62099 results for Americas,Canada,Ontario; refer to date index:

February 1st, 2003

This day was my first time ever railfanning with a camera. I had gone to Guelph Junction with two new friends to work on cleaning up the Guelph Historical Railway Association's baggage car. We got kind of caught up watching trains and didn't get to the baggage car until everyone else had already finished, and we ended up going to Milton as well.

February 10th, 2003

A week after my first railfanning venture, I took a trip back to Guelph Junction to see what else there was to see. On this occasion I watched a CP intermodal train doubling the hill from Milton with a single SD90MAC in a bit of a snow storm.

February 13th, 2003

As close as it gets to streetrunning in Guelph, I waited for trains on Kent street downtown.

February 14th, 2003

A derailment on the CN Dundas sub near Woodstock sent CN trains up the GEXR Guelph sub, keeping us local railfans well occupied.

February 15th, 2003

A derailment on the CN Dundas sub near Woodstock sent much of CN's high priority traffic along the GEXR Guelph sub.

February 19th, 2003

Shortly after the derailment in Woodstock on the CN Dundas sub, something fell off another train on the same track, hitting the train behind it and causing further detours on the GEXR Guelph sub.

February 28th, 2003

This was another routine trip to the Junction.

March 1st, 2003

The GEXR was borrowing some CN power and we went to Kitchener-Waterloo to take a look, chasing it back to Guelph and almost catching it leaving the city, out near the airfield.

March 9th, 2003

Four of us went to the London/Komoka area to see where CP, CN, and GEXR meet.

March 22nd, 2003

This was another another short trip to the Junction.

March 24th, 2003

A regular trip to Guelph Junction caught a local CP train switching a work train.

March 26th, 2003

This was another routine trip to the Junction.

March 28th, 2003

Intended as a railfanning trip, no trains came through, so I ended up taking pictures of CN 6167, preserved at the downtown station, and of the surrounding town.

March 29th, 2003

This was a routine trip to the Bayview Junction area, though we were lucky and caught a foreign unit leading an Automax train up the CP Hamilton sub.

April 9th, 2003

I travelled to Guelph Junction to watch the GO trains return to their roosts there. 5 of them park there at night and on the weekends.

April 11th, 2003

I caught OSR's train in a couple of places around Guelph and then later at Guelph Junction.

April 13th, 2003

After stopping at hobby shop Hemlock Junction in Milton, we headed South along the Halton sub and found the rural community of Zimmerman, an excellent location for pictures. After waiting a while with no trains, we headed back and immediately heard a train coming up on the scanner. We stopped in Boyne to watch it. Later on, we went to Guelph Junction for a routine railfanning trip.

April 14th, 2003

CEFX 6537, a rented GP35 retrofitted into a GP38 sat in Guelph for a day without a rear truck. I came across it and came back later with a camera, sure not to miss it.

April 15th, 2003

CEFX 6937's rear truck was being reinstalled after the engine had sat in Guelph for a day without one.

April 26th, 2003

This was another routine trip to Guelph Junction.

April 27th, 2003

I went to a friend's house by the tracks to work on scanner antennas.

May 1st, 2003

In the afternoon, I was heading to a store in downtown Guelph and saw GEXR 431 travelling through as I approached the tracks. Later in the evening, I went to a friend's house who had just moved trackside and we watched trains 88 and 89, a Via and an Amtrak, go through the city around 10:30 pm.

May 2nd, 2003

My girlfriend and I were heading to Hemlock Junction, as it was having a retirement (closing) sale, and a quilt store for her. On the way, the expressway passed us on the CP Galt sub and on the way back, we caught a couple of trains climbing the hill up toward Guelph Junction.

May 5th, 2003

My girlfriend and I took a long distance trip to Newtonville, where the CP Belleville and the CN Kingston subs are more or less side by side for several kilometres. We stayed there much of the day and managed to catch both a GO unit in freight service and three CN business cars heading to Montreal.

May 6th, 2003

I headed down to Guelph Junction during the afternoon to get out of the house. In the evening, my girlfriend went to downtown Guelph to get some ice cream. Naturally I had to watch VIA 89 come through before going home.

May 10th, 2003

OSR was moving a large transformer on a heavy-duty flatbed from the ABB plant at the North end of Guelph across the street to the interchange track with GEXR.

May 18th, 2003

This was another of my railfanning trips of no particular consequence.

May 19th, 2003

This was a routine railfanning trip to the Bayview Junction/Aldershot area.

May 23rd, 2003

I went to the station to pick up my housemate, who was returning from a rail trip to Montreal.

May 29th, 2003

A junction of junctions, this trip took me to both Bayview and Guelph Junctions.

June 3rd, 2003

We went out staking out trackside positions for the passage of CP's 2816 steam engine the following week.

June 10th, 2003

CP 2816, Canadian Pacific's restored Hudson-class steam engine, travelled from Hamilton to London chased by hundreds of railfans.

June 14th, 2003

Canadian Pacific ran a steam train excursion from Toronto Union Station to Guelph Junction and back using CP 2816 and a GO consist. I was one of some 1500 passengers on the excursion, in the leading car, and I made some effort to railfanfan -- take pictures of other railfans.

June 20th, 2003

OSR moved a 40 wheel Schnabel car out of the ABB plant in Guelph to the GEXR interchange track.

June 27th, 2003

This was another routine trip to the Junction.

July 1st, 2003

Canada Day 2003, we went on a large circle route catching both CP and CN over the course of several hours.

July 5th, 2003

The 8th annual CNet meet.

July 11th, 2003

The Guelph Historical Railway Association's caboose was moved from its parking place in Guelph to Guelph Junction for an NMRA presentation of Guelph Junction and GHRA's possessions's on July 14th.

July 14th, 2003

The National Model Railroad Assocation took a tour of Guelph Junction. The Guelph Historical Railway Assocation and Ontario Southland Railways strutted their stuff, but CP was nowhere to be found...

July 17th, 2003

After suffering cabin fever, we went to to kill a few hours at Guelph Junction and saw two trains on the Hamilton sub and one on the Galt sub.

July 23rd, 2003

Laura had to go the license bureau on Woodlawn, so we stopped at CN Guelph Junction on the way back to catch GEXR 580 heading up the Fergus spur.

July 25th, 2003

I went to downtown Guelph to get some pictures of bridges to help a friend model similar bridges.

July 27th, 2003

Three of us headed out to the Halton sub just south of Milton on the CN Halton sub to see what we could see. We sure saw. The day started with a train with dragging equipment, and, in exchange for fetching coffee, we got a tour of an SD75i cab, and didn't get worse for the next 6 hours.

July 30th, 2003

Laura and I had to go to the license bureau again on Woodlawn. On the way home, we stopped to watch GEXR and OSR trade freight cars on Edinburgh.

August 3rd, 2003

This year's GuelphFest celebrated Guelph's 176th anniversary. I was there with the GHRA and our caboose and baggage car. Unfortunately we got rained out this year.

August 4th, 2003

Laura and I stayed in the GHRA caboose posting security while it was parked down town.

August 5th, 2003

Laura and I had posted security in the GHRA caboose through the night. In the morning we watched OSR move the van back to its home base at Crompton Uniroyal.

August 10th, 2003

We brought one of our housemates to the Hamilton airport and stopped for a few minutes of railfanning on the way back.

August 17th, 2003

Laura had a 10:17 am train from Aldershot, so we spent the day after that railfanning. It was made more interesting by a derailment near Ingersoll on the CN Dundas sub.

August 20th, 2003

I decided to spend a full work-day at Guelph Junction working on my laptop with GPRS and watching whatever came through.

August 22nd, 2003

I decided to spend a full work-day at Guelph Junction working on my laptop with GPRS and watching whatever came through.

August 24th, 2003

Babcock and Wilcox sent a 500 tonne generator up the GEXR Fergus sub. Steve found it wyeing at the seldom-used Fergus sub wye in Guelph on GEXR 432, en route to Toronto Mac Yard, and let me know. The two of us chased it, leap-frogging eachother along highway 7.

August 26th, 2003

Laura returned from Brattleboro and I went to get her at Aldershot station.

September 13th, 2003

Laura, Chris, and I went to the hobby shop at the North end of Guelph and picked up OSR working on the scanner. We went to watch them and then waited for GEXR 431 to return from Toronto before going home.

September 21st, 2003

We went to Guelph Junction at the end of the afternoon and tried to set up a lan networked by packet radio from the parking lot at the Junction. It didn't work, but it was fixed so it would the next time.

September 27th, 2003

Laura was learning to drive my car, so she drove us to Guelph Junction, we watched one train go by, and then she got us home.

September 28th, 2003

Steve, Laura, and I went on a planned trip to Komoka's Melrose Junction, where we watched trains all afternoon, and met the owner of the property in the junction who was very nice and friendly, and invited us to watch from his property. Chris joined us later and we moved on to Hyde Park.

October 3rd, 2003

We made an absolutely insane drive from Guelph to Montreal to Ottawa and back over two days. On our way through Toronto, a freight train passed over us and paced us through heavy traffic for a little under an hour. I took the opportunity to take a small number of pictures while Laura drove.

October 5th, 2003

St. Thomas Central Railway's Essex Terminal Number 9 0-6-0 switcher ran an excursion from Hespeler to Guelph and back three times. The first one I slept through, the second one I chased, and the third one I volunteered on.

October 6th, 2003

St. Thomas Central Railway's Essex Terminal Number 9 0-6-0 wrapped up three days in Guelph with a one-way excursion to Kitchener.

October 19th, 2003

Chris, Steve, and I went on a general railfanning tour for a couple of hours in the afternoon.

October 21st, 2003

Steve called. GEXR 431 was approaching Guelph and a track-side inspection by a foreman revealed there was a dimensional load on board. Scramble! We met up at CN Guelph Junction.

October 22nd, 2003

GEXR 580 went on the ground at the London/Edinburgh grade crossing on the ex-Fergus sub.

October 23rd, 2003

On October 21st, a dimensional load came to town. On October 22nd, it derailed. On the 23rd, Pacific Northern Rail showed up to fix the tracks.

October 24th, 2003

Laura went to a horse back riding lesson in Moffat, so I headed South and spent an hour at Guelph Junction, leaving just before CP 9144 came through. Grumble.

November 1st, 2003

A derailment in Aldershot yard sent at least one detour passenger train up the Guelph sub, along with a parade of Eastbound special moves. The first was a GMD move of UK-bound 6-axle units followed shortly by a Babcock and Wilcox generator move. The derailment consisted of a few passenger cars being shipped and several other cars in various states and interesting angles.

November 12th, 2003

Certified as unsafe to drive and too expensive to fix, my car - my most important railfanning tool, beating the scanner, the camera, and the trackside guide - is sold for parts.

November 17th, 2003

Unscheduled Via train number 689 came through Guelph on its way to pick up a passenger car at Kitchener station.

November 29th, 2003

Steve, Chris, and I went up to Ingersoll to meet up with Walter and learn our way around the not exactly quiet area of Ingersoll and surrounding area.

December 7th, 2003

Chris suggested we railfan. So we did, though both CP and CN proved quiet.

December 13th, 2003

Steve and I spent a few minutes track-side on the Galt sub and then went up to visit the Toyota plant at Cambridge.

December 20th, 2003

Steve had to head up to Sarnia and I got to tag along. We took 11 hours to get back because there were train tracks on the way...

December 23rd, 2003

A day of railfanning, hell or high water. That was the plan - and high water we got! It poured all day but we started at about 07:30 and went through until about 19:30 - 12 straight hours of railfanning in, mostly, Ingersoll.

January 1st, 2004

Steve, Laura, and I went trackside to see who was working on New Year's Day. For a holiday, the tracks were pretty busy and in under 2 hours we caught 3 trains.

January 3rd, 2004

Steve, Laura and I headed to Ingersoll to railfan. We met Walter there first thing in the morning and Chris joined us in the afternoon... it was a real party!

January 11th, 2004

We were going to go to a hobby shop in Burlington... We never did make it though. We caught 432 on the siding with 2 depressed-centre flatcars, and 85, the International, meeting there. The car we were in needed to be boosted. We changed cars and headed to Guelph Junction to see if there was anything there... there was. We caught 6 trains including a CWR unit train, in the span of about 2 hours, and there were more coming when we finally called it a day. 2004-01-17

January 17th, 2004

Steve, Chris, Paul, and I headed to Guelph Junction, Milton, Oakville, Burlington West, back to Guelph Junction, and then home in a great circle route of train tracks and hobby shops. The second stop at Guelph Junction yielded an SD90/43MAC doubling the escarpment grade.

January 18th, 2004

We were just going to go catch 153 at Puslinch and come home...

January 24th, 2004

Steve and I headed up to Ingersoll for the day. We caught 26 trains, though missed photographing a couple of them. The Telus engine came through unannounced at a healthy 80 miles per hour and we missed the Illinois Central Operation Lifesaver unit while chasing a CP train on the St. Thomas sub. We saw 4 CP trains and all of them were powered by 2 GP9s.

January 31st, 2004

CN 383 on the ground at Bayview Junction. Via detouring the Guelph sub. 682 impacting snow drift (damage) at St. Mary's. 431 failed at Kitchener. And that's just what I was around for.

