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WESTERN:
In January 2011, Northwood Pulp & Timber in Fraser Flats, BC. (Prince George, BC) received brand new NREX 2GS14B #104. This model features an endcab design and may have been constructed on a CN GP9RM frame and trucks. Dan Braun caught NREX 2GS14B #104 while in transit on the CN Neenah Sub at Oshkosh, WI, January 9th.
Former CP SD40-2 was photographed by David Layland in Vancouver at the SRY shop in December 2010, just prior to being shipped up to ABC Metals (J&L Consulting) in Langley, BC. The SRY shop has been cannibalizing all useable parts from several other SD40-2’s and GP9u’s CP sold last year.
Ken McCutcheon caught Great Western Railway (GWR) MLW’s 2004 and 2000 in a winter wonderland heading Eastbound at Readlyn, SK on January 13th, 2011. The photos show the crew digging out the switch, the train approaching Verwood, and finally showing grain cars set out at the elevator and the power returning to the main.
Ken McCutcheon’s wife Pamela took this shot of Ken while railfanning the NREX ex-ATSF GE’s on Great Sandhills Railway in 2010. (His photos were in CRO last year) Currently The Great Sand Hills Railway leases two GP38-2’s from CP for whenever GSRY loads a 112-car train for the extra power needed. They also lease 2 GP38-2's lease from GMTX (2674 & 2683) with a third LLPX 2267 which is expected to arrive in early February following minor work done at Stettler, AB for GMTX. The (ex-ATSF liveried) NREX B23-7's have of course gone back to NRE in the USA.
In December 2010, a consortium of prairie farmers in the Battle River Area in Alberta purchased an 80-kilmetre (51-mile) branch line from CN for $5M. The new railway is called the "Battle River Railway" runs between Camrose to Alliance, Alberta. They also acquired (ex-CN) SD40-2W 5353 which had been retired in early 2010. In late December the railway hauled there first grain car shipment to Camrose, AB for interchange to CN for furtherance to Prince Rupert, BC.
Once leased to the Windsor & Hantsport Railway (WHRC) in Nova Scotia, CEMR GP9RM #4013 is coming to the end of its life and is now being used as a parts source at the CEMR yard/shop in Winnipeg. Dec. 28, 2010. (Jeff Keddy photo).
When Jesse Acorn visited Alberta Prarie in Stettler on July 17, 2010, he clicked RMAX S-3 #16-52. Formerly used at Lafarge Canada in Exshaw, AB, it now belongs to the Rocky Mountain Rail society.
ONTARIO:
On January 6th at Huntsville, ON, W.D. Shaw caught “The Northlander” with ONR GP38-2 1809 shining in all its tangerine glory on the point, after hitting a brief spot of sunshine before the clouds reclaimed the sky and began snowing again.
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=350875
This is one of those 'nice timing' shots :). While travelling between Kapuskasing and Hearst, the sun popped through the clouds just long enough to lighten up northbound 515 at Mile 82 of the Kapuskasing Subdivision January 2011.
http://www.onrgallery.com/picoftheday/picarchive118.html
Now here's a little something extra that was spotted on Thursday, January 20th's 313 (Cochrane to Kapuskasing). Rolling from Xstrata's Copper operations in Timmins, and being shipped to National Railroad Equipment's Shops in Capreol is Xstrata painted GP9 NREX 1684. Check out that fancy cab which was created by her original owners, the Santa Fe Railroad.
http://www.onrgallery.com/picoftheday/picarchive119.html
On November 4, 2010. Ontario Northland’s Refurbishment Department celebrated the successful delivery of the 100th completely rebuilt GO Transit double decker coach to Toronto. A special party was thrown to commemorate the milestone at ONR’s Refurbishment facility where a special banner was unveiled that read “100 Quality Cars Delivered”. The banner now hangs from the ceiling of North Bay’s Car Refurbishment Complex. (Mike Robin - ONR News Editor)
GEXR Motive Power
(revised by Jon Snook January 6th 2011)
Active
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FEC 709 (arrived Nov/09)
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LLPX 2210 (currently in Goderich shop for various repair)
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RLK 2211
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LLPX 2236
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GEXR 3821
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RLK 4001
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GSCX 7362 (arrived Feb/10)
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GSCX 7369 (arrived Mar/10)
Stored
Transferred
Returned to Leasor
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HLCX 6061, 6091 and 6522 returned off GEXR property Aug/10
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CN 5381 returned to CN London East Nov13/10.
