SHORT LINES

REGIONAL & INDUSTRIALS

Western Canada :

SW1500 #1500 from a former lumber company in Crofton, BC on Vancouver Island, has been shipped on BNSF to Washington State. The units was sold to Western Railroad Dismantlers (WRIX)

David Hancock caught the newest Kelowna Pacific (KPR) locomotive GMTX GP38-3 2258, September 9th, 2010 at KPR's Headquarters in Vernon BC. The unit came from Pacudah, Kentucky on the Paducah & Louisville RR, and then over CN from Chicago to Kamloops BC, where it was received by the KPR, and then transported here to Vernon, BC. The unit itself started life as Devco #224

http://www.railroadfan.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=12230

Deane Motis submitted these great shots of the rebuilt White Pass & Yukon narrow-gauge diesels:

Here we find White Pass & Yukon Route #91, the fourth unit to be completed in the planned 90 Class rebuild program, awaiting authorization to proceed from Steilacoom, Washington to Seattle. 91 is aboard the largest truck transport in the Pacific Northwest. The trailer is comprised of 20 individually controlled axles powered by two Kenworth high horsepower tractors. The lead tractor is the primary moving force where the second Kenworth with over 20 tons of concrete ballast provides both pushing and braking power. The approximately 40 mile move took approx 4 hours to complete.

Upon arrival in Seattle the morning of September 8, #91 was lifted by two 250 ton cranes and placed aboard a 12 axle custom designed dolly. Here, #91 hangs in the air waiting for the transport dolly to placed under the unit. Later in the morning when the tide level was even with the loading dock, the dolly was pushed aboard an Alaska Marine Lines barge for its voyage to Skagway.

On September 13, five days after leaving Seattle, #91 arrives to its home of Skagway. This view provide a good look at the transport dolly. 91 will wait three more days before being placed on the rails due to heavy passenger traffic. When 91 was being moved off the barge, the unit's prime mover was started and the horn sounded to mark the occasion. A week later, #94, the fifth unit in the planned eleven unit rebuild programme would depart for Seattle for further transport to Global Locomotive in Tenino, Washington.

White Pass rebuilds #'s 98 and 99 head past Baldwin #73 at the summit of White Pass on September 11. Two of the Cummins UK powered rebuilds effectively replace three Alco powered units. The Cummins prime movers meet or exceed the latest environmental standards being imposed by the US Environmental Protection Agency. As the learning curve progresses, the time required to rebuild the units will be lessened. For those wanting to the hear the burble of Alco's, one best make their way to Skagway while the window of opportunity is still open.

Ontario:

A wave from the cab of Huron Central (HCRY) GP40 802, as the train heads Sudbury bound on the 305 km route leased from the CPR between Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Have a close look at the car body of the second unit #802, while it looks like another GP40, the radiator area has been plated over and the roof fans are missing. This unit is a Road-Slug, no diesel engine but 4 traction motors to share the 3000 H.P. output of the mother unit #3802, acceptable for the slow speed operation of this line. (David R Howard photo)

From the ashes of the CP Owen Sound subdivision.... pieced out, dismantled and divided from within comes a fine example of municipalities and government working together to preserve rail access

for businesses and the community. Formerly the Toronto, Grey and Bruce railway, the line once ran over a hundred miles north from the Toronto area to access the shipping lines of Lake Huron. Many rail lines throughout what is now Grey and Bruce counties were centered around a rail and industrial hub in the small town of Orangeville. Over the years, as Ontario's rural branch lines rusted over and were eventually pulled up, only a single line of steel remained, snaking north from Streetsville through Brampton and Orangeville to the once mighty ports of Owen Sound. In the 1990s, both CN and CP abandoned operations to Owen Sound (with CN's line taking a more westerly route through Listowel and Palmerston), resulting in 77 miles of CP rail north of Orangeville were pulled up. The line south

of Orangeville was doomed to meet a similar fate, until a consortium of Businesses and the Town of Orangeville saved the line from being torn up. Now owned by the Town and operated by CANDO Contracting, the Orangeville and Brampton Railway runs freight, passenger and scenic

rail operations between the CP Galt Subdivision in Streetsville to the end of steel in Orangeville

Bryan Passifiume clicked the southbound Orangeville & Brampton Railway train at Brampton, Ontario, lead by CANDO CCGX GP9RM 4009 in late August. It is former Athabasca Northern (nee-CN).