February 1st, 2004

On February 1st, 2003, I started railfanning. On that day, I borrowed a camera, and I shot trains. It was a great day. On February 1st, 2004, I wanted to celebrate the first anniversary of my train chasing by heading out. We missed a parade at Guelph Junction, went up to Scotch Block, got stuck in the snow... CAA finally showed up as the only train in the area came by. Meanwhile, my camera's LCD ceased to function, so I could no longer see what the camera was doing. Oh well. It's in for warranty service now, maybe they can figure out what happened - and fix it.

February 15th, 2004

With my regular camera getting a new LCD at Canon, I borrowed Laura's point and shoot analog camera and got the pictures back a week later on CD. This is the result of one roll of film. We caught 2 ex-Amtrak MMA F40PHs and CP 9303 switching the Waterloo sub. Interesting day.

February 22nd, 2004

My digital camera returned, we set off for the Copetown train show and made a day of it -- and what a day! Over 200 photos.

February 28th, 2004

I had to test out my new car's ability to serve as the new railfan vehicle. Off to CP and CN we went!

March 1st, 2004

Nothing like a new car to get me trackside. My old car died November 12th and I finally buckled and bought a new one. Armed with a new car, I spent the day at Guelph Junction on my laptop working, and seeing what I could see. As luck would have it, I saw a lot - starting with CP SD90MAC-H 9301, one of the 4 6000HP units CP has.

March 3rd, 2004

I spent a little under 6 hours at Guelph Junction on my laptop working, but managed to catch 12 trains (and miss OSR!) and a self-propelled crane. Among the interesting stuff was a UP Dash 9, the crane, and the day was finished off by CP 8218 leading a track inspection train - which I tried unsuccessfully to chase East.

March 6th, 2004

Our first big trip in my new car... Chris, Steve, and I went to Ingersoll hoping to catch a lot of CN trains. We ended up catching more CP than CN, including a meet at the Beachville siding normally used for parking freight cars.

March 8th, 2004

I worked at Scotch Block for the afternoon.

March 9th, 2004

Such beautiful lighting I couldn't pass it up - I spent a couple of hours at the Junction and caught a very interesting lashup at the crossing on Galt sub at mile 46.76 in Puslinch.

March 10th, 2004

I drove out to Guelph Junction and worked from GPRS from there. At the end of the day, the car's alternator died and I got towed home.

March 19th, 2004

A beautiful day and a lot of trains. What more could you ask for?

March 22nd, 2004

Armed with a brand new car battery actually capable of handling my laptop and all the other gadgets I run, I headed out for a day of trackside work.

March 28th, 2004

We planned to have 6 of us go to Ingersoll for the day. Like all well-laid battle plans, it did not survive contact with the enemy and Steve and Matt ended up going alone. I went to the Kitchener train show at Bingemans and checked out the Kitchener GEXR yard before leaving town. I missed GEXR 432 by only a few seconds... Late afternoon Laura Chris and I managed a trip to Guelph Junction. There we caught an Eastbound with 2 leasers - both having failed coming up to Guelph Junction. The crew told RTC that they weren't sure if they'd make the final grade into Toronto with only one engine and over 7000 tonnes, but that they'd try to start the second engine at the bottom of the hill and hope it lasted all the way to the top. Nuts.

April 5th, 2004

Laura and I went to Guelph Junction and Scotch Block for the day and saw pathetically few trains, but we did catch a GCFX-CN-GECX-GECX lashup on CN, with the two GECXs being ex SP and UP tunnel-motors.

April 9th, 2004

Good Friday saw me and Laura head to Puslinch at the crossing at mile 46.76 and then a couple of crossings West of Guelph Junction. It was a very good day for unusual stuff.

April 10th, 2004

Laura drove the car for the first time and took us to Scotch Block mile 30 Halton sub. There was a long lull in the afternoon but for the most part it was fairly busy.

April 13th, 2004

On my way back from the first day at Real World Linux 2004 Conference and Expo in Toronto, I heard on my scanner that the engine on my train was VIA 6406, one of two VIA engines on my Most Wanted list due to having an HO Via engine with that number.

April 14th, 2004

On my way to the second day at Real World Linux 2004 Conference and Expo in Toronto, I wanted to take a picture of VIA 6406 which was leading the morning's #86, one of two VIA engines on my Most Wanted list due to having an HO Via engine with that number.

April 18th, 2004

Amtrak's train called "The International" from Toronto to Chicago's final Sunday in existence... 27 people took the train together as a group trip up to Sarnia for a final-miles excursion, through the GHRA.

April 23rd, 2004

Amtrak #85/#88, the International, ended on this day with the final run being a morning Westbound from Toronto to Chicago. It went through Guelph with its trainee Via trainset in tow. Via with an engine and 3 LRCs will be taking over the route only as far as Sarnia. Later in the day, Steve, Chris, and I met up at Guelph Junction for a few regular freight trains.

April 26th, 2004

Laura returned from the US on the Maple Leaf. I spent the day at Guelph Junction and then went down to Aldershot to pick her up, catching CP 166 on CN.

April 28th, 2004

Laura and I headed down to Guelph Junction for the day to work from there.

April 29th, 2004

Laura and I headed down to work from the Junction again. The day started out nicely with OSR and CP's Guelph Junction turn working together in the Goderich wye. At 9pm, we found out two Alaska units were dispatched out of London on train 724. We scrambled to Galt station where we caught them at 23:48, catching them again at Guelph Line road in Campbellville at 00:16.

May 5th, 2004

Another Alaska unit scramble. ARR 4322 departed London at 16:45, which would normally mean arrival at Guelph Junction at around 18:15. It came about 21:30.

May 7th, 2004

Laura and I headed to Guelph Junction for 10 solid hours and caught 3 7-engine trains among a variety of others.

May 16th, 2004

Laura, Steve, and I headed down to Ingersoll for a few hours. Among the highlights was an Ontario Northland SD75i on horsepower hour repayments.

May 21st, 2004

Laura and I headed down to Ingersoll to catch 148 and then headed up to Scotch Block to catch it again. It had a pair of E8 6-axle widebody units with a business train.

May 25th, 2004

I spent a few hours working from the Junction after hearing about dimensional loads on the scanner. Apparently they only meant excess-height cars, and I only caught 4 CP trains, a hy-rail truck, and OSR.

May 29th, 2004

Steve advised that there were 3 dimensional loads parked at CN Guelph Junction after we heard discussion of them on the scanner. Steve and I chased 432 around downtown Guelph, though GEXR #432 only took one of the loads. The remaining 2 left a little bit later on a second 432, but I never did get to see them.

June 3rd, 2004

Jay advised there was a UP dash 8 eastbound. UP 9153 went through but my camera didn't cooperate, so I caught a picture of it going off in the distance. Them's the breaks.

June 5th, 2004

The Royal Canadian Pacific travelled to Windsor on the 4th. On the 5th it returned from Windsor and headed to Hamilton, then up to Guelph. It's probably the first train in three decades that has gone straight from Hamilton to Guelph up the Hamilton and ex-Goderich subs.

June 28th, 2004

Laura and I married on June 27th. Our honeymoon consisted of travelling from the wedding site in Ste-Agathe, Quebec to our home in Guelph, Ontario, following train tracks and interesting towns. On the 28th, we started at the Chateau Veaudreuil, travelled to the CSX Montreal sub on the South shore, headed back up to Coteau, and then went to Cornwall. From there, we travelled to Smiths Falls and spent the night.

June 29th, 2004

The second day of our honeymoon saw us originating in Smiths Falls, where we spent much of the day, before heading through Perth South to Belleville, through Prince Edward County. We spent the night at Brighton.

June 30th, 2004

The third day of Laura's and my honeymoon saw us at Newtonville for the middle part of the day. In the evening we took a sight-seeing flight out of Guelph airfield which lasted a little under two hours. In that time we travelled from Guelph to Guelph Junction to Cambridge back to Guelph Junction to Burlington to Toronto, around the CN tower, back toward Hamilton, up the Hamilton sub, back again to Guelph Junction, up Guelph Line road to the streetcar museum after taking a brief tour to take pictures of southbound OSR, and finally took pictures of GEXR 431 stopped for a hot journal at axle 271 before coming in for landing.

July 2nd, 2004

Laura and I had to run into town for a minute and caught GEXR at CN Guelph Junction running light.

July 3rd, 2004

CSX units led 432 through Guelph at lunch time on Saturday.

July 4th, 2004

CSX SD70ACes ran light through Guelph running as GEXR's only power for 432/431.

July 5th, 2004

Laura and I caught OSR up at the interchange. They headed South a few minutes later with about 30 cars down to lower yards and PDI.

July 8th, 2004

We had reason to believe that GEXR 432 may be carrying the long dead 177 and 901 GP9s that had spent a long time parked in Kitchener and been moved on July 7th into Kitchener yard. When the train did finally come, it had neither the GP9s nor the CSX engines it had recently been sporting, but was exceedingly long.

July 11th, 2004

Laura and I ran up to the North end of town to run some errands when we got a call from Steve that 432 was on its way and OSR was to move a transformer. We caught 432 at CN Guelph Junction/Alma Rd. Later in the day, Chris and I caught 431 at Alma/Guelph Jct again and then going over the Hanlon as they set off some cars at the Junction. Then we moved on to River Run centre where we caught OSR with a little flatbed and a transformer with no time to spare - they arrived at the same time we did.

July 14th, 2004

During the afternoon, between rain storms, Laura and I headed to Scotch Block and back via Guelph Junction. We caught a UP SD70M at mile 30, and a CEFX-led 121 car train at the Junction.

July 17th, 2004

Laura and I tried to go to Ingersoll for the day and found it dead as a doornail. After several hours of boredom, we headed for home and the parade finally started. We went on to the small community of Creditville where we watched the parade until we got too hungry.

July 25th, 2004

We went to Ottawa Linux Symposium from July 21st to 24th and on the way back on the 25th stopped for a few minutes of trainspotting at Belleville.

July 30th, 2004

CP 9300, the last in CP's 6000HP roster for me to photograph, was heard at Coakley so I headed down to the Junction to watch it.

August 7th, 2004

We caught GEXR with 2 CSX units going through Guelph again. There were 5 parked in Stratford but the same two seem to be on 432/431 every time.

August 8th, 2004

We picked up my mother-in-law at Aldershot, pausing frequently to take pictures...

August 15, 2004

I went up to Scotch Block for the afternoon, leaving when it started raining.

August 17th, 2004

On the way back from the North end, I found OSR switching on the South industrial. Later in the day, Walter called in that a BCR unit was through Ingersoll about 13:40. It finally showed up at mile 30 at about 17:00 after lifting at both Beachville and Aldershot.

August 19th, 2004

I stopped at mile 30 for three trains before heading down to Aldershot to pick up Laura.

August 21st, 2004

Laura, Steve, and I went to CN territory to see what we could see. And boy did we see. CSX, BNSF, a business car, and a spiderman engine were just the highlights.

August 29th, 2004

GEXR and OSR were both working Guelph on this very wet Sunday so I went to see who I'd find. I never found GEXR working but OSR was working PDI. Later, GEXR 431 came back with 4837 and 4839 - two more CSX units in testing.

August 30th, 2004

OSR had 2 trains, GEXR 580 broke down at the Junction, 432 had CSX engines leading... just another day in Guelph. At CP we found a crane working. 159 went through, tripping the hotbox detector at Puslinch, and CN was busy but didn't have anything particularly unusual.

September 2nd, 2004

OSR was running with ex-BCR unit OSRX 646 in third position. A scramble call later I was at the tracks.

September 9th, 2004

Ingersoll was busy and the only place in the region that was not being rained out.

September 12th, 2004

Sundays don't normally have too many trains, but railfans are in abundant supply. This Sunday, though, there was no shortage of either, with CN even yielding a little foreign power...

September 18th, 2004

CP 5431, a CP engine in UP colours, got a clearance from Kinnear to the Junction. That was all the motivation I needed to go spend a couple of hours at CP territory. In that time I saw 7 GP9s and 9 other engines, a bit off-balance from normal.

September 19th, 2004

CP had 3 trains coming up the Hamilton sub, so I went to see if I could catch them. I ended up spending 8 hours at the Junction and seeing only about 5 trains in burning cloudless conditions, and missed the first Hamilton sub train which was the Automax!

September 22nd, 2004

It has been said that the CP is the SleePR. This day saw some interesting trains with a lot of long, hot waits.

September 26, 2004

Sundays on CP are about as dead as it gets, but this Sunday saw 4 trains in a few hours and so I went home satisfied.

September 28th, 2004

GEXR gave an empty Schnabel to OSR to give to ABB. I missed the move by seconds... but it has to come out soon, I'll try to get that move.

September 29th, 2004

432 had CSX engines, 580 had back-to-back RailAmerica-painted engines, 85 had a whole 2 cars.. another busy day in Guelph.

October 1st, 2004

OSR pulled out a 12-axle transformer, put in an 8-axle, and switched around a pair of regular flats with transformers inside ABB. The 12-axle went to the interchange. 580 brought it to CN Guelph Junction almost immediately. 432 and 580 arrived at CN Guelph Junction at the same time. 432 took the 12-axle depressed flat with the transformer to Toronto. Total time from ABB to Mac yard: 3 hours. Total trains it went on: 3. Now *that* is fast service.

