March 9th 2003 saw RLK 1401 arriving in Goderich Ontario for the first time. It can now be seen working a regular assignment with its sister 1400 on Ontario Southland Railway on the Woodstock Ontario job.

ONR Derailment April 5th

In North Bay, Ontario April 5th a 59 Car train derailment led by ONT 2105 and ONT 1735.  Residents Ron and Belinda Malcolm are used to hearing trains running along tracks by their North Bay home, but "knew something bad had happened" on Tuesday morning.  Three homes along Hwy. 63 were evacuated after 25 empty tanker cars of an Ontario Northland train derailed near Peninsula Rd. at 5:30 a.m.  Ron Malcolm said he could tell right away something was wrong.

"It rattled our house," Ron said. "It was definitely abnormal. We knew something bad had happened."  He said he looked out the window and saw "a lot of sparks. There was a lot of banging going on."  One of the cars was stopped by a large, dead maple tree on the property.  "We were going to cut it down but we left it up," Belinda said.   Large clumps of dirt and soil covered their back deck, torn up by the train cars.  Once things quieted down, Ron said, "we grabbed the animals,  a cat and a dog and got out of there."

Ontario Northland spokeswoman Renee Baker said the train was northbound for Englehart when the derailment occurred.  There were no injuries or environmental concerns, though the cars typically transport sulphuric acid and some residue may still be in them. Ontario Northland crews are on the scene assessing the situation to determine what can be done to get the cars back on the tracks.   There were two crew on the train at the time of the crash, a conductor and an engineer.  It is not yet known why the train derailed, Baker said.  There appeared to be no breach of any of the cars, according to Deputy Fire Chief Greg Saunders.  The highway was closed for a couple hours after the derailment.  It is not known at this time how long affected residents will be kept out of their homes, or how long the track from North Bay to Temagami will be closed.

Day 2 of the Ontario Northland Derailment:

 April 6 2016: The site was  a challenge to visit as the area received a Winter storm. Excavators can be seen working on the rail bed above while another works closer to the tanker cars clearing dirt and tree debris from the area.  Bell was on site as was a number of other contractors to repair infrastructure.   A crew received clearance to work from the North cautionary limit sign North Bay to mile 9. The crew set the hi-rail boom truck that had a number of track sections on the top racks and headed north to the derailment site. 

On the North end of the derailment site; ONT 1735 was pulling a lone white tanker that was in the upright position to the North end of the Feronia siding. Here the tanker car was connected to two other black tanker cars involved in the derailment.

ONT 113 - 2105 North left Feronia area between 5:00am & 5:30am bound for Englehart with the remaining tonnage that was not involved in the derailment.  At around 1500 hrs ONT 214 lead by 2105 returned to Feronia with a string of CN gondolas and 2 other cars at the end for the derailment site. Crews did some switching and the Gondolas were shoved into the siding for the night. 

ONT 1735 shoves 2 flat cars loaded with Prefab sections of track back to make the joint with ONT 2105 

The Northlander led by a former T-E-E (Trans-Europe-Express) locomotive (ONT 1980), rolls into Washago, Ontario on July 10th, 1978.

Racing past an old shim shack, southbound Ontario Northland passenger train #422 The Northlander is captured by Mike Robin at Mile 70 of the Ramore Subdivision back on September 16, 2012.

Southbound 514's power (ONT GP40-2 2200, and ONT GP38-2 1800) runs around their consist in order to do the double over for the trip to Cochrane as Tembec's Switching Crew aboard classic Mattagami Railroad GP7 168 waiting to lift recently arrived empties on June 26, 2011.

All blue flagged at Cochrane for the weekend, CP's Track Evaluation Train lead by GP38-2 3090 sits idle as she gets passed by northbound 313 powered by GP38-2's 1806 & 1801 bound for Kapuskasing following the area's first significant snowfall (about an inch) on October 20, 2013. (Mike Robin).

On a Saturday afternoon in February 2010 at the Cochrane Shop, ONR's last "Chevronized" GP38-2 1805 enjoys a slow day with her counterpart 1809 after a 2 week stint hauling the Polar Bear. The following morning, 1805 will be reassigned to Northlander duty. In behind the 1800's is resident Yard Power, GP9 1601.

Ontario Southland Railway's latest addition, CP  1594 sits in the shop at Salford Ontario. Ex belt pack unit needs a tune up and ditch lights. Other work will also be completed before the unit will be in regular service. April 27 2016

The CAMI automotive switchers are just leaving Ingersoll Ontario and heading to the plant for the days work. Ontario Southland handles about 100 multis a day as the plant produces 1500 Equinox vehicles a day.

Later the same day OSRX 6508 and OSR 1620 rumbles through Beachville Ontario with interchange cars for CP in Woodstock Ontario. April 27 2016

On April 12th,  2016 at Ingersoll, Ontario Walter Pfefferle shot Ontario Southland Railway OSRX FP9Au 6508 and OSRS GP9u 1620 at Mile 11 on the St Thomas Sub, as they return from St Thomas, ON.