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CN 5276 returned to CN Mac Yard Jan. 2/11
Peter McGough submitted these two photos of Goderich - Exeter SD40-2 locomotives FEC 709 and GATX 7362 working in Kitchener, Ontario January 19th.
NREX SD40-2 5644 (ex-CP) and NREX GP40 4631 (ex-SBD) were transferred from the Huron Central (HCRY) to the Ottawa Valley Railway (OVR) on January 25th.
The Ottawa Valley January 5th extension for the sale of the Canadian Pacific Chalk River Subdivision between Mattawa to Smiths Falls, Ontario passed with no new buyer. Therefore, possible abandonment by Canadian Pacific in the spring of 2011 is imminent. RailAmerica reported that its subsidiary RaiLink Canada Ltd. had entered into a long term operating agreement with Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) to continue to operate a portion of the Ottawa Valley Railway (OVR). In December 2009, the company had announced the termination of its lease with CPR of the OVR trackage. As part of the terms of
the termination, the company continued to operate 157 miles of the line between Sudbury and Mattawa, Ontario and between Mattawa and Temiscaming, Quebec for an interim period of time. RailAmerica had agreed to continue to operate these segments of the OVR under a new, five year operating agreement with an option for a future extension; however, this did not include the Chalk River Subdivision, which has minimal on-line customers.
The Guelph Junction Express (which operates between Campbellville and Guelph on the Ontario Southland) is considering discontinuing their tourist train because of an uncooperative City Hall in Guelph, ON.
http://www.guelphtribune.ca/news/article/226876
QUEBEC:
Gaspe Railway reporting marks:
Effective December 16th, 2010, SFG are the new reporting marks for the Gaspe railway. Société du chemin de fer de la Gaspésie is the official company name of the railway with SFG used to identify their locomotives and equipment. SFG 1856 (ex NBEC 1856), and SFG 1819 (ex NBEC 1819) identify their locomotives.
Bernard Babin caught Societe du Chemin de Fer de la Gaspesie (SFG) RS18u’s 1819 and 1856 pulling Chemin de Fer Mattapedia et du Golfe (CFMG) Snowplow #002 at Matapedia, QC on January 4th, 2011.
Bernard’s SFG YouTube video: http://youtu.be/50lroNRRI2M?hd=1
Last year, eight QGRY lettered SD40-3’s arrived in Quebec for the WESTERN LABRADOR RAIL SERVICES (WLRS) Bloom Lake iron ore mine. The iron ore mine traffic interchanges with the Quebec North Shore & Labrador Railroad. Until recently, WRLS had been owned by Consoladated Thompson Iron Mines the company that began production at the Bloom Lake iron ore mine near Fermont, QC. However in January 2011, Cliffs Natural Resources of Cleveland, OH, made a $4.9-billion all-cash purchase to acquire Consolidated Thompson Iron Mines. As mine production will be increasing, more motive power is needed to
move the heavy ore trains. There are currently eight SD40-3’s leased in 2010 that are all former CN SD40’s rebuilt by GEC-Alstom in Montreal during the late-1980’s, and still in the gray paint: ex-WC 6900, 6905, 6906, 6940 and GCFX 6042, 6057, 6062, 6076 now with QGRY reporting marks on the cab. These are Genesse & Wyoming units on lease to the mining compamy. G&W of course owns the Quebec – Gatineau Railway.