Now, OSR has 646-506-180 as its power, though only 180 was on line. 646 was, however, leading, with all 4 ditch lights. GEXR 580 has RLK 4096-2210, the matched pair in RailAmerica colours. GEXR 432 has CSXT 4845-4846. 432 left with 6100 feet, 3 GM flats (2 with loco trucks, 1 with tanks), and a lot of cars.

October 2nd, 2004

OSR was ordered at 0430. They departed Guelph Junction at 0500 and pulled Schnabel car HEPX 200 out of ABB along with 2 smaller transformer loads, delivering it to the GEXR interchange a little bit before 0700. At 1000 GEXR finally pulled out of CN Guelph Junction with the loads, expected to arrive in Sarnia by evening where they will be interchanged with CSX and taken to Courtright, Ontario.

October 9th, 2004

I went to CN Guelph Junction hoping to catch GEXR 432 with CSX engines, but instead got regular power... in a way I guess I kind of missed the regular power anyway, so that's not so bad. Later in the day I went looking for OSR. They were working late and I caught them heading from the interchange back to PDI after 18:00.

October 10th, 2004

Having received word of foreign power coming out of the Sarnia tunnel I moseyed over to Scotch Block and waited. Unfortunately a truck stalled on the tracks in London tying up traffic for hours. 8 hours after the train went through the tunnel the light began to fail and I was getting hungry, so home I went, picking up two more trains on the way, without ever seeing the train I went to see.

October 14th, 2004

The CP TEC train, 8218 leading, ran the Guelph sub -- my first opportunity to catch a CP engine on the GEXR. 8218 met Via #84 at Guelph, holding up the passenger train for about 15 minutes. 8218, it appears, got back on the CP at London either through Kellog or GM's spur track, and returned through Guelph Junction about 4pm.

October 23rd, 2004

We went to the Junction first thing in the morning, hearing a full 7 eastbounds clearing before we got there. Once there, it was dead. Eventually we moved up to mile 30 and saw 3 trains before coming home.

October 27th, 2004

An ex-Rio-Grande tunnel motor was spotted heading East. Needless to say I couldn't pass that up...

October 28th, 2004

CN RTC said there would be a parade on the Halton sub from about 1pm to about 5pm because of border crossing issues in Buffalo and Sarnia.

October 30th, 2004

After a morning of intense rain and lousy weather, the sun came out and we went trackside. And boy was it worth it! EMD SD70ACe demonstrator unit GM 70 and two brand new CEFX AC4400s punctuated a short, productive trip.

November 1st, 2004

It was nice out, so I hit the tracks for a little while. A whopping 2 trains went by on CN, but I caught OSR coming back from Guelph at Moffat.

November 5th, 2004

580 went on the ground at CN Guelph Junction. 12-axle depressed centre heavy duty car KRL 300302 with a ~300 ton load spread the rails and took a hopper down with it. KRL 300302 derailed in Guelph a year ago, too.

November 6th, 2004

We went to get Jay at Woodstock and spent the rest of the day mostly in Ingersoll watching what there was to see. CN 271 had a UP in second, and 399 had a UP and a CSX engine. Not a bad day on the foreign power front.

November 13th, 2004

I took my father to the Junction to show him this crazy hobby I have. 3 of the 4 engines we saw on 2 trains that passed were CEFX rentals.

November 20th, 2004

We went to Brampton to see the OBRY/CN diamond, in spite of very bad weather.

November 22nd, 2004

What do you call the day after two days of rain? Monday! CP pulled an exception and ran some trains in the day, making for a very fruitful couple of hours at the tracks.

November 25th, 2004

I heard CEFX 1037 and CP 6607 West approaching the Junction. By the time I got to the tracks, I saw the tail end of the second train, and decided to head West. I got a couple of minutes ahead of both trains at Zorra siding, some 56 miles West of where I'd seen the tail end. CP 6607 was leading 2 other SD40s and had 532 axles.

November 26th, 2004

Guelph Junction turn lifted OSRX 505 at the Junction and took it on the start of a long journey to Montreal for a new generator. In the evening, London Pickup delivered OSRX 182, OSR's newest RS-18u. It was formerly QGRY and before that a CP engine. The day was punctuated by a 3-hour lull on both CN and CP followed by the loss of one of my proprietary Canon 2B-NL camera batteries. If you happen to run across it, please let me know.

November 27th, 2004

I set out on a search for the battery I lost on the 26th. On the way to Scotch Block, where I thought it might be, we heard the detector at 25.0 Galt sub with 524 axles, so we went to the Halton/Galt overpass in Milton, and then up to mile 30 Scotch Block where we saw 5 trains including 391 with a series of dimensional and unusual loads on it. On the way back to Guelph we heard OSR working and found them with all three odd-ball paint schemes working: ex-BCR 646, ex-CP 506, and ex-QGRY/exx-CP 182. 182 arrived the day before at the Junction on London pickup but was not on when we found it in Guelph.

My missing camera battery was sitting on the ground at Scotch Block and even seems to work, still. Phew.

December 3rd, 2004

CWR train in Guelph heading to Kitchener, meeting 580 at Mosborough. Yesterday, 518 - the CWR train, and previous to that a GM extra that we all missed - met 432 at Rockcut siding. Like Mosborough, it is very much unused. To make matters more interesting, the CWR train, led by the 2 2210s, set off an original-paint and reporting marks D&RGW hopper at CN Guelph Junction. The CWR train is fully loaded, and CWR only stretches from Silver (Georgetown) to Guelph.

December 5th, 2004

GEXR laid CWR on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Saturday they worked for more than 14 hours straight in intense rain, but Sunday was a beautiful day and they were able to wrap up their work within only about 6 more hours. By the time I found them they only had 2 pairs of strands left to lay, and only one of them was near enough to a public road for me to see.

In the evening, CP's 2004 US-bound holiday train (there is a second holiday train which heads North and ends up in British Columbia) stopped in at the Galt station. Though I heard its clearance from Guelph Junction to Orr's Lake on the scanner, we didn't leave till later on and only caught it moments before it left.

December 30th, 2004

We heard of an 8-engine train coming in from the West, but missed it at the Junction and hours later left having seen only foremen and OSR working. As we left the Junction, the grade crossing lights at Campbellville road were on, so we went back to the tracks. Apparently it was nothing more than a signal test.

December 31st, 2004

GEXR discussed the presence of a D-6 dimensional on #580 leaving Kitchener and that was all the motivation I needed to head out into the haze and see.

January 1st, 2005

We went to catch Via 85 at CN Guelph Junction and then 432 at the viaduct at lunch time. In the afternoon, Walter advised that a BNSF was in second place on 398 and a third unidentified engine was following it. We went to Scotch Block to catch it. The BNSF unit ran out of gas less than a mile from us and the train went by us at what the crew reported to the RTC was 13 miles per hour. The third unit turned out to be an ICE engine.

January 3rd, 2005

CEFX 1054 was heard leaving Nissouri which gave me ample warning to catch it at Guelph Junction. We ended up catching 5 trains at the Junction in a little under 2 hours including CEFX 1054, a Hamilton sub train with 3 red SOO SD60s, and CP 5911 - a large multimark unit, one of only three remaining.

January 8th, 2005

I left Laura and a friend at a fabric store in Guelph and headed down to Guelph Junction to catch a set of trains I'd been tracking on the scanner. I missed the first one by fractions of a second, but it was ham turn running light. The next two went by heading East, one off the Ham sub one off Galt OCS territory. After them I figured there would be no trains for a while and headed back to Guelph, hearing GEXR detector 56.2 as I entered the Hanlon. I thought I might be able to beat 432 to the overpass at Victoria and Elizabeth, but was too late to set up a shot. After that I saw OSR switching PDI and called it a day. It was worth a try, anyway.

January 9th, 2005

In a remarkable repetition of events I discovered that I had, again, lost one of my camera batteries the day before (update: battery found 2005-01-22 -- in a couch). I went back to the only place it could be and did not find it there, but on the way, heard GEXR #432 coming with CEFX 6537 leading and decided that'd be a worthwhile detour, catching it from the North side of the tracks at the Alma road grade crossing.

January 15th, 2005

Jay, Chris, Steve, and myself met up with Walter in Ingersoll. For the first time, I attempted to take pictures of the same trains with two cameras at the same time, one angled for approach, the other for going-away shots. The photos were then renumbered against the time-stamps to try to put them in order, until I discovered that the two cameras' clocks were out of synch. I figured the two cameras were 26 seconds apart, and that is what this sequence is based on.

January 19th, 2005

In 2 hours and 20 minutes, we saw 7 trains at the Junction, punctuated by a UP tunnel motor that Jay had dispatched us to and an ex-BN CEFX loco still in green paint.

January 20th, 2005

CN seemed like a good place to go, so I spent a few hours at the Ingersoll Via station. On my way home, I saw an approach signal under the 401 and went up to the first crossing South of the highway to catch Ham turn and its whopping 22 axles.

January 24th, 2005

After a weekend of snow, we wanted to catch OSR heading to Guelph breaking through snow banks, but were disappointed to find the snowbanks not really breakable and the foreman going ahead of the train, so we tried our luck at the Junction instead since we were already up and on the move.

January 26th, 2005

It was a beautiful day out, warm, clear skies, and mid winter with fresh snow, so I took a couple of hours out in the afternoon to see what I could find.

January 27th, 2005

Guelph Junction-Scotch Block-Boyne-Scotch Block-Guelph Junction, 5 BNSF units, tons of trains, perfect lighting. Couldn't ask for more.

February 3rd, 2005

8 trains in 2.5 hours at the tracks: CN 382, 271, 396, 154, 148, ?, 421, and 391, including 4 foreign units from 3 different lines and a scale test car.. not bad for an unplanned trip.

February 4th, 2005

On the 3rd, GEXR ran #432 to Mac yard. #431 came back in the late afternoon. Then, after #88, #432 went to Mac yard again. Today, GEXR #432 returned from Mac yard following Via #85 in from Silver around lunch time, and in the late afternoon, I heard #432 announcing its departure from Kitchener. It crossed the detector at 56.2... then 30 minutes later crossed at 56.2 again. Hours went by, and Via #88 called Kitchener mileboard. GEXR #432 came back on the air and told #88 they'd be following them to Silver after spending the day in the shop track. So Chris, Laura, and I met Steve at the Guelph Via station to watch the two trains. While #88 was going by, Chris' camera batteries died and he didn't have any spares, and as #432 approached, my camera set up for the video went into a fatal error mode and refused to cooperate until the moment the train was out of sight, when it came back on and pretended nothing happened. My camera set up for still shooting, on the other hand, was able to be switched to video just on time to catch the first frame with #432's leader right in front of me. Oh, the complications in such a simple task. These few shots are dedicated to the crew of tonight's #88.

February 6th, 2005

GEXR #433, usually a dedicated train from Kitchener to London for autoframes followed #432 to Guelph and did what would normally be #580's work, except #580 doesn't run on Sundays. After watching that, we headed to Guelph Junction to catch CP's new power-transfer train, #138, with 8 units.

February 13th, 2005

Feeling cabin fever, Chris and I joined Steve at Scotch Block, where we saw the tail end of #391 disappearing as we arrived, and CN #398 and #434 over the next several hours. CP was just as quiet...

February 20th, 2005

GEXR #433, normally a Kitchener-London train, switched Guelph again briefly late Sunday afternoon.

February 23rd, 2005

CN trains 148, 145, and 398 had little of interest aside from an empty 12-axle QTTX depressed centre flat on the latter, and CP trains 153 and 424 provided the usual mix of intermodal and freight for that line.

March 6th, 2005

After weeks of concentrating on flying school where there was good weather, I headed down to Guelph Junction on a windy, overcast Sunday afternoon and caught 5 trains, the last westbound having both the triple-flag CP unit and a caboose trailing.

March 8th, 2005

CN 148, 391, 422, 392, CP 424, and 127 kept my trains-per-hour ratio up on the first nice day in ages.

March 11th, 2005

OSR picked up KRL 300302 at ABB and brought it to the interchange. GEXR 580 and 432 came from Kitchener minutes apart some time later, and 580 went North to pick up the dimensional at the interchange and deliver it back to 432, which took it directly to Mac yard.

March 23rd, 2005

GEXR #580 with GEXR 3843 leading switched the CN Guelph Junction yard over lunch.

March 26th, 2005

On my way back from CNC4, I caught 431 with regular power passing behind the shopping centre at Victoria Road.

March 29th, 2005

I took a few minutes in the evening to see if anything interesting was going by on CN. And it was -- it had just all gone by, by the time I arrived.

March 30th, 2005

Ontario Northland 2200 and 2202 were seen going through Ingersoll at 14:28. I figured from that they would be at Bayview Junction at 16:15 and Scotch Block at 17:00. At 16:56 CN #396 rolled by with the engines.

April 1st, 2005

Today's catch from CP trains 243, 230, 159, CN trains 148, 394, CP trains 141, 424, and OSR includes 2 BNSF units, an ex-UP SD45 rebuilt to some variant SD40, and ex-Hydro unit CP 5390.