While in Kitchener September 26^th, Brian Thompson caught a Goderich-Exeter local taking 2 tank cars from the yard up to the old station in Waterloo, (which is now a men's clothing store), complete with an ex-CN caboose with the store's name on the side. In the photo attached, a crew member has hopped off to protect the crossing. Power was LLPX 2236 and 2210.

Correction to last months report regarding the lead truck from Trillium HR412 #3582 at Tillsonburg being removed and taken to Port Colborne for use on one of the other locos. This is in error. 3582 was removed from service for a major mechanical issue, namely several bolts on the bottom of the

truck sheared off. The truck was in fact removed and sent to Lambton Diesel in Sarnia for repairs.

James Lalande sent CRO his shots of the ONR Dream Catcher Express, the first 3 of 6 trips to Temagami September 24-26. Despite the dismal weather James got some nice shots going by "White Rock" south of Tomiko at M-25.1 and at Widdifield, M-13.4 returning. Sunday, back at Widdifield M-13.4 going North and returning at M-5 just outside of North Bay. The northbound consist:

ONR 1805/1735 and 202/410/857/855/900/Otter Rapids/854/850.

http://s152.photobucket.com/albums/s162/Brutus_231/Updates/

Mike Robin's ONR "Pic of the Day"

ONR Vignette:

On May 29, 2005, Ontario Northland eastbound Kapuskasing-Cochrane train #514 trundles across the bridge over the Groundhog River as it

approaches the village of Fauqier, Ont. near Mile 50 of ONR's ex-CNR Kapuskasing Subdivision. The 30-car train is being powered by GP38-2 #1805 and GP40-2 #2202 and is composed mostly of wood products from the Tembec pulp and paper mill in Kapuskasing.

The road at right is Ontario's "northern route", Highway 11, which parallels the railway for much of the distance between Cochrane and Hearst.

QUEBEC

Patrick DeLarue caught Arcelor Mittal leased ES44AC's #301 and #302 at Lac Walker, Québec September 2nd.

Several views of Acelor Mittal ES44AC's on “301 South” at Lac Walker, Québec at Mile 34, and Baker road crossing (or mile 23.5). The Cartier Railway has installed a CTC powered switch at the south end and a spring switch at the north end, so every northbound train has to take the siding for a meet. (With the exception of Fox & Love sidings, witch have power switches at both ends).

Cartier (QCM) ore trains don't run on a timetable or schedule.

They run as the mine production goes, normally 5 or 6 trains per day with two AC4400CWs assigned.

These images by Patrick DeLarue of QCM 24 near South Lac Walker, Québec at mile 36.

GREAT SHOT! Patrick DeLarue caught QCM AC4400CW 20 leading the southbound Cartier mining ore train at South Lac Walker

Québec, and QCM 17 North with empties at the Tunnel on September 2^nd.

CN is suing Charlevoix Railway owner Groupe Le Massif over failure to adequately maintain the rail line and to provide freight service. A derailment closed the line on March 15th 2010 and there has been no regular freight movements East of Beaupré since. Neither party issued comment so far, as the case is expected to be heard on September 21^st. Groupe Le Massif currently is rebuilding the whole line between Québec and Clermont in anticipation of running tourist trains and skiers shuttles, a situation which has hampered resumption of freight service so far. The most severely impacted customer is the Abitibi-Consolidated paper mill in Clermont (formerly Donohue), which for now must rely on trucks to handle their products. Groupe Le Massif states the trackage upgrade work is progressing as expected and will end in early November, with bridge work to follow through Spring 2011. CN is asking the Court to force Groupe Le Massif to complete all work within 30 days. Failure to comply may prompt CN to force a buyback of the rail line, despite its obvious disinterest at operating it. Groupe Le Massif and the Quebec Government (through the shortline assistance program) already poured millions of dollars to upgrade the trackage, so the consequences of a potential CN buyback are, at best, unclear at the moment.

