2170 results for 2005-10; refer to date index:

October 1st, 2005

Steve got married in Sarnia so of course we trucked up there and caught a couple of trains between the wedding and the reception! We watched VIA #85's equipment park at the station, missed CN #271 going into the tunnel, and caught CP #534 coming out of the tunnel.

October 2nd, 2005

To break the monotony on a Sunday afternoon, Laura and I headed to Scotch Block to see what we could find. We got stuck in traffic approaching Mansewood just North of Milton and watched CN #394 pass with 3 BNSF units. We finally broke out of the traffic a few minutes later and attempted to pursue them to the other side of Georgetown. We got to a grade crossing at mile 20 and heard #394 calling a foreman at mile 11... We went back to Scotch Block and saw a couple of trains, then went to see if CP had anything much to offer in spite of a track block at Galt until 18:00. We caught one train on the Hamilton sub.

October 5th, 2005

On the 4th, Reading 2100 was moved to the interchange track in St. Thomas. On the 5th, we received word that it was no longer in St. Thomas late in the afternoon, that it had arrived at Woodstock on CP at 5 in the morning. Frustrated at having missed it without hearing anything, I decided that I should at least try going to the Galt sub. While I had little chance of seeing this large steamer at the tracks, I certainly had less if I stayed at home. As it turned out, we only had to wait about 10 minutes, and CP #242 passed -- with Reading 2100! I couldn't believe my eyes, and, instead of waiting for the other two trains that were coming, we decided to head toward Guelph Junction and catch the next eastbound there, deciding whether it would be worth a chase along the way. Shortly after we left, the RTC told #242 that it had to lift 2 units at Hornby, and that was all the encouragement we needed. We caught the train at 9th line as it left the Expressway terminal in fading sunlight.

October 6th, 2005

Reading 2100 whet my appetite for trainspotting and I took a few hours to see what I could catch. I caught about 8 trains between Scotch Block and Guelph Junction, with a white ex-CP rental unit on CN #411 being the most interesting train of the day.

October 8th, 2005

GEXR #431 came through town about 17:15 with 4 units and a standard selection of freight cars.

October 10th, 2005

In spite of bad weather, we decided to see what was running on this Thanksgiving day. We saw a few trains but, interestingly, caught NS #328 at Hamilton West at 17:30, much later than its usual 08:00 passage, with 2 UP units light power.

October 15th, 2005

We did a little exploring and caught six fairly normal trains everywhere from Drumbo to Georgetown.

October 16th, 2005

We got up at a somewhat ungodly hour and got to Hamilton West at about 06:50 am. Even at that hour we *still* managed to miss NS #327 and its two UP units by about 20 minutes. We caught a variety of trains around the area, the highlights being an NS horsehead unit leading NS #328, a cabless BNSF GP60B on CN #148, and an ex-SOO 700-series SD40-2 on CP #167 at both Hamilton West and Guelph Junction.

October 17th, 2005

We caught CN #382 at HamWest on the way back from an appointment in Hamilton.

October 19th, 2005

CP's TEC train ran on the Galt and Windsor subs, inspecting and handing out general bulletin orders. I caught it at Ayr after it got held in the hole at Orr's Lake to allow CP #243 by it.

October 23rd, 2005

I caught VIA #85 on Kent street and then went a little East for GEXR #432 on a rather dark and stormy day. Late Sunday night, we heard NS #O99 on the Grimsby sub and decided to see it at Ingersoll. We caught it, and 4 CP trains at Ayr, in the pitch blackness of an autumn night.

October 25th, 2005

CP #419 came to Guelph Junction with a good mix of CP power - CP-SOO-CEFX. Later on, I caught CPs 137-127-525-141 at Puslinch and CPs 246-Pickup-424-248 at Killean in the space of 2.5 hours.

October 26th, 2005

I went to the Junction to see what was kicking around. There wasn't much. Three palindromes and an intermodal - CP #424, #525, #141, and #152 - went through.

October 27th, 2005

Steve caught GEXR #432 in Kitchener with a tarped EMD unit on it so I caught it at the station in Guelph about an hour later.

October 29th, 2005

Laura and I went up to Parry Sound to see what we could find in the land of Canadian domestic trains where CP and CN are close to eachother. I was a little disappointed by the three locations I found where CN and CP were so close together that travelling between them was not necessary, but found a number of locations where one or the other track looked nice. The sun skunked us on virtually every train, becoming obscured just long enough for the engines to pass, but giving me wonderful lighting for countless intermodal containers... Among the interesting stuff we saw was both NS and CSX foreign power, a string of CP boarding cars, and an apparently brand new GO transit bi-level coach.

October 30th, 2005

VIA 6403 - the CBC unit - was on VIA #85. I heard it too late to catch it, but tried anyway, getting it through some bushes. It met 432 at East siding switch Kitchener and I caught 432 through Guelph with 3 units and 2 cars at the station about 30 minutes after missing 85. Later on, Jay warned of a CEFX yellow on CP #248. We went for it, and caught CP #159 and #243 as well, though we were not expecting them.

October 31st, 2005

I had an opportunity to catch GEXR #432 and took it, though I missed VIA 6403 - CBC unit - on #85 a few minutes earlier. Turned out #432 had light power... oh well.