April 4th, 2005

CN #434 lifted an SW1200 that had briefly shown up in Ingersoll, and that was all the motivation I needed to get trackside as fast as possible, as I found out two hours after the fact.

April 5th, 2005

On leaving the airport after spending an hour practicing emergency procedures in the circuit, I heard horns. I got to the Stone Road crossing with about 15 seconds to spare before OSR showed up on its way in from Guelph Junction.

April 16th, 2005

Laura and I went to Guelph Junction for part of the afternoon... but the car wouldn't start to come back. So after only two trains, the second of which arrived at the same time as CAA, we got towed home. :(

April 18th, 2005

Travelling to and from LinuxWorld Conference and Expo aboard trains 86 and 87, I managed to see a few interesting things. The way freight working at the junction of the Weston and Halton subs had an un-boarded CN caboose on it, the first I've seen.

April 19th, 2005

Travelling to and from LinuxWorld Conference and Expo aboard trains 86 and 87, I managed to see a few interesting things. CN #271 had an ex-CNW dash 9 on it heading West, though I wasn't able to get pictures of it. The afternoon's #275 and #385 kept me busy during our treck from the Weston sub to the Guelph sub on the Halton sub.

April 26, 2005

GEXR #431 couldn't make the hill at Acton and #580's power was sent to rescue it. VIA #88 had to wait in the siding at Guelph for #431 and didn't leave until well after scheduled to.

April 30th, 2005

I went to the station to pick up Tom from Via #683.

May 6th, 2005

After extensive bad weather, this day finally yielded something track-worthy. CN #411 had a BNSF AC4400CW in second place, and GEXR #431 came back with a CN GP40-2W leading.

May 14th, 2005

432 met 85 at Guelph station, following which we went to Guelph Junction and started with 141 meeting 152. After that it was 159, 246, 242, 424, and 525. 525 - Ham turn - had a W03 dimensional, said RTC, and issued GBOs as appropriate. It turned out to be a 4-axle regular empty flatcar, so I really don't know why they classified it as dimensional. I saw GEXR #431 come back later but did not have a camera handy. For anyone in the area, do note that it had CN 399000 articulated potash hopper, so it will be in the area for the next little bit.

May 15th, 2005

Steve woke me up to hit the tracks as soon as he was up and from there we went to the cowpath at Bayview Junction, caught an absurd number of trains in an hour, and moved on to explore Hamilton before coming back for a few more trains at Bayview and going back to Guelph, where we caught 431 - sans CN unit.

May 18th, 2005

GEXR got its CN unit back on the night of the 17th, so I went down CN Guelph Junction to see if I could catch it.

May 19th, 2005

GEXR #580 went down the Fergus, #432 went through with 3 GP40s, and OSR crossed the Hanlon with more engines than cars. Another normal day in Guelph.

May 20th, 2005

GEXR #432 still didn't have CN 399000, but had an unusually long string of autoracks from Toyota in Cambridge.

May 21st, 2005

After a few hours of turbulence over Fergus, Steve called and reported an ex-MILW unit in MILW paint was going in the hole at Orr's Lake. We left Guelph airfield (CNC4) and got to Guelph Junction with a couple of minutes to spare.

May 22nd, 2005

I headed down to Ingersoll with Laura to get some scenic photos to help a modeller, and caught some interesting trains in the process. CN #271 had a hotbox going over the detector at mile 53 (Ingersoll is mile 59) on the North track. Unfortunately there are no switches oriented the right way in the area to set off the car with a melted journal and the train tied up the North track for nearly 3 hours while it waited for CN #581 to finish up at Cami and come out, cross over at Blain, 8 miles to the East, and put the car in an industrial track near Beachville.

May 23rd, 2005

We were out of the house before 06:30 to catch NS #327/328 at Hamilton West, the West leg of the Bayview Junction wye. We caught NS #327-CN #382-CP #388-NS #328-VIA #671-CN #435-VIA #70-CN #385-CN #422-CP #167-CN #148 in short order. On the way North we heard CP #159 leaving the Junction to meet CP #424 at Killean, but missed #159 by a hair and didn't wait around for #424 to come.

May 25th, 2005

CP set out some CWR on the Galt sub around Galt/Cambridge.

May 26th, 2005

We got up before 6 in the morning to catch NS #327 and #328 at Hamilton West. We caught both, however 327 only showed its nose off in the distance, and then went backward to Hamilton yard to resolve issues with a broken drawbar. We had to go before it came back and I only took pictures of 328 and the other trains through in the interim.

June 2nd, 2005

The OBRY runs 2 days a week across the Brampton diamond. We caught them going toward Streetsville, as well as catching NS #327/328 in the morning and some other interesting trains in the evening.

June 9th, 2005

I caught Via #85 through my windshield at Watson Road on the way back from the airfield.

June 12th, 2005

Travelling from my parents' place back home, we stopped at Ste-Thérèse, Coteau, Belleville, and, for the first time, Cobourg. We caught CN #106 and 3 Via trains at Coteau, CN #377 and #148 at Belleville. We found Cobourg station and heard the detector at Kingston sub 262.9 go off at 91 miles per hour. We weren't sure of our milepost, but that was answered when Via #667 flew by while we were still looking at the trackside guide and found ourselves at mile 264. CN #320 went by almost immediately after, and after we left, we heard 3 more trains come through.

June 18th, 2005

Laura and I went exploring with no particular goal in mind, but ended up exploring CP Lambton yard and the West Toronto diamond before heading to Cobourg, where we spent the night.

June 19th, 2005

Laura and I woke up at dawn in Colbourg and worked our way home, stopping at Newtonville and CP's Toronto (Agincourt) yard on the way.

June 25th, 2005

Via #84 left Kitchener with VIA 6420 leading. I headed downtown to catch it at Alma road and again at the station. 6420 recently had a third headlight added to its nose whose purpose I can't quite figure, but it was on.

June 27th, 2005

In the evening I heard CP 5431 Eastbound around Orr's lake and decided it would be a good catch, the 53xx and 54xx engines being increasingly rare. I got to the Junction and caught 5 trains, but 5431 turned out to be London pickup, which turned at Galt.

June 30th, 2005

NS #327 was sighted on the 29th with an unpatched CNW dash 9 leading, and today's #328 was the railfan event of the week with everyone coming out all up and down the line to see it. Luckily, the unit was wyed at St. Thomas and led on the way back.

July 2nd, 2005

St. Thomas Central Railway ran a steam excursion with ETR #9 from St. Thomas to Ridgetown and back. Laura, Rob, and I went to see it out of Guelph and saw whatever else we could along the way. We caught it just outside of St. Thomas but after only a few minutes there was no more evidence of coal smoke. I'm not sure if it broke down and whether or not it eventually got fixed if it did. On the way back we caught CN #331 at Ingersoll, a CN eastbound at Woodstock, CP #153 at Ayr, what looked like London pickup with a yellow unit at Galt yard and Galt yard job also there. After landing we caught GEXR #432 light power at Jones Baseline in Guelph but I blew the pictures when I left the zoom on. In the evening we caught CP #246 coming out of Guelph Junction at Guelph Line road.

July 3rd, 2005

I got wind of a D8 dimensional load coming up the Halton sub. Being unsure what it was, I went to check it out. I caught up with the 2 GP9s and 2 metal stampers at Milbase switch behind Harvey's and shot it starting down the hill. It stopped for a few minutes and I used the opportunity to head over to the industrial track further down the road where I guessed it was going. When I got there, I greeted a CN employee whose reaction was to order me to stand ridiculously far away and write down my license plate numbers when I disregarded his unjustified instructions. (See in the pictures how far back I was already, on public property!) After this move, I went back up to Scotch Block to catch #383 and #394 which were meeting at Mansewood.

July 4th, 2005

I heard that VIA #84 had 2 engines (919 and 920) and so ran off to catch it downtown, then watched #580 go onto the South industrial. Later in the day, Chris and I caught London pickup, CP #257 at the Junction, and GEXR #431 back in Guelph.

July 14th, 2005

A train climbing Campbellville hill set off some grass fires, closing the 401 for part of the day and the Galt sub for about 7 hours. In the evening, I poked down there to see what I could find. The parade got under way just as the sun was going down, but in the time we were there we caught the CP water train which had helped fight the blaze, three GO trains in very quick succession that had been held short of the hill, CP #419 with a colourful, if domestic, consist, CP #424 with an ex-Milwaukee bandit, and another train whose number I didn't catch with another CEFX yellow trailing and CWR laying equipment. Not bad for 2 hours on CP.

July 16th, 2005

Laura and I went up to Sarnia to meet Steve, Brian, Christopher, and Shaun for a day of chasing CSX #725, the CP run-through on the Sarnia sub. We chased it to Chatham and then went on to Blenheim to see it and then caught CN #435 going through the wig-wag at Tilbury, where we met Ian. In the midst of it we caught a CP meet at Kent Bridge and CN #396 and VIA #78 at Creditville on the way home. The only disappointment of the day was not actually seeing any CSX power working, as #725 is a CP-powered train. It rained the entire day, but stopped just on time for just long enough to shoot every time we wanted to. Thanks, weather.

July 24th, 2005

After the completion of this year's Ottawa Linux Symposium, Laura and I took 2 hours to see what trains we could find. We didn't have enough time to track down either QGRY or the Ottawa Central, but did catch the Hull, Chelsea, and Wakefield steam excursion returning just before 3pm and Ottawa's O-train crossing the Rideau River at Carleton University.

July 25th, 2005

After dropping Jeff off at Aldershot, I stopped at Hamilton West to see if anything was coming. I caught #385 and #392 in quick succession and then proceeded home.

July 27th, 2005

On my way downtown to run some errands, I heard 431 entering Guelph and got trackside just on time to see it come over the Norfolk Bridge.

August 6th, 2005

Kevin picked me and Chris up at quarter to 7 and we headed down to Hamilton West to catch 327 and 328. Even at that hour, we were too late for 327, though, but we caught plenty of other trains, then checked out Hamilton yard and caught VIA #85 back in Guelph before calling it a day.

August 21st, 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.

September 17th, 2005

CSX ran a Blenheim extra out of Chatham and Steve gave me enough warning to get to it. Not entirely sure what to expect, Laura and I headed to Chatham and chased the Blenheim extra to Blenheim. We watched it switch for a while before running out of time and heading for home.

September 24th, 2005

GEXR #431 crossed 37.2 and gave Laura and I just enough notice to catch it at Kent street.

September 30th, 2005

I caught OSR crossing Stone Rd southbound by chance. On the train, an ALPX cylindrical hopper had a rather large branch stuck in its catwalk. Later, GEXR #431 came through town with three units and a decent length train.

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.

November 1st, 2005

I wasn't going to miss the CBC engine again, in spite of the bad light. I caught GEXR #580 working at the Fergus sub yard while I waited a few minutes for VIA #85 and the CBC unit to show, and then caught GEXR #432 at the now-closed Cityview crossing between Victoria and Watson.

November 2nd, 2005

In 90 minutes at the tracks I found 6 trains at Bayview, leaving with 3 more coming. In the afternoon, I caught London pickup and #243 East of Killean at mile 51.90 Galt sub. At night, we picked up CP #2419, the second 419 at Guelph Junction with 6 brand new ES44AC GE tier 2 environmental units (GEVOs).

November 3rd, 2005

More GEVOs on CP #419 -- but this time in daylight. I caught them at Hamilton West, where they were held up by CN #331, and again at Bayview Junction 9 minutes later where they were held up by CN #393.

November 4th, 2005

A not particularly long CP #167 had ex-KCS CP 5420 on it. While now painted in CP colours, it's still an interesting unit to go see.

November 5th, 2005

A bunch of us met at Hamilton West first thing in the morning as a way to meet eachother. We caught 11 trains there, 3 at Puslinch, 1 in Guelph, and 2 more at Killean over the course of the day, with the most interesting things being a new wide-gauge SD70 on a flatcar on GEXR #432 and KCS 4001 primer unit SD70ACe on CP #246 at Killean.

November 6th, 2005

I caught CP #243 at Killean in the afternoon. The video my older camera took would be its last. When I got home, the camera would no longer turn on. RIP, dear PowerShot S45.

November 8th, 2005

CN #382 had a BNSF unit leading through Woodstock in the early afternoon. Walter called that he'd heard but not seen it. I caught it at mile 30 and found that it had 2 BNSF units and no other power. I shot video with a PowerShot A510 I borrowed from a friend with the untimely death of my PowerShot S45.

November 10th, 2005

I shot an unknown Westbound and #167 at Guelph Junction.

November 11th, 2005

Two ATSF-painted blue and yellow BNSF units were leading CN #394 and I caught it at mile 30. I caught CP #420 on the way home at 46.76 Galt sub.

November 12th, 2005

Rob woke me with an SMS about CN #492 with a straight SD40 and a Herzog GPS-controlled ballast train heading East by Aldershot. I got moving fairly quickly and caught #492, #338, #154, CP #424, and GEXR #432 before lunch. In the evening we caught CP #141 with CP 4652, a GP40 in Guilford colours and CP markings known to locals as one of the 'ugly brothers'.

