belleville Yard. BCOL 4653-CN 2572 are westbound at 0927 (top photo).

Lots of auto racks, but this one stood out: CMO 800057 Union Pacific Bi-Max. In the yard, HTTX 93863 with tarped LAVIII APC's for Saudi Arabia:

At 1005, VIA No 61 with two engines, 6424-6453 lead four LRC cars into Belleville:

These are video captures.

Flooded tracks north from Belleville yard, the former Campbellford Sub. to Corbyville. City of Belleville crews were working on a blocked culvert just to the west. The track goes only a little farther north:

After VIA headed west, I could hear the distinct, though faint, chug of GE's. I was not getting skunked, as happened on my last visit. To the Batvan! CP never seems to go particularly fast, and I knew no CN trains would be around, based on signal indications. Nothing to lose! Headed south on Mitchell Road: CP 9737 approaches eastward, leading 30 assorted cars at 1015...

...then it's intermodal, with 8945 mid-train DPU...

...fishing lures, tires, travel mugs and weedwhacker line...

...and things we don't see on CN intermodals...

 ...under the watchful eye of a foreman out of his hi-rail pickup for the inspection on the south side, and tail-end DPU 9668 plodding toward Smiths Falls:

Next up, back on The Other Railway was CN No 149 at 1040. Watch the video here. 

A very creative hostler produced this locomotive consist. CN 2113 with the 15th anniversary 'flaming unit' privatization logo - bleu-blanc-rouge BCOL 4608- and the double-oh-seven 8007. The latter has a cabside numbering job that only my limited modelling skills have heretofore produced:

CN eastbound intermodal with solo engine CN 2853 emerges from the yard at 1048 and meets the still-oncoming 149. Watch the video here.

...clothesline, motor oil, T-shirts and hockey pucks:

At a farm crossing near Shannonville Road, it's telephoto time. Looking east toward the CP crossing over CN. Interesting track profile, eh?

L-U-L-L at the farm crossing then VIA No 51 with engine 900 and six LRC cars at 1125. Watch the video here. 

Sampling some more video captures:

I'd seen this Signals & Communications building many times, just west of Belleville station, but for the life of me, I'd never noticed that retro Canadian National lettering thereon!

Some things do change in Belleville, though. I was surprised to find myself on this new road which bypasses the Stella-Jones creosoting plant and the former CN yard office/dispatching centre which has had many uses, including its current recycling usage. Not necessarily helpful for railfanning, as it seems to end in some of the new subdivisions in Belleville's north end.

Heading home, this eastbound rolled into the east end of Belleville yard (note taxi) for a crew change:

Running extra...

If you're watching American Idol, (Katy Perry was speechless) you may have enjoyed the musical talents of Alejandro Aranda and his original songs from his audition. Dude has guitar, piano and vocals in his musical quiver. For sheer woohoo content, Katharine McPhee's Black Horse has no rival. Both are standouts from Idol finales. Watch Sunday at 8 for the Alejandro Show.

On my HO scale Hanley Spur layout, this week I decided to replace my rock-cut surface with a proper limestone treatment. Read more about the process here. Also on my layout is CN 4530, an Athearn GP-9. This week I found a suitably grimy online auction site image of the same unit (below). Soon, a new MLW stablemate will join it on my Hanley Spur layout!