Images: These pictures are not censored for quality. What one person considers a bad or useless picture may be exactly what someone else is looking for. I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them.
Videos: These videos are very big, which is why railfanning videos are so rare on line. As long as Windows Media Player says "Connecting" it is working, even it if appears to be taking a very long time. It says "Connecting" until it has finished downloading the video. Please be patient. If you are unable to play these videos with Windows Media player, a problem which exists with some versions of Media Player and (sometimes) with Internet Explorer versions lower than 6, I strongly recommend the use of Quicktime if it is available. If you are using Linux, mplayer needs to be told that the videos have a bit depth of 16 (-bpp 16) to work.
Filenames refer to location, date (dd.mm.yy), and camera-assigned four digit id number.
Paris, Ontario
(map) Paris is just West of Brantford on the CN Dundas sub and was once the site of the junction between the Dundas sub and the completely defunct Drumbo sub that connected Paris and Stratford. There's also a large trestle in Paris.
Top photos and videos from Paris, Ontario
| Paris, Ontario | |
| May 28, 2007 | I went to Jones Baseline for VIA #84 with the unit nicknamed 'the turd', down to Guelph Junction mileboard for CP #426 with 5911 big bulti, across to Milton for CN #148, off to Ayr for CP #159, #243, #424, London Pickup, and Paris for CN #331, #393, #76, #396, #382, #75. |
| May 20, 2007 | I went to Bayview for CN X388, a Schnabel extra, on incorrect information before diverting to Paris where I found it parked unshootable in the yard parked for the night. Watch for it tomorrow. In the hour I was there, I shot VIA #675 meeting CN #392 and #435, CN #330, and CP #158 at Ayr on the way home. |
| March 18, 2007 | While Shane reported 13 trains with foreign power through the day, I caught only 5 trains and none of them with foreign power: CP #257, #242, #424, #243, and CN #271, the latter of which passed through Paris during the 15 minutes in the day the sun was not out. |
| February 10, 2007 | We went down to the Galt sub for CP #159 and #138, went home for lunch, and returned to Guelph Junction for #242, #243, #240 which set off a hot car for OSR, #198, moved over to the crossing at 46.76 at west switch Puslinch for CPs #424 and #525 before heading over to Paris Junction for CN #271 with SD70M-2 class unit CN 8000 leading, stopping to push a Honda Civic out of a snowbank near Wolverton on the way. We had just missed CP London Pickup meeting #525 at Wolverton. |
| December 17, 2006 | We got up well before dawn to arrive at Paris on time for the two endangered NS trains in spite of poor weather. NS #328 showed up with two cars exactly at sunrise, followed by VIA #70, #71, CN #391 with interesting power, CN #148, and NS #327 with a conrail-painted leader. We headed up to Ayr and caught CP #159 followed shortly by CP #257, a single unit light power, before heading to Breslau for VIA #85 and GEXR #432... which chose this day to not run. |
| December 09, 2006 | With credible rumours of NS 327 and 328 being discontinued at the end of the year circulating, I chased NS #328 from Paris, where I arrived at the same time as it did, to Grimsby via Copetown before catching CP #127 and #159 at Guelph Junction and heading home. |
| November 24, 2006 | I picked up Chris at 08:10 and we headed for Bayview... we were quickly distracted by a northbound clearance on the Hamilton sub for CP #255, 8809 North, which we got at Guelph Junction with CP #159 passing behind it. Then we went to Bayview, where we caught a backhoe doing comical manouevers, CN #392, #421, VIA #73 with 6414, the Lotto Quebec engine, CN #271 with a UP trailing, VIA #72, CN #385, grabbed lunch, migrated to Paris and caught CN #385 again. CN #330 came next with CN 8004 on point, followed shortly by CN #331 and CN #398. CN #332 pulled up to the crossing for a crew change, VIA #76 passed, and CN #390 with a real WC leader pulled up to the signals at Paris Junction to wait for CN #435 and VIA #75. We caught London Pickup at Ayr on the way home. Not a bad day, all told! |
| November 05, 2006 | On Saturday I missed CITX 142 on #398, and it escaped Sunday early morning on CN #395. Not intending to miss anything else, I went down to mile 30 for CN #276 with BNSF-CEFX (ex-SOO SD60) power and CN #148 with WC 3000 middle unit. With nothing else in the area, I went over to Paris where I caught CN #393 with another WC, CN #330 and #331, CN #390 with a war bonnet, Via #76, CN #435 with a CSX unit, and finally, in last light, CN #434 with DMIR 406. |
| October 08, 2006 | We headed down to Bayview for part of the day, catching VIA #70, CN #385, and CN #148 there, CN #385 again at Paris, CN #390 at Paris and again back at Bayview, my first bi-directional chase. #385 had a BNSF GEVO trailing, #148 had CN 2237 leading, and #390 had WC 6497 leading, an exceedingly rare catch. Later on, I heard a westbound on the Galt, and, hoping for some fall colours shots finally, failed miserably and shot 2 GEs on an intermodal at Galt station. We then heard a northbound get a clearance on the Hamilton sub, catching it on the bridge at Carlisle after sunset, and beat it back up to Campbellville. |