November 13th, 2005

Brian reported that CP #167 had 2 GEVOs working the yard at Welland. Laura and I headed down to Kinnear yard to catch them at the yard office. We arrived about 90 seconds before the train did. The new crew found a marshalling violation on the train and it got tied up at the yard for another 3 hours while we darted aimlessly around Bayview Junction and Hamilton West on a relatively quiet Sunday afternoon. Eventually #167 got moving and we chased it up to the Junction, missing it there by a few seconds and going around by 1st Line-10th sideroad-Guelph Line to catch it in Campbellville.

November 14th, 2005

CN #394 had two BNSF units as only power yet again, but this time in the middle of the morning with nice lighting. I couldn't resist. Meanwhile, CP #419 was sighted at Welland with 2 ES44AC GEVOs and, by luck, it took the hill to Guelph Junction where I caught CP #424, #419, #525, and #246 in short order.

November 19th, 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.

November 20th, 2005

Jay warned of a big CP #434 with a lot of power and so Laura and I went to see. We caught it with 2 KCS primer ACes behind a plethora of varied CP units, then watched CP #159, #230, and a light engine eastbound. Later on, Shaun advised of a UP GEVO leading a train through Sarnia and Jay saw it at London. We caught it at Ingersoll, giving chase and catching it again at Princeton and at Brantford, where it had a 9 car lift.

November 23rd, 2005

Brendan reported that CP #167 had 2 more GEVOs on it. I used the opportunity to try out my brand new camera, shooting first OSR and VIA in Guelph, then #167 around the Junction... beware big pictures!

November 24th, 2005

Mike and Shane both called to warn about Via #85 with the Budweiser painted F40 not coincidentially numbered 6424. Tom and I went to shoot it in downtown Guelph. Laura and I then caught CP #424, #139, #257, and a Sperry Rail car between Guelph Junction and Killean.

November 25th, 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 27th, 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.

December 1st, 2005

I went to see what was on CP #424 at Guelph Junction, then caught #394 with BNSF leaders and some other less interesting trains at Scotch Block in the afternoon.

December 2nd, 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!

December 3rd, 2005

Jay saw CP #424 go by Woodstock with an SD90/43MAC on it, so I took the opportunity to go down to Galt station and experiment with the various manual modes on my new camera.

December 4th, 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 5th, 2005

I couldn't resist another shot at the CP Holiday Train. I shot it at 48.04 Galt sub going about 50 miles per hour.

December 8th, 2005

CN #394 had a BNSF GEVO leading, CP #159 had CP 5911 leading, CN #271 had an ex-SP tunnel motor trailing, and OSR had ex-BCR 646 leading on the GJR. I could only see one of them and had to choose. CN #394 won.

December 9th, 2005

I heard CN #411 with BNSF 9808 (Executive scheme) leading coming up to the Humber and took advantage of the opportunity, catching it at the siding at Speyside in failing light.

December 10th, 2005

Laura and I got up rather early to go see the morning 'rush' on the CP Mactier sub outside Vaughan Intermodal Terminal, encouraged along by a mailing list message suggesting CP #106 would have an ES44AC GEVO leading. We also knew CP #230 had CP 5863, the last large multimark I needed from CP's active fleet. As we were getting ready to go, we heard CP #230 get its clearance to Hamilton and so we went to Guelph Junction to see it before it left. We saw it there but it was still too dark to shoot it, so we went to Hamilton West and waited for it there, where we saw NS #327 and CN #392. We then worked our way toward Vaughan, catching CN #399 and #385 around Milton. We finally got to VIT but never did see CP #106 -- it was still not in the area by the time we left. We did, however, see CP #103 and #105 both with SD90s and the former with a different ES44AC GEVO leading than we headed out expecting. To finish it off, we shot OBRY doing excursions at Inglewood on the way home.

December 15th, 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 31st, 2005

Acting on a tip from further up the line, we mobilised for an interesting leader on London Pickup, making for a very nice conclusion to 2005...

January 6th, 2006

Happy new year to all! I ended 2005 by shooting London Pickup, and, unintentionally, started 2006 by shooting none other than London Pickup on the first nice day of the year. I heard some traffic going by on the Galt and Jay reported 9116 was the last unit on 424. We shot London pickup, CP #424 with the SD90, CP #153, CP #525 ham turn, and London pickup going the other way for good measure.

January 8th, 2006

We went to the yard at Alma street to shot GEXR #431 coming back from Mac yard for the sake of it. We also found three tracks full of grain cars there, which is unusual.

January 12th, 2006

I shot GEXR #432 at Jones Baseline outside Guelph on highway 7 to the East, then OSR at PDI, and then went to the Junction to see what was brewing there.

January 13th, 2006

This Friday the 13th saw an unpatched SP unit on CN #148. We went to catch that and also caught CN #398, #392, #435, #422, CP #525 and #424 with 8 units. My camera decided the battery was dead as CN #435 approached, though it wasn't interesting power anyway.

January 14th, 2005

Laura and I got up at some ungodly hour to head to Paris for what promised to be a BNSF-filled day on the Dundas sub. We got to Paris and found the South Service Track plugged up making shooting there impossible, so we spent the day at Brantford station instead. There we caught CN #392, #587, #399, VIA #70, NS #327, #328, VIA #71, CN #278, CN #271, CN #331, CN #148, CN #385, VIA #72, CN #330, VIA #73, and CN #394, which we chased to Hamilton West as it had a BNSF GP30 leading, and then shot CP #424 at Killean on the way home. CN #399 had CN 8018 leading, which I believe is the first time a CN SD70M-2 has led on the Dundas sub, and most of the rest of the trains today were well worth the trip.

January 15th, 2006

Steve called, suggesting we go to Goderich to see GEXR #581 working around the salt mine. We headed up to Stratford, and found them getting ready to leave. They called themselves GEXR #431 for some reason, but no matter. We chased it as far as Seaforth before it got too dark to continue. Chasing on the GEXR Goderich sub is relatively easy as the train only goes between 5 and 15 miles per hour for the most part.

January 21st, 2006

We heard CN 8014 leading GEXR #432 approaching Kitchener and were... rather surprised. The alarm was sounded and every railfan in the area descended on the Guelph sub to shoot it. After, we got word of CP 8745 leading 7 units on CP #424 and booted it down to the Galt sub to catch that. Not bad for a day that I wasn't railfanning...

January 22nd, 2006

I wanted to see CN's new GEVOs, numbered in the 2200 series and likely to be forever lost to our various coasts for DPU service. We spent the day at Hamilton West catching 3 BNSF leaders and a CP GEVO leading a CEFX SD90/43MAC on the way home, but never did catch the CN GEVO we knew was supposed to come at some point. At one point during the morning, it had been so long since we had heard or seen any trains that we decided it was time to move West to Paris. As soon as we were committed to highway 403, 394 with its BNSF leader showed up on the scanner and we had to go all the way up to the top of the hill, turn around, and come back down, only managing to catch it at Burlington West.

February 13th, 2006

Mission accomplished! With the help of CPs #424 and #243 with CP 8714 on point, Laura and I managed to railfan on 3 continents within 3 days.

February 25th, 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.

February 26th, 2006

Steve called a little before sunrise suggesting we go after some trains. This sounded like a good idea and it proved to be a very fruitful morning, netting us NS #328, Amtrak #97, CN #421, VIA #70 with 6424/Budweiser, CN #399, #396 with GCFX/WC-BNSF-BNSF-CN, CP #167, CN #392, VIA #73, and CN #394 with BNSF-CN-CN-FURX. No videos today, though.

February 28th, 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.

March 2nd, 2006

CN #392 had a CN SD40-2Ws, a CN SD40-2, and a CP SD40-2 and there wasn't any way I was going to miss that. I got to mile 30 a few seconds ahead of it and loosed off a few shots.

March 3rd, 2006

We ran down to Galt station to catch CP #138 and #147 and then heard 42 axles with a hotbox at mile 42.6 Galt sub with no clearance. Putting two and two together quickly we found a Loram grinder hard at work. Shot the heck out of it!

March 4th, 2006

CP #243 was reported to have 2 white SOO SD60s, and as I hadn't seen any for a while I gave it a go. We also caught #424 and #159 within a few minutes on either side of #243.

March 9th, 2006

A second CP #138 left London and it was suspected it might have an interesting engine on it. Did it ever!

March 11th, 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.

March 12th, 2006

I heard CP 8748 approaching Orr's Lake and figuring I had an easy shot at another GEVO for the roster I went for it, beating it by a couple of minutes to Wellington road 35. Behind it were SOO units 6004 and 6061.

March 16th, 2006

Jay called about CN #390 with two dimensional loads. We went down to Hamilton West for it and CN #393, shooting CP #424 on the way there, #525 on the way back, and GEXR #431 later in the evening back in Guelph.

March 17th, 2006

We got in the car to go find a friend at the tracks in Guelph and immediately heard a westbound clearance on the Galt sub. We got to a crossing in Puslinch just on time to set up for and wait for CP #243 with CEFX 1053 leading, followed by an SD40-2, a couple of tank cars, and B23-7 TCB 202. We got moving quickly and shot it again a few miles west, before going back to Guelph and watching GEXR #432 pass by Via station.

March 18th, 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 19th, 2006

CP #243 had another GEVO leading, so I went down to the Galt sub to shoot it in the fresh, if light, snow.

March 22nd, 2006

Brand new BNSF SD70ACe number 9371 led GEXR #432 to Toronto and back. Steve sounded the alarm. Thanks Steve! This happened again on the 23rd, and I got much better photos...

March 23rd, 2006

Brand new BNSF SD70ACe number 9370 led GEXR #432 to Toronto, giving us our second straight day of testing. Perhaps it'll keep up?

March 25th, 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 26th, 2006

Rob warned me that 338 had 3 new CN GEVOs on it, probably the last three of this order. Trouble is, I was still asleep. When I got up, I got the message and, hoping I wasn't too late, went to Georgetown, where I saw 5 CN-powered freight trains in two hours but clearly had long missed the GEVOs, leaving CN as the only class one from which I have not seen a GEVO.

March 29th, 2006

We shot GEXR #431 at Guelph station by chance.

March 30th, 2006

I heard CN #394 with a BNSF SD40-2 at Hamilton West and decided I should give it a go, making it to Georgetown well ahead of it. We caught #394, #148, #145, #398, GEXR #431, CN #411, and then beat GEXR #431 to a crossing half way between Rockwood and Acton as it went up Acton grade kind of slowly.

April 1st, 2006

No jokes here for this April fools day. CP ran a couple of coal trains down the Hamilton sub during the week, which is exceedingly unusual. CP #889 returned today, CP 9773 and a long string of empty black coal hoppers, so we went after it in spite of the dark, gloomy weather.

April 2nd, 2006

Steve picked us up and we went off to shoot OSR working Guelph on a nice Sunday afternoon. They went South and we gave chase. As we got to Guelph Junction, Shane called about a CN GEVO on CN #435. Naturally we couldn't pass that up! I now have BNSF, UP, CSX, NS, CP, and finally CN GEVOs!

April 8th, 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.

April 9th, 2006

We went out around 11 to see what trains we could find. In 5 hours we caught 6, shooting 4 of them. CN #393 and #435 were first up at mile 30, CP #246 and #167 came next at Guelph Junction, then CP #722 snuck by us and on our way home we watched GEXR #431 go by in the distance.

April 12th, 2006

An extra train was heard coming to Guelph and I went to investigate in spite of the rain. GEXR 3856 showed up with 9 ballast cars and met VIA #85 in Guelph. I shot it at Guelph station and Jones Baseline, getting #85 at Cityview Drive on the way there. No videos, I didn't particularly want to risk 2 cameras in the rain.

April 14th, 2006

We went down to the Galt sub to shoot CP #243, then headed over to the Junction for #425 and #162 on the Hamilton sub. The sun came out just as #162 arrived, backlighting the train.

April 15th, 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 16th, 2006

I heard CN #411 with a BNSF leader leaving Mac yard and went off to mile 30 for it, catching CN #332 and #411 there, and CP #242 and #243 on the way home at the Junction.

April 17th, 2006

I shot VIA #87 at Watson road on the way back from errands.

April 20th, 2006

I beat GEXR #432 to the Via station by a few seconds. The train had a 12-axle 4-truck transformer load from ABB. In the evening, Laura and I caught CN #390 with that most elusive target - MMA 1.

April 22nd, 2006

For Door's Open Guelph, the GHRA put its caboose on display. Naturally I had to shoot VIA #85 and GEXR #432 passing!

April 25th, 2006

I went into Toronto for three days on Via #86/#87 for a conference. On the second day a dark storm lifted allowing shots through the darkened windows of the LRC coaches, and I shot one GO train under the John Street bridge in the Union Station Rail Corridor.

April 26th, 2006

On the third and final day of the conference I tried to shoot GMD1 CN 1431 on CN #542 at HalWest, where it had been on Monday when I was not ready for it. It was a bit further than I hoped but I managed one telephoto shot through the window of VIA #86's LRC coach I was sitting in. I also shot a few GO trains and found myself riding behind VIA 916 for the trip home. VIA 916 had been the only Via P42dc that I had not shot in daylight, so I got ahead of it after getting off in Guelph and shot it crossing Alma.