Dominic Girard caught the following CSX power in Canada: CSX AC4400CW 492 and SD50 8531 were taken September 4th in Huntingdon QC.

Francois Gagne Audet submitted his photo of "Elephant Eared" Quebec North Shore Labrador 4-6-2 #702 on display in Sept-Iles, QC.

Dominic Girard caught a variety of motive power at the yard in Farnham, QC on September 12^th. MMA B39-8E's 8553 and 8592 in LMX and corporate paint and several multi colored GE C30-7's, SD40-2's etc! Eight engines and 105 cars! The road numbers starting from the leading locomotive: MMA 5078, 3614, 758, 5016, 8583, 2005, 8525 and 2003!

As well, Mario Vincent caught the following MMA acrion on the same day. The photos show the Orford Express waiting at Magog, QC and a meet with the Sherbrooke bound MMA monster freight near Lac Orford on September 12^th.

Four former CGFX units re-lettered for their movement last year to Northern Quebec, QGRY SD40-3's 6042, 6057, 6062 an 6076, are still at the dock in Pointe Noire, QC. They never actually got moved up to Bloom Lake Mine!

Eastern Canada - “Atlantic Report” (by David Othen)

New Brunswick Southern Railway has been operating a number of passenger trains for special events. On 28 August they ran three scheduled trains to take people from Harbour Station Saint John to Renforth for the Dragon Boat races. There was so much demand for the train that they ran an extra trip to bring passengers back from Renforth. On 11 September they operated a special train from McAdam to Harvey station in conjunction with the annual get together of CP retirees. Mike Gerrits took a collection of photos on the train ride see http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=283205&id=591335844&l=86384436f1

On 24 September NBSR ran a train from McAdam to St Stephen to raise funds for UNICEF. They were three coaches carrying 190 paying passengers. The train had a caboose on the rear.

Former CN business car “Metis”, built in 1928 as a special compartment-library-observation lounge car for service on the Canadian National's "St. Lawrence Special", is reported to have been purchased by NBSR and was on CN train #306 on 21 September. Matt Landry (Saintjohnrailfan) captured this video of it near Rothesay New Brunswick

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYquS3hRybU&feature=sub

For more information on this car go to http://www.americanrail.com/metis.htm

National Gypsum has exchanged leased GP9RM CN 4102 for 4121 for use at its Dartmouth terminal at Wright’s Cove. For a while both units were on the property and National Gypsum used whichever unit was working!

Cape Breton & Central Nova Scotia Railway returned CN 5279 to CN on 1 September 2010. The TSB did an inspection of the railroad after a derailment earlier in the summer. They listed 103 items that needed attention – mainly sight lines, crossing surfaces, cross ties that needed replacing, signage and loose, worn or missing frog bolts. This report attracted a lot of media attention and the provincial Minister of Transportation gave several interviews indicating that he wanted better maintenance of the tracks.

CN operated a rail train on the Campbellton and Sussex subdivisions and they are now using a Flash-butt welding technique to join the rails together.

By contrast WHRC had a broken rail near Windsor Junction on 12 September and cut out part of the broken rail with a gasoline operated rail saw and replaced it with part of another rail which they also cut and drilled with gasoline powered equipment.

One of the WHRC’s two B23-7 locomotives, 4079, is in the shops because it is making a peculiar noise. So when they began gypsum hauling operations on 13 September between Wentworth Road and Hantsport the single locomotive,1968, stalled with five loaded gypsum cars despite hand sanding (the sand in the sanders was wet and blocked up the nozzle) and was only able to haul two loaded gypsum cars up the grade out of Falmouth over damp and weed covered track that had not been used for about four months. David Othen managed to get a photo of the hand sanding on the first run of the train a few minutes before it stalled (See photo). As the track became cleaner the locomotive was able to haul longer trains with about 7 cars being its maximum.