OSRX RS23 503 and OSR SW1200RS 1249 are rolling through Ingersoll Ontario on April 12th on the CAMI job, lifting cars to the autorack yard.

Ontario Southland Railway FP9Au's (OSRX 1400 and 1401) were back together after about three weeks apart when OSRX 1401 developed a wheel problem a month ago. Here they are arriving in Woodstock Ontario on March 30 2016

OSRX 14000-1401 meeting CP 9820 and CP 8825 at the CP station, then departingWoodstock, and heading over the CN Carew diamond.

Motive power changes for the OBRY took place recently. Cando Contacting 4014 is in the way to replace the 4009. CP GP20C-Eco 2261 is currently filling in until then, and was on the CP-OBRY interchange on April 1. It is currently in OBRY service. CCGX 4009 was seen heading south on March 31.

Coming a week after the Ontario Northland Railway derailment involving tank cars, Training Tank car CCPX 911 sits hooked up to LLPX GP38-2 2241 at the Ottawa Valley Railway yard, who had hosted a training exercise for North Bay Fire Services on April 12th .(These four photos were submitted by Patrick McKie)

Ottawa Valley Railway train F61 powered by RLK GP40-2LW 3048 and 3029 keep busy hauling and average of 30 cars per train to Tembec in Temiskaming - April 14 2016.

OVR Traim F61 sounds the horn as  RLK GP40-2LW 3048 leads the train East out of North Bay om April 12 2016

 A sting of six former Soo Line Ballast cars sit on the Ottawa Valley Railway storage track along the North Bay water front. These cars are waiting to be re lettered and numbered in the RLK series. These cars were purchased from Canadian Pacific Railway to replace their existing ballast car fleet on April 10th.

Southern Ontario Railway  (SOR)  RLHH 4003 was the engine of choice today as they hauled a "monster train" of 10 cars down what is left of the Burford sub today. Here we see RLHH 4003 passing under the Hagersville Sub on the Burford sub heading downtown. These photos are by Walter Pfefferle.

Caught the same train again rolling down Clarence Street.

  And finally the same train arriving back in the Southern Ontario Railway (RLHH) yYard in Brantford, ON.

Check out the Central Maine & Quebec Ry locomotives posing at Farnham Yard in early-April 2016: LTEX GP35u's 2542 2540, PRLX SD40T-2 2858, and CMQ SD40-2F 9017.

 The E&N (SRY) Wellcox Yard on Vancouver Island looked very different on April 9th, 2016.  One of the reasons for bringing the passenger train to the island was to showcase it for a possible future excursion run from the cruise ship dock on Nanaimo's waterfront. The cruise ship terminal can be seen at the  top left on the photo, a spur runs down to the docks so the train could meet the passengers right there. We will see what the future holds but this scene could become a regular sight. http://tinyurl.com/zw8kc8r

 A Wrench In The Works?

Instead of a joyous celebration however, recent events have threatened to turn it into a funeral procession. After five years of hard lobbying to obtain the support and co-operation of a variety of federal, provincial and business authorities to oversee a $20.9 million track restoration, the project seems on the brink of crumbling from within.

The Nanaimo-area Snaw-Naw-As band, one of 11 First Nations that originally partnered with five regional districts as the Island Corridor Foundation to purchase the line in 2003 launched a lawsuit asking for the return of their portion of railway land because no trains were running.

Then, earlier this month, the Capital Regional District requested a formal financial and governance review of the ICF through the Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities due to what it  considered substandard management.

And what may have been the last spike, came in early April  when the Regional District of Nanaimo decided it was pulling the nearly $1 million it had promised for the restoration project. According to Island Corridor Foundation executive director Graham Bruce, the only thing previously preventing the track improvements that will relaunch passenger service was the federal minister signing off on a promised $7.5 million grant.

Politicians in Nanaimo and Greater Victoria say their moves don't spell the end of the line for Island rail. But with each parcel of restoration funding being contingent on every other partner bucking up as promised for this star-crossed project, they may have a hard time proving it.

From a distance it might be easy to interpret the recent moves to mean a political loss of faith in the viability of Island rail.

Skeptics on that level certainly exist, however a larger factor may be local government frustration over the way the restoration project and the corridor itself are being managed.  Fuelling municipal angst is the idea that communities are being unreasonably milked by an operation that they indirectly own. Loquacious longtime Langford Mayor Stew Young's problems with the non-profit ICF are twofold: he has questions with no answers, and fees with no service."You've got a corridor owned by the public that seems to have no transparency," he said."There's a limit to what taxpayers will pay for the service they aren't getting."

Although ICF directors like chairman and Nanaimo Mayor Bill McKay, and Duncan Mayor Phil Kent, typically come from member bodies, they are restricted from acting as representatives of those bodies or reporting directly back to those bodies due to conflict-of-interest laws. As a result, ICF policy is not set by its member bodies. Distance separating the communities and the ability to attend meetings is a factor in communication.