April 29th, 2006

We went to Sudbury to explore. We caught everything. (Warning: over 600 thumbnails!)

April 30th, 2006

We went to North Bay to see what we could find there and caught CN #450 passing ONR North Bay station, the passenger trains, 697 and 698, and then headed South, catching #698 at Washago along with CN #301 and #300, followed by CP #105 at Alliston.

May 13th, 2006

We got out for CN #435 with ONT 2102 leading, catching CN #393 and #396 at mile 30 followed by CN #435, #392, GEXR #432, and CN #148 at Georgetown.

May 14th, 2006

We went down to Paris for the NS trains, but found it blocked with equipment and moved to Brantford, where we caught 8 trains in about three hours before coming home to get other stuff done.

May 15th, 2006

I shot CN #114 with a BCOL SD40-2 trailing on the York sub from the approach to Buttonville, and got GEXR #431 from final at Guelph.

May 19th, 2006

CN #394 was reported to have a DMIR unit in the lashup. I got to mile 30 just on time for CN #392 with a BNSF GEVO leading followed 15 minutes later by CN #394 with its DMIR unit. I then proceeded to Guelph Junction to see if I could catch CP #424, which arrived only moments after I did.

May 20th, 2006

I wasn't planning to railfan today, so I only spent 10 hours trackside... today's haul: Via #70, CN #390 (with CEFX-CSX for power), and NS #327 (2 BNSF executive units) at Copetown, NS #327 again and CN #148 at Ingersoll, CP #159, CP #424, CP London Pickup, and CN #399 at London, and CN #393, CN #422, CN #398 (with a TTX caboose!), CN #421, CN #396, CN #435, and CN #275 at mile 30.

May 27th, 2006

We went to Kitchener to see GEXR #432 at the station there, a place I hadn't been in a while. We caught VIA #85, GEXR #433's power parked, saw GEXR #580 head North on the Elmira spur, and #432, then went to mile 30 for CN #392 with two NS units, Guelph Junction for two GEVO leaders and back to Guelph for VIA #681, the once-a-year Stratford Extra.

May 28th, 2006

Clear skies, but visibility about 3 miles due to smog. Ugh. We caught CN #394 at Hamilton West after hearing it at Ingersoll. BNSF-BNSF-IC for power.

May 29th, 2006

I took my first foray into the railroad jungle of the Niagara region on a hunt for Trillium. In hours of searching I caught an S-13 and two cars precisely once, missing them on their street running and never finding the other job in spite of hearing it in Port Colbourne.

June 4th, 2006

Returning from visiting family, we stopped to see what was in the yard at Ste-Thérèse, checked out Dorion and caught an AMT commuter train with the new Bombardier bi-levels, went on to Coteau where we found CN #326 with a CN-rental-CN-CSX-CN-CSX lashup, caught CP #239 meeting CP #138 at Belleville, stayed at Cobourg for dinner and a few trains, and caught CP #152 at Newtonville in failing light after just missing the expressway with 2 GP40s! Total: 14 trains shot, a couple more seen, and a few leapfrogged. Not bad for a quick drive home.

June 9th, 2006

Galt yard got a beaver-painted GP38, so I went down to shoot it and CP #424 lifting CP 3097.

June 10th, 2006

We went after and just missed an NS-NS powered CN #392 at Georgetown and then went after a late NS #328 at Hamilton West.

June 14th, 2006

We went to the wood bridge just east of the Junction for CP #424 and CP #141, then to mile 30 for CN #275 and #149. We ran out of time waiting and did not see #149.

June 17th, 2006

We went to Killean for CP #198, Guelph Junction for #141 and #243, and then home for the overheated 33-degree afternoon. We went back in the evening for CP #241 with 4 SOO units.

June 20th, 2006

Steve and I headed down to Galt to see what we could see on the second longest day of the year. Typical for CP, though, most of the traffic waited until after dark to run. We saw CP #424, #243, London pickup, Galt yard job, #137, an eastbound, and #127.

June 23rd, 2006

We went to mile 30 for CN #392 and found a bit of a mess on the Halton. CN #147 reported a tie on fire at Speyside. CN #435 stopped to put it out. CN #382 pulled into the hole at Mansewood for #147. CN #147's lone engine died. CN #392's crew ran out of time at Aldershot and a new crew came on and lifted a unit set off by Via after #70 died yesterday at Brantford. CN #382's crew filed a rest message. CN #435 pulled up to mile 30 to wait for CN #382 to donate a unit to CN #147 without blocking crossings at Speyside. CN #275 pulled up to Georgetown to wait for the mess to be cleared. CN #382 and CN #435 took a rule 567 so #382 could enter #435's block and give #147 its trailing unit, which was an IC and not qualified to lead in Canada. CN #382 took so many rule 564, 566, and 567 authorities, the conductor's pen ran out of ink and he warned the RTC that he would need to start using French forms soon. CN #147 left with CN #382's trailing unit trailing with its dead leader acting as a cab car. CN #435 finally passed us, followed by CN #382, #275, #383, and #392. CN #275 and #383 both reported the tie fire at Speyside. All this because WC 6903 was out of water.

June 30th, 2006

As a result of severe flooding in New York, Pennsylvania, and parts of New England, many detour trains are running on the CN and CP in Canada. We caught CSX #Q380 at the Galt bridge in strong storm lighting.

July 1st, 2006

With a busy day I only made it out for GEXR #432 at the station.

July 4th, 2006

With detours going every which way since Friday, my car decided that it preferred to spend the weekend in the shop. Just my luck, both my scanners were stolen out of my locked car some time over the weekend, complete with the antenna and power cable. It really shakes my faith in humanity. Steve came and got me in the evening, and we went to get a detour train CN #F329 at Aldershot, then got an unknown, but probably detour train heading down the Hamilton sub at Guelph Junction.

August 4th, 2006

Having still not replaced my stolen scanners, I went downtown to see a rail grinder parked in Guelph. To the best of my knowledge no rail grinder has ever been to Guelph before, but LMIX RG309 has been parked in Guelph for three days, apparently coming out at night to grind.

August 12th, 2006

We attended a friend's wedding in Burlington and escaped to the tracks briefly between the wedding and the reception, catching CN #394 with BNSF 134 leading before heading back. It reminded me how much I do enjoy railfanning in spite of my scanner setback. Finding properly priced good scanners around here is proving to be quite tricky (I bought my previous ones in the US).

August 13th, 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.

August 26th, 2006

We went to Radio World and picked up a new scanner and antenna, stopping at mile 30 on the way home to try it out. We spent most of our time trying to figure out how to decode the unclear instruction manual for the non-intuitive ICOM scanner, only getting it tuned to a frequency after the second of two trains (392 and 435) had passed. It took until evening to figure out how to actually make it scan.

August 27th, 2006

The day after two days of rain is generally known as Monday. This weekend has proven to be fairly poor for weather, but we nevertheless took out our new ICOM IC-R20 scanner and Larsen 5/8s wave antenna out to mile 30 to give it a real world test, having finally figured out how to program and use it. We just missed CN #394 with BNSF-only power, catching CN #338, #148, and #393.

September 1st, 2006

We headed for Brattleboro to spend a week with Laura's family, stopping at Bayview to see the latest work on the way out, where we caught CN #398 and VIA #73.

September 16th, 2006

We went down to mile 30 for CN #394 with KCS-TFM for only power, catching CN #385 and #421 within minutes following #394.

September 17th, 2006

Steve picked me up and we went down to Hamilton West for a few hours, catching CN #385, NS #328, CN #331, #390, CN #392, VIA #73, CN #148, VIA #72, CN #394, and CP Barnes Turn.

September 24th, 2006

In a day of foreign power heaven, we only got out in the evening for CP #159 and #424, the latter sporting 7 engines, in the rain.

September 27th, 2006

I stopped to shoot GEXR #580 at CN Guelph Junction while running errands.

October 7th, 2006

We headed down to Bayview for the day where we found more than a dozen other railfans. We caught VIA #70, CN #385, #338, #422, CP #255, CN #392, VIA #73, CN #148, VIA #72, CN #435, #393, and CP #224, the CP steel train, which is not a normal user of the Oakville sub.

October 8th, 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.

October 14th, 2006

CN #394 had BN green whiteface SD60 class unit BNSF 9200 on the lead, which I didn't particularly want to pass up.

October 28th, 2006

Steve picked me up and we took off after an NS 328 described as 4 engines, 60-70 cars. After more than an hour longer than it would normally take to arrive from Ingersoll, we watched it go by on the far side of the wye from Bayview and chased it into Hamilton, barely catching it. Steve counted 91 cars.

November 3rd, 2006

I took Laura to the airport for a dawn flight and stopped for 3 hours and 10 trains at Guelph Junction on the way home: 4 GO, and CPs #158, #147, #257, #256, #524, and #142. Laura took the video camera on her trip.

November 5th, 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.

November 18th, 2006

We went to Guelph station for GEXR #432, then down to Guelph Junction for CP #255, missing it, but catching CPs #424 and #198 in short order.

November 22nd, 2006

QNSL AC4400CWs were sighted on CN #422. This I couldn't pass up.

November 23rd, 2006

The Royal Canadian Pacific, CPR's business train, came to the Galt sub. In spite of nearly blinding fog, an army of railfans went to Guelph Junction for it. My whole day can be summarised as: Guelph Junction: CP #142, RCP, Milton/Trafalgar Road: RCP, CP #243, Scotch Block/mp30: CN #385, #148, #394, #271, Guelph Junction, Moffat, Corwhin, Arkell: OSR northbound chase, Guelph: OSR/GEXR #432, Cambridge/Galt: CP #159, #741, #141, with CP London Pickup working in the background, and CP #257, one unit light power, hiding just out of sight. Not a bad day!

November 24th, 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!

December 9th, 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.

December 15th, 2006

CN #422 had 5 Venezuelan SD70ACes on delivery and CN #394-14 had a KCS SD70ACe on point. Both well worth getting. Trains for the day were VIA #85, CN #271, #422, #148, #394-13, #393, GEXR #432, and #394-14.

December 16th, 2006

Steve took us down to Hamilton for NS #328 and whatever else we could find. We got to the Grimsby sub at around 08:15, in line with when NS #328 would arrive from his 07:15 sighting at Ingersoll, but CN NI dispatcher had other ideas and #328 was stabbed for the Amtrak, VIA #97. With 45 minutes to kill we went over to Kinnear yard and caught CP #135 parked and CP #254 coming in with three new GEVOs as only power before returning to shoot #97 and #328. After that we returned to Kinnear and shot #725 also with a new GEVO meeting CP #254 in quite poor lighting, caught Rail Link working at Hamilton harbour, and watched CN #148 go by from Ham West before going home, as Steve was out of time. CN #385 had a CN leader with KCS 4019 and a WC, and CN #435 had two CN GEVOs and CN 398000, one of two custom built articulated covered hoppers, but we were not able to get either, though we did manage to get a relatively bland GEXR #432 in Guelph.

December 17th, 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 20th, 2006

VIA #85 was well over an hour late resulting in a Guelph meet with GEXR #432. They met just out of sight at mile 49.

December 21st, 2006

With NS #327/#328 in their dying days, I went down to Ingersoll for a late #327. In the afternoon I shot CP London Pickup and #424 at 51.90 Galt sub. Lousy lighting in all cases.

December 23rd, 2006

We went to the Halton sub hoping for CN #278. We caught CN #271 at Silver Junction in Georgetown, CN #278 at Brampton GO station, then, with nothing else in the area, wandered up to Vaughan Intermodal Terminal to see what was happening there. CP #103 showed up shortly after we did with 5 AC4400CWs and 6 autoracks to pick up its intermodal cars, a yard job was working, and CP #104 took off with two SD90/43MACs light power. We returned home via Streetsville, where we just missed a CP eastbound, then headed to mile 30 where we caught CN #393 and #422, the latter being the only CN train of the day lacking foreign power.

December 26th, 2006

I heard a CN #351 with a D6R at Paris Junction. It sounded like he was going east, in spite of the westbound number, so once I figured that out for sure I headed down to Mansewood and chased it up toward Georgetown. It had one engine, a handful of cylindrical hoppers serving as dimensional spacers, and a weird cylindrical thingy in white plastic coverings.

January 2nd, 2007

Jay reported CP #424 by his place with 7 units, 4 of them GEVOs and the last one of two STLH GP38-2s. I shot it at the crossing on Wellington Road 35, with CP 8738 - CP 9535 - CP 9821 - CP 8783 - CP 8741 - CP 8743 - STLH 7306.

January 6th, 2007

Derailment! CP London Pickup picked the north wye switch at Galt yard and put both units on the ground at around 20:30. We went down to see what we could see, catching CP #244 at Killean siding on the way in. Earlier in the day, CN #271 had a UP leader with an unpatched SP SD40 elephant style, but I was unable to see it, and in the afternoon, I tied CP #158 to the nearest crossing to my house on the Galt sub with 2 GEVOs in atrocious lighting and rain.