As well, four new QGRY SD40-3’s are to be leased for the Bloom Lake Mine ore trains on the QNS&L, and are being repainted at the Paducah, Kentucky Shop. The four units are former WC 6904, 6908, 6913, and 6920 also rebuit from CN SD40’s.
Joe Ferguson caught the first one on January 12th in Paducah, KY. QGRY SD40-3 #3327 is wearing the G&W family paint scheme with Quebec - Gatineau Railway lettering and new number.
On January 28th Electro-Motive Diesel said it had signed an agreement to supply five new SD70ACe locomotives to Quebec North Shore and Labrador (QNS&L), a subsidiary of Iron Ore of Canada.
Two former Amtrak baggage cars were seen in Belleville, ON January 9th on CN train 368. They were enroute to Montreal and then sent north to the CROI in Jonquière, QC., and are to be refurbished for a tourist train operation next summer on the Charlevoix Sub. (Ron Visockis)
Quebec- Gatineau Vignette:
Philippe Julien caught QGRY train #729, lead by GP40 #3800, RM-1 #800 and SD40-3 #6042 (ex-GCFX), enroute to Trois-Rivieres, QC and seen here passing through Deschambault, QC on July 21st, 2010.
ATLANTIC REPORT:
(By David Othen)
A series of severe winter storms have hit Atlantic Canada over the last month. In late December both VIA's westbound and eastbound Oceans were delayed by 5 hours because of the weather. On January 22 the weather caused two locomotives on CN # 120 to fail east of Moncton with electrical faults - the lead locomotive and the mid-train DPU. Eventually a locomotive was taken off westbound CN # 407 and added to the front of CN # 120 so that it could continue to Halifax.
Matt Landry (Saint John Railfan) has posted a video of CN 8641 and three other locomotives hauling a long CN # 406 (143 cars) westbound at McCullys New Brunswick on January 15 See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaTSxuHd5zc
Note that CN trains westbound between Moncton and Saint John have even not odd numbers because they have come east from Montreal through Moncton where they turn back west for Saint John, New Brunswick.
The Rail Grinder RG309 was serviced at Halifax Ocean Terminal yards after the Christmas layover and left early on the morning of January 6. Then on January 11 the rail train that sets out lengths of rail went to have a wheel changed out at Halifax Ocean Terminals. After that it was reported to have delivered rail to the Dartmouth subdivision.
The Gypsum Centennial loaded gypsum at Hantsport Nova Scotia on January 2. This may be the last shipment for many months because on January 21 Fundy Gypsum announced that they were suspending all operations until further notice. This will effectively shut down the Windsor & Hantsport Railway because Fundy Gypsum is now their only customer.
On January 23 the New Brunswick Southern road slug 008 was back in operation with NBSR GP38-2 “mother” 2318, which has just returned from repairs at CADRAIL in Lachine QC.
NBSR Vignettes:
This New Brunswick Southern painted GP9 (ex-NBSR 3735), appeared at Vernon BC in 2002 which Phil Mason caught. The OKAN tried to get it running without success, it sat around until 2004 when it was scrapped in Kelowna, with select portions being shipped off for re-use. The story Phil heard was that this was one of several GP9's leased to NBS at startup by Omnitrax. Several were returned by NBS to Omnitrax because they were very unreliable. bout this time, OKAN was losing motive power for the same reason, worn out but nicely painted Paducah GP's not working, and a collision with the KPR in Vernon which wiped out two
ex-CN HBR M420's.
George Pitarys caught NBSR GP9 3735 in much better days, back on Jan 4th 1997. It is seen with matching sisters crossing the Penobscot River at Mattawamkeag, Maine with NBSR train 280. The CP had only been gone at this point for 2 years. George added that he can't really speak as to these units reliability, except for what he observed when he was employed there working for CP: “There would not have 6 DRS units “working” on line, and maybe there aren't in this shot either!”
© CRO February 2011 |