| August 13, 2006 | We picked up Kevin and went to a railfan-heavy Paris Junction for the day, catching 16 trains. Night train CN #395 with a new crew was first up with three BNSF units, followed by VIA #70, CN #399, VIA #671, CN #398, VIA #72, CN #390, #331, VIA #73, CN #148, #385, #392, #330, #393, VIA #76, and CN #435. |
| April 15, 2006 | We went down to Copetown to start the day and ended up moving around over the next 11 hours or so, catching 15 trains. Not bad for a holiday weekend! |
| April 08, 2006 | We went down to Paris for the day. It was relatively quiet, with long lulls and little interesting power. On the way home, we caught CP #243 at Ayr and after dinner I caught VIA #87 with 6411 leading in Guelph. |
| March 25, 2006 | NS #328 was reported to have a TFM unit so naturally we went to see it. Caught it, #327 with an NS horsehead/operation lifesaver GP59, CN #396 with 4 BNSF units in different schemes, and a couple of other trains. CP #424 passed later with 2 GEVOs, a SOO SD40-2, and a CEFX AC4400CW. |
| March 18, 2006 | We headed down to Paris for the day to see what was in store. The tracks weren't exactly busy, but the trains that did come through on CN had plenty to offer. We shot CP #147 at Ayr on the way with a GEVO and 45 autoracks, then saw CN #410, NS #327, CN #394, VIA #72 and #73, VIA #148 with 7 units, #399, #271 and #393 together, #385, VIA #76, and CN #330. |
| March 11, 2006 | We went to Paris for the day and saw as many other railfans as trains. In 9 hours at the tracks only 2 trains had only CN power out of around 16, though 5 were passenger trains, giving us a pretty eclectic mix of foreign power. |
| February 28, 2006 | Mike called to say CN #393 had an NS leader with UP and NS units following, through Brampton at about 12:30. Westbound foreign leaders are fairly rare on the CN through here though eastbounds have BNSF leaders just about every day so this qualified as, well, HOT. I headed down to Paris Junction at 14:30 where I expected the train to arrive at 14:35 based on passed experience and got there just after a train had passed. An hour later with no sign of westbounds I was convinced I had missed it, but there it was at 15:55! Sure was pretty, shame the sun didn't come out to see it. |
| February 25, 2006 | After a two-week long train hiatus we finally went out on a bad day but caught several interesting trains, starting with CN #396 parked at Paris Junction. CN #271 had a CSX C44-9W on it but was obstructed perfectly by CN #382. |
| December 15, 2005 | NS #328 was reported to have 2 NS GEVOs still in primer as only power. This I could not pass up. I got my 18th and 19th GEVOs at Paris Junction on this snowy morning. In the afternoon we shot GEXR #432 at Rockwood in a pretty good snow storm. |
| December 04, 2005 | CN #784 was seen still sitting at Paris last night, so I went there to see if I could possibly get shots of it meeting the morning NS trains. When I got there, I found it was gone, but it had been replaced by a CN #785 on the other side of Paris Junction pointed westward. That train left a couple of hours later and, together with more foreign power (the norm now on CN around here) and a dimensional on CN #331 made for a good, if quiet, day. Oh, and I saw the CP Holiday Train! |
| December 02, 2005 | CN had a curious development over night. Two NS run-through trains, both designated CN #784, were seen on the Dundas sub. The first one went down the Hagersville sub to Nanticoke late the night of December 1st. The second parked at about 10:30 am at Paris Junction and was still there as of this writing. I went to Paris to see it, and also saw CN #271, #148, #330, VIA #72 and #73, and CN #435. VIA #85 had 916 tonight, and I caught it at 23:45, completing my VIA P42dc roster! |
| November 27, 2005 | Laura and I got down to Paris for 07:30 hoping to catch NS and whatever else came. It sure came. We saw NS #328, #327, CN #399, VIA #670, #671, CN #385, #148, #587, #398, VIA #72, CN #330, #435, #392, VIA #73, CN #331, #392, #393, and then caught CP #153 at Killean on our way home, giving us CP, CN, NS, CSX, UP, BNSF, SOO, and GSCX power across 18 trains. |
| November 25, 2005 | With good trains everywhere, I managed to miss all of them... I caught VIA #72 and #73, and CN #330 and #435 at Paris and CP #424 and #420 at Guelph Junction. |
| November 19, 2005 | Steve and I headed down to Guelph Junction to catch a short Hamilton sub rush there, then proceed to Paris Junction where we caught NS #327 with a BNSF war bonnet leading and around 55 cars and a variety of other interesting trains, then caught CP #424 at East switch Wolverton (Ayr) and CP #423 near West switch Puslinch with two GP9s leading a mixed train. |
| August 21, 2005 | Laura's father came to visit and we showed him our crazy hobby... I took the opportunity to finally check out Paris Junction and we shot a total of 5 trains (CP #248, #257, CN #148, #434, and an unknown), missing an unpatched CNW unit on CN #399 and a UP unit on CN #271. |