January 14th, 2007

GEXR #432 had a JT42CWR class 66 between two buffers. I watched it at Guelph Via station but didn't do a particularly good job of shooting it.

January 16th, 2007

CN #351 military extra with CN-UP power came through. I shot it at Ingersoll after missing the head end of CN #331 and shooting CN #392. I caught CP #424 with 8783-1614-6021 on the way home.

January 21st, 2007

Saturday we missed an EMD extra through Guelph. Not wanting to miss it again, we went off to Newtonville in the hope that it would be heading east Sunday. It did, eventually, as CN #436, but by the time it came it was somewhat dark. We saw around 20 other trains through the day as well. Tally for the day: CP westbound, VIA #43, CP westbound, VIA #60, VIA #44, CN 371, CN #149, VIA #57, CP #310, CP #153, VIA, CP #122, CN #874, VIA #46, CP #198, CN #305, missed CN #369 with a DPU, CP #121, CN #363, VIA #66, CN #148, CP #116, CN #376, and CN #436 with 8 class 66s in tow. CN #308, #309, #363, and several others passed or parked while we were at Belleville, but we concentrated on CN #436.

January 28th, 2007

CN #351 dimensional extra was heard at Paris so I headed down to Hamilton West to see it, catching the tail end of CN #435 on arrival there. #351 was effectively identical to the CN #351 I shot on December 26th.

January 31st, 2007

CN #391 went into emergency over the Credit bridge, tieing up the Halton sub for the morning. I headed down to mile 30 when he was finished setting off his bad order car and caught CN #391, #399, #385, #338, #271, and #148 in 70 minutes.

February 3rd, 2007

Steve picked me up and we went to Georgetown for CN #271 and CN #390, both with all-BNSF power, VIA #85 with 6429/Telus, Brampton to meet Dan and see CN #435 with CN 2204 on point and #338, Mount Pleasant GO station for GEXR #432 and CN #393 with a UP GEVO trailing, and back to Georgetown for CN #148 with two consecutively numbered ex-Alstom WCs.

February 10th, 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.

February 19th, 2007

I went to the crossing at 48.04 Galt sub for CP #147, the field just east of highway 6 near east switch Puslinch for CP #257, mile 30 Halton sub for a light power CN #391, Tremaine Road mile 34 of the Galt sub for CP #424 which had a pleasant surprise near the end of the train, back to mile 30 for CN #384, CN #148 - the second of three today - and CN #422, and back to Guelph for GEXR #431 light power. CN #148, normally intermodal, was mostly manifest, CN #422 had CN #550's power helping it as it was too heavy and stalled at Tansley. It took three crews to cross the Halton sub. I missed CN #301, a north end train detouring over the Dundas. The strike has really got CN in a crunch.

February 20th, 2007

A Carajas unit was reported on a flat going through Baden on GEXR #432 so I went after it, shooting OSR with 504-503 elephant style at Victoria Road on the way home.

February 24th, 2007

We went to Mount Pleasant GO for CN #454 with CN-CP power and CN #397 with CN-UP-CN-CEFX(BN), Georgetown for Via #84, Mansewood to see a parked CN #392 with BNSF-EMDX(UP) power, returning home for lunch and other events.

February 25th, 2007

We stopped downtown for GEXR #432.

March 3rd, 2007

We headed down to Cambridge for CP #139, #257, #241, and #198.

March 6th, 2007

D&H 7304 led CP #255. I chased it from Waterdown to Guelph Junction, and chased OSR from Guelph Junction back to Guelph on the way home.

March 8th, 2007

I heard a GEXR train entering the Guelph sub at Kitchener bound for Silver so dropped by Guelph station to see what it was and got blurry shots of GEXR 3821 heading to rescue a stalled #431.

March 9th, 2007

CN #150 and CN #350, two extra trains, were block on block out of Chicago and arrived in this area still block on block. #150 was an extra BNSF intermodal train with BNSF-FXE power and CN #350 was a Canadian Military extra with two UP units. Tally for the day: VIA #70, CN #384, CN #385, CN #150, VIA #73, and CN #350.

March 11th, 2007

Jay warned me about a CP #244 coming wtih CP 8798 leading. Wanting my 100th GEVO, I went for it, shortly finding CP #424 behind it with 6 units, 3 of them some of the less than 20 remaining CP 56xx SD40-2s, then getting CP #159 and #243 block on block westbound. We then headed down to Hamilton West for CN #394 with BNSF-CSXT power, CN #384 with two dimensionals, and migrated westward to Copetown following a CN #547 off to rescue a stalled CN #385, which met #330 at Copetown West before #547 cut off to go back to work at Aldershot. We then moved a couple of miles west, catching CN #385 and CN #394 by the detector at Lynden and finished off the day by checking out the current selection of power parked at Aberdeen yard.

March 15th, 2007

Kevin sounded the alarm on two EF Carajas units on a late GEXR #432. I went down to Guelph VIA station for them.

March 17th, 2007

We went to Brantford for a train dubbed the "NAFTA Express" for its CN-NS-UP-TFM-CSX power, catching CN #391 stopped with a D6R at Brantford, CN #396, #148, VIA #76, CN #392, #385, VIA #675, CN #271, and CN #398.

March 18th, 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.

March 22nd, 2007

I got word that GEXR #432 had 3 EF Carajas export units. As soon as he was over the detector at Breslau I went to Guelph station to get him, finding the weather to be somewhat substantially worse than I would have liked. With the traffic light gods on my side while the weather gods were against me, I got to the station just as the headlights were coming around the corner, put my video camera on the dashboard, and stepped out into the downpour.

March 23rd, 2007

VIA #84 had 6403, the CBC unit in perfect light, and GEXR #432 had 4 EF Carajas units, but I was only able to catch VIA #87 in the evening with VIA 904.

March 24th, 2007

CEFX 101-CEFX 110 led CP #254 which took the Oakville in the evening. I took a chance and went after it, getting VIA #98 (the Amtrak Maple Leaf), CN #599 (SOR steel train), VIA #79, CN #275, CN #385, and finally CP #254, none of them in shootable light... not that it stopped me from trying. We went after #254 at Kinnear yard, but it did a crew change north of the north switch and didn't stop, with CP #255 blocking any chance of viewing it anyway on the passing track.

March 25th, 2007

Greg warned of CN #399 with a war bonnet leading, so we went west for him, getting distracted by CP trains along the way. We caught CP #241 at Killean and again at Woodstock where it and #159 met #240, stopping at Zorra for CP #158 and finally heading down to Ingersoll for CN #385, CN #399, and VIA #73.

March 27th, 2007

GEXR #432 had the last of the EF Carajas SD70Ms, EFC 755. I went for it at Edinburgh Rd in Guelph. #432 stopped to lift traffic directly from GEXR #580, the local road switcher.

March 29th, 2007

I heard CEFX 101 north give a track release through my peaceful early morning slumber and bounded out of bed to get to Guelph Junction for CP #255 with CEFX 101-110 and 252 axles. CP #2254 met him at Guelph Junction and had two rent-a-wrecks for a bonus. No videos today, my video camera can only do one thing at the moment, and that is insist that I eject the tape! Also got Via #85 with the rolling turd (VIA 6414 in Lotto-Quebec scheme) at lunch hour.

April 1st, 2007

CP #242 had CP-SOO-BNSF for power. I went down to Killean to shoot it, getting #139 and #242 at the east switch, and #242 again at Gore Rd crossing and at a field near Wellington Rd 35 in intense rain. Later on, I shot Via #85 in Guelph's West end followed by GEXR #432 with 13 Class 66 export units. No videos.

April 2nd, 2007

CP #424 was reported to have a CEFX SD90/43MAC trailing. I went to see it, but it was a false alarm, which is just as well because the sun disappeared as the engines came into view and I didn't adjust the exposure appropriately.

April 6th, 2007

D&H 7304 was trailing on CP #254-06 having finished its front couplers in repairs in Winnipeg. A few of us went to Guelph Junction for it. CP #424 slipped by behind while #254 was going through the Junction with 8818 and 4 AC4400CWs. Right after they both cleared the signal went back up at Guelph Junction east for CP #242 and we waited nearly an hour for it to turn up, not knowing what was on it and in spite of the miserable weather. It turned up with KCS 653 and 625 in consist 15 cars behind the power! Well worth the wait.

April 14th, 2007

CN #305 came to Toronto on the 13th with 7 ex-QNSL SD40-2CLC units on their way to Chicago. They came out of Mac on CN #399 for which we went to Bayview, where we found him lifting the NS traffic at Aldershot. Back in Guelph we found CN 911 HazMat disaster training car parked behind GEXR 3835 between Alma and Edinburgh roads surrounded by firefighters and police.

April 16th, 2007

CP #240 had a UP trailing and CP #242 had a BNSF trailing. I shot them both within about 10 minutes at the crossing at 51.90 Galt sub.

April 19th, 2007

CP #138 had CP-CP-CSX-BNSF-BNSF-BNSF -- in perfect lighting. I didn't hear it on time though, and tore off after it beating it, for some definitions of beating it, to Trafalgar Rd in Milton, where #147 was crossing the crossing and met #138 just to the east of the crossing. I waited around a couple of minutes for #142 and came home.

April 21st, 2007

In the afternoon we headed down to Guelph Junction for CP #424 with a freshly painted CP GP9u, CP #525 ham turn with 3 units, and CP #127 with a rent-a-wreck trailing a GEVO, then returned to Guelph for GEXR #431.

April 22nd, 2007

We started our day dropping off family at Pearson airport where I got a call that there was a WC unit on 396 going over the Credit. Off we went to Bramalea GO via the 427 just barely tieing the train to the station and shooting it into the sun. From there we went to Georgetown for lunch and got another call, this time about a UP unit on CP #424 through Woodstock so we left without even stopping at the station catching CN #422 at the 10 Sideroad crossing at mile 30 by chance on the way through. We caught #424 at Puslinch, went down to Bayview where we caught CN #431 wyeing, up to Brantford where #580 was working and another phone call, this time about CP #240 through Woodstock with a SOO leader and 2 BNSFs. We rushed up to Cambridge, barely beating it to the bridge. He worked Cambridge for a while, lifting a unit, and then went off to make a brief set off at Guelph Junction. After getting #240 at Guelph Junction we went to mile 30 for CN #148 with a ratty war bonnet trailing and then came home.

April 24th, 2007

Wanting to enjoy some sunlit trains before the next week long round of rain hits I shot GEXR #431 at Alma Rd and VIA #87 a few minutes behind him at the viaduct.

April 26th, 2007

Derailment! GEXR #580 derailed 6 cars at the exact same spot GEXR #580 derailed on October 22nd, 2003. I went to check it out about an hour after it happened when 4046 came to rescue the tail end cars and open the Edinburgh Rd crossing at 11:00, again around 17:30, and one last time around 22:00 when I found 3 cars still derailed with the crew all having gone home for the night.

April 27th, 2007

GEXR and PNR crews continued their efforts to put GEXR #580's derailed cars back on the tracks. After another whole day of work, three cars remain derailed -- all the ones that were still derailed last night -- GEXR 3835 is dead, a pair of cranes are on site, part of the grade crossing is ripped up, and a covered hopper has been deposited into a hole left by a removed tie, unlikely to move again any time soon. Calling Hulcher might have been easier...

April 28th, 2007

GEXR #580's derailment cleanup continues... the tank car was finally rerailed Friday night but by mid day two covered hoppers remained on the ground. We also went to get CP #241 (missed the power) and CP #242 at east siding switch Killean. 242 had a CSX SD40-2 trailing.

May 1st, 2007

CP #424 had CP-CSX-CSX-CP power and #198 was on his block. I headed down to Puslinch for the pair in spite of the weather. I shot GEXR #431 in the evening.

May 5th, 2007

We went to mile 30 for CN #396 with CN-UP(SP)-UP-IC(CN) and CN #399 with CN-NS, waited around for CN #148 with sequentially numbered units and CN #393, then went to Campbellville hill for what I believe was CP #424, and Galt for CP #198 - which we missed, CP #243, and CP #257.

May 6th, 2007

CP #242 had 2 rebuilt Cartier units. I got them at Puslinch and again at Trafalgar, and returned home before 09:00. Later, I went down to Killean for CP #152, and in the afternoon I went down to mile 30 for CN #338, #148, #392, #393, and #398. On my way home I heard about a CN #396 with UP-UP-NS-BNSF power coming but it was too late for me to catch it or the CN #435 with a BC Rail unit trailing that took the Oakville sub.

May 12th, 2007

We went to Guelph Junction for CP #255, down to Bayview for CN #422, CP #254, VIA #73, CN #331, CP #426, VIA #72, leapfrogged CN #271 between Hamilton West and Bayview, and continued with CN #396, #148, #333, #393, #435, back to Guelph Junction for CP #427, and Puslinch for CP #722 with 20 ballast cars, CP #198, #243, #525, and up to Guelph for GEXR #431.

May 17th, 2007

Mike reported #241 with brand new GEVO 8849 trailing, #243 with a BNSF trailing, and Jay reported CP #242 with another BNSF trailing. With #254 sitting at the ski hill waiting for #427 I figured I might as well get down to Guelph Junction for the parade. I very narrowly missed 241, but got the other four in short order.