Young is among a number of officials who don't believe local government is getting answers to important questions about financial and policy matters.  According to a financial statement filed for 2014 and available on its website, the ICF holds about $340 million in assets. It paid expenses of $490,239 with money collected from donations, grants, rental income and fees from crossings, leases and other services.

The $109,000 collected from fees - which all affected municipalities pay - is a particular sticking point with Young. He has ordered Langford not to pay its annual bill of $35,000. He said the fee amounts are arbitrarily set and unnecessary in the absence of train activity."They're making money on it without doing anything," he said."All of us are getting charged." Bruce is sensitive to the criticism the ICF isn't doing anything. He said people tend to overlook the fact the foundation is a land owner in charge of of 651 heavily regulated hectares passing through a majority of Vancouver Island's population centres. This means a lot of bureaucratic and maintenance work even when the trains aren't running.

It owns and maintains four heritage train stations and a handful of smaller buildings, and manages more than 200 right-of-ways and road crossings, including things like pipes, cables and utility lines.  It operates with a staff of two, including Bruce, out of an upstairs office inside the ramshackle Southern Rail industrial building near the Port of Nanaimo and contracts Southern Rail to operate and maintain the line based on B.C. Safety Authority standards. Bruce said maintaining the track is cheaper than deactivating it. "It's a regulated environment. The entire line must be considered active even if there are no trains on it," he said."All the crossings have to be maintained. The option of not doing it means tearing up the track."  He points to Vancouver recently paying $55 million for the nine-kilometre Arbutus rail corridor and how that compares to ICF acquiring its 289-kilometre main line and sub-arteries for $1.  He said all senior staff from member communities have been invited to meetings and also pointed out the ICF is funded by its own revenue streams, not taxation.

Young said the taxpayer is paying for everything indirectly. He'd like to see a better explanation of how prices are being set and how revenues are being spent. He said he's asked repeatedly and not received a satisfactory response. In conjunction with pulling the funding, the RDN board also passed a motion saying it"does not support the retention or continuation of Granneke Management by the ICF board." Granneke is Bruce's consulting firm. The ICF was scheduled to spend $174,000 in 2015 and an additional $72,500 in 2016 for management and administration, on contracts scheduled to expire on May 30.  Aside from a few regularly running propane freight cars, the E&N rail line has been mostly out-of-sight, out-of-mind since passenger service was discontinued because of track safety concerns in 2011. The ICF came up with a $20.9 million plan to upgrade the track and get it operational again. But heavy public criticism about that plan's perceived inadequacies and the slow, choppy way it moved forward - particularly an embarrassing, premature announcement of a deal with VIA Rail - fuelled the skeptics.  Despite this, the ICF eventually secured agreements with Southern Rail to operate the line, VIA to allow the passenger service, and federal, provincial and local authorities to provide the capital.

A provincial commitment for $7.5 million last summer appeared to have cleared the last hurdle, but weeks turned into months without the final federal sign-off.   Bruce blamed the election and subsequent government reorganization for the original delay. The federal infrastructure ministry pointed to the Snaw-Naw-As lawsuit as the reason nothing has happened since. "The lawsuit is in respect of a claim about the lands subject to a right of way for the portion of the project's rail corridor that traverses the Nanoose Indian Reserve," Infrastructure Canada spokeswoman Jen Powroz said."Infrastructure Canada is reviewing the lawsuit to understand any potential impacts.  The project proponent will be contacted about the project and possible next steps when it is appropriate."  A question about that delay drew a sigh from Southern Railway of  BC (SRY)  president Frank Butzelaar. He sees it as just another obstacle of the many the project has overcome.

Southern Railway of  BC (SRY) is the contractor responsible for E&N operations since 2006. It currently employs 14 people on Vancouver Island.

The same day the RDN bombshell was dropped, some of those employees were busy unloading the 130th-anniversary heritage train that had been shipped by barge from the Lower Mainland. Butzelaar said to expect confirmation soon that train will be used as a signature Vancouver Island tourist attraction. "There's going to be an announcement. That is the train we are preparing to use tied to cruise ship service."  Tourist excursions are one of four spokes in Southern's plan for revitalizing the rail line.

The most active spoke at the moment is freight. While activity on the main line is limited, Butzelaar said a significant amount of transloading to and from rail barges and trucks is happening at the Wellcox Yard on the Nanaimo waterfront.  He anticipates more clients eventually using the E&N to ship products like lumber, pulp and paper supplies, and cars through that facility in the future. "(But) that can only happen when we can give them some certainty," he said.

The third spoke in the revival wheel is the one that gets the most public attention: passenger service under a redesigned schedule. Southern is confident enough in its potential that it agreed to underwrite any losses that aren't covered by the federal VIA rail subsidy. Butzelaar says that service can start as soon as rail upgrades are complete. "That's what the $20 million is for, to restore inter-city connections."

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