May 19th, 2007

I went down to the Galt sub for #159 and #243, catching them quickly and returning home. After lunch I went back out, getting GEXR #432 in Guelph, and CN #396, #148, and #435 at mile 30.

May 20th, 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.

May 21st, 2007

We went to the berms at Aldershot for Schnabel move CN #388, getting VIA #70 while we waited, then headed to chase it passing CN #399 with a DMIR unit in fourth, so we turned around and went back to Bayview for that. After #399 we headed up toward Georgetown to get ahead of #388 again, getting him at 3rd line, 5th line where he met CN 435, 6th line, and Maple Ave where he met VIA #85. From there we hit the road again and went up to Palgrave on the Mactier sub for CP #434 with two RLK HR412, catching CP #106 pulling into Bolton on the way back. Not bad for a few hours out.

May 26th, 2007

We went to Guelph Junction for #255, #141, and #243 and mile 30 for CN #392. CP #243 had a UP Genset and a Utah-bound Bombardier bi-level coach.

May 27th, 2007

We went to Palgrave for CP 222-25 with the MPEX 601 (new GO MP40), working our way north to Alliston waiting to hear it come. It did come, after many hours, in a rain storm. We got it at Ypres and again at Spence (Alliston Honda storage yard), but were not able to get it again further south as he was a straight shot to Toronto yard. We also got the SSR at the start of the day and GEXR #431 when we got back to Guelph.

May 28th, 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.

June 1st, 2007

We cut across through Hawksbury on our way to visit family, finding VIA #32 at Glen Robertson near Alexandria on the VIA Alexandria sub on the way through.

June 3rd, 2007

On our way home, we stopped at Coteau for CN #327 with all foreign power and VIA #61, before heading to the town of Rivière-Beaudette for CN #149, Lancaster across the border in Ontario for CN #362, and back on the 401 to make at least some progress toward home. We got off at Belleville just missing CN #321, so got back on and went to Cobourg for VIA #66, CN #321, CN #368, a very silent CP eastbound, CN #149 with more cars than it had when we saw it a few hours earlier, CN #305 with a D6R and another Via.

June 8th, 2007

I went to Guelph Junction for CP #427 with CP 8858-8859, the last two GEVOs in the most recent order and in a blank paint scheme. On the way I shot CP #159 off Gore Rd, CP #424 at 46.76 near west switch Puslinch, and OSR, CP Guelph Junction Turn, CP Ham Turn, CP #424, CP #427, and CP #154 at Guelph Junction, then saw CP #141 near east switch Puslinch on the way home.

June 9th, 2007

We went to Puslinch for CPs 147, 240, 142, 198, across to mile 30 for CN 435 and 384, up to Georgetown for lunch and CN 422, GEXR 432, CN 392 and 393, back to Guelph Junction for CP 424, another 198, 141, and 243 with two UPY GenSets and across to Ayr for 243 setting off those same UPY GenSets for a reason that remains a mystery to me and London Pickup, catching CP 241 at mileboard Killean on the way home.

June 10th, 2007

A curious detour VIA #72 passed through Guelph at exactly 16:00 with 6446-4 LRC coaches-6406 facing west- 4 LRC coaches.

June 14th, 2007

CP #243 had UPY 2691 middle unit -- finally one travelling with the power. I couldn't pass it up and ducked down to mile 51 Galt sub, the closest point to home, for #138, #243, and #159.

June 26th, 2007

After over a week in the UK for a conference we weren't done yet and immediately headed off to Ottawa for another. These few photos were all I was awake for on the trip there.

July 1st, 2007

Returning from Ottawa after 16 days of madness, we shot CP #221 and another sitting in Smith's Falls yard on the way through on VIA #45.

July 10th, 2007

I went to the station to watch GEXR #432 for my first train since the end of my trip.

July 15th, 2007

Mike warned of 5 UPY gensets on 2-241 by West Toronto diamond at 16:07. We headed down to Galt bridge for them, shooting them in overcast conditions.

July 17th, 2007

CN leader on CP 147. Say no more.

July 19th, 2007

I was warned of a nice lashup on 241-19 and went to the field at Gore Rd and 35 for it and Ham Turn. 241 had 524 axles, Ham Turn was light power.

July 20th, 2007

I ran down to Galt bridge for a few minutes to catch CP 242 with 4 CN units, 198, and the ballast train on the bridge. The clouds got me for the first two, though. In the evening, I ran back down to Galt bridge for CP 240 with 2 more CN units, catching another eastbound on my way home.

July 21st, 2007

We went to mile 30 for the afternoon, seeing far more railfans and planes - including a B-25 - than trains. CN #385, #394, #435, #393 provided our trains for the day.

July 23rd, 2007

I missed the train of the month on the Galt sub as it was through the Junction before 7 in the morning, with 2 CN and 6 BNSF units with no CP power on CP 242-21. In the evening the two CNs returned on 241-23 and I went down to Galt bridge for them.

July 24th, 2007

CP 198-19 had 4 UP Green Goats and a beat up old UP SD40 lettered for Railpower. I shot London Pickup, 424, 198, and 158 at Galt bridge.

July 28th, 2007

We stopped for an hour at Vaughan Intermodal Terminal for an hour on our way to a gathering near Markham, catching CP #103, CP #102, and an extra Emery job.

July 29th, 2007

Around 20 of us went to mile 30 for the afternoon, seeing CN #271, #338, #148, #393, #392, and dimensional move X350.

August 12th, 2007

After visiting friends in Whitby, we went up to Stacey Rd in Newtonville for a couple of hours, catching VIA #44, CN #371, VIA #57, and CP #122 before getting rained out.

August 18th, 2007

We went to Guelph station for VIA #84 and #85, and Georgetown for CN #384, #148, #422, #398, GEXR #432, CN #393, #394, #435, GEXR #431, and VIA #87.

August 19th, 2007

We went to Guelph station for VIA #84, #85, GEXR #432 with 9 EMD export units, and GEXR #431 with a freshly painted new scheme Saskatchewan grain car.

September 8th, 2007

Steve and I headed down to Galt station for a couple of hours to see what was happening. When we got there, we found CP 138 getting ready to leave and were not able to get out ahead of it, Galt yard job, and CPs #243 and #241 both with rent-a-wrecks.

September 15th, 2007

We went up to Radio World at 400/Steeles to pick up an antenna to replace the one we lost on our trip. We met up with a friend there and all headed down to Bartlett St. in Toronto on the CP North Toronto sub before heading to Guelph Junction on our way home.

October 6th, 2007

Near the end of a tiring election campaign against the ill-conceived concept of Mixed Member Proportional representation in Ontario, I escaped to Guelph station on a rainy day for GEXR #432. In spite of new Alaska units on CN, CSX detours on CP, new CN units showing up from both GE and EMD, and ETR 9 doing regular steam excursions in Waterloo, I've not escaped to the tracks other than for this one train in the last month due to the election and home renovations. But worry not, I'll be back!

October 21st, 2007

EMD export special! We went to Breslau bridge for GEXR X432 with a set of Europe-bound Class 66s, beating him to Guelph station account of a meet with Via #85.

October 31st, 2007

OSR ran an extra up to Guelph with just 506 and CP 24, a heavy coach. I took a few minutes to shoot it at Corwhin.

November 10th, 2007

We headed down to Galt for CP #722 with a pair of GP9s ahead of bigger power and racks.

November 23rd, 2007

Sunlight! And a few minutes to escape! At the same time! Unheard of lately. I ran off to East Switch Puslinch for an hour catching 2 eastbounds and a westbound, with a good assortment of rental power, on CP.

November 24th, 2007

I went to Guelph station for Via #85.

November 25th, 2007

EMD move! Algerian and French EMD units came through after meeting 85 in Kitchener.

December 1st, 2007

After a lazy morning and lunch we headed down to Guelph Junction to see what we could see, getting CP #159, #138, #255, #427, #249/525 combined, #424, and #254.

December 5th, 2007

I went to Guelph Junction to get CP's Holiday Train, only to find that it was not posing anywhere publically shootable but hiding out on the inaccessible west leg of the wye. After shooting it leaving, I got gas and meandered over to Galt to shoot it posed on the bridge after its show at the station. I had a grand plan: I would take a video of it entering the bridge, swap cameras on the tripod, take long exposures, swap cameras, take a video of it exiting the bridge. Only one flaw in my plan: it did not stop for the antiicipated 5 minutes, but only for around 20 seconds -- just long enough for me to swap tripod mount screws. My desperate, unfocused, failed shots of the tail end of the train as it disappeared have been left to allow you to share in my frustration at that moment.

December 19th, 2007

We left home around 10 am, almost immediately finding a CP train with an NREX unit at Puslinch on our way by on highway 6. After crossing into the US, we followed the Falls Road railway from Lockport to Brockport, ending up in Rochester.

January 3rd, 2008

Returning home from our trip we stopped at Coteau for CN 308, watched helplessly from the restaurant window as a CNish looking GP38-2W worked an industry in Cornwall and then shot it parked and backlit next to a fast food joint after we finished lunch, finishing off with shooting CN 376 coming into Belleville.

January 19th, 2008

We went to the Ice Wine Festival's Jordan booth, stopping to take a look at the ill-fated "La Grande Hermine" on the way in, and catching a Toronto-bound Via on the way to our next errand.

February 3rd, 2008

I got X432 with several G26MC-2 export units for PJKA (Indonesia - Perusahaan Jawatan Kereta Api) and a handful of JT42CWR Class 66s for EuroCargo Rail at Brampton diamond on my way home from a meeting.

February 18th, 2008

DETOURS! A wreck at Aldershot East sent three CN freights and countless VIAs over the GEXR Guelph sub. Naturally I spent the day at Guelph station. Last detours were five years previous, almost to the day. The day started with VIA #82 coming through Guelph station ahead of VIA #84-#70, followed by VIA #85, a chase of GEXR #580 down the Fergus sub, VIA #73 and #72 meeting at Guelph, CN #396, CN #394, VIA #75, VIA #87-#83, and CN #392 with 2 UPs to finish it up. In the cold weather, I had finished off all my camera batteries by #392 and my still camera gave out after shooting the lead unit on the train which had CN-UP-UP-CN-CN for power. Re-using an almost-dead battery got me through the end of the evening.

February 23rd, 2008

In the morning, we got GEXR X432, 6 units light power on the way to Toronto from the farmers' market. In the afternoon we caught it coming back as a potash unit train on our way to the airfield for me to do a checkout flight in C-GQRA. While my instructor and I flew around, Laura sat in the back and took photos, mostly of the controversial Lafarge lands in the core of Guelph.

March 15th, 2008

After having not seen a train in nearly a month -- see my blog for what's been keeping me entertained in the interim -- I finally got a day out at the tracks. We went to Guelph Junction for CP #245 and CP #247, headed down to Aldershot for CN #421, a GO train, and VIA #72, up to Burlington West for a train whose identity I never did solve, #435, a bunch of GO trains - two of them with the new MP40s leading, VIA #92, CN #556 working at Burlington West, CN #421 impersonating NS #328, and CP #426 just north of the 71.2 detector on the Hamilton sub on the way home.

March 22nd, 2008

CN #338 was reported to have a BCOL C44-9W and 3 on-delivery GEVOs. I went down to Bayview to wait for it, but it died at Port Robinson. Instead, I shot new GO MP40s 603 and 605, and around 5 CNs over the course of the morning.

March 29th, 2008

We went to mile 30 for about 4 hours, catching CN #392, #399, #393, a CWR train, and #338.

April 27th, 2008

We headed down to Cambridge, tieing CP #159 to the crossing at 50.05 Galt sub. CP #244 came over Galt bridge with a CEFX bluebird leading. From there we went to Ingersoll for OSR's Salford shops to see the CP MP15s that have come in, finding two there next to the TH&B unit, and the other two tucked away in a spur in Mount Elgin. From there we headed back to Ingersoll for lunch and CN #385, then up to Stratford where we just barely caught GEXR #433 leaving town light power before returning home. Hopefully it's not another entire month before I get out again!

May 4th, 2008

We went to mile 30 to see what we could see. CN #338 came up with an LMS, and CN #399 went down with a UP ES44AC, but mostly mile 30 was full of railfans, with 8 cars worth by the time I left. As we were leaving, CN #394 called the signal at Tansley and we got it at Derry Rd by the detector. Derry Rd was still surrounded by fields the last time I was there, but there is a rather substantial development going in there now.

May 11th, 2008

GEXR has received 3 6-axle units which means some of its 4-axle power is going to be distributed to other RailAmerica lines. I went to Stratford to find what I could of them, chasing GEXR #431 to London. There it lifted 10 EuroCargo Rail Class 66s and returned as GEXR #432, which I dutifully chased home.

May 24th, 2008

D&H 7312 trailing on CP #254. Need I say more?

June 14th, 2008

We took a sold out 06:25 VIA #652 from Aldershot to Dorval for a family function on the West Island.

June 15th, 2008

We took the express VIA #67 from Dorval back to Aldershot. We saw our first CP olympic unit between Colborne and Grafton on the Belleville sub.

June 21st, 2008

Annual Bayview meet! I've missed the Bayview meet for the last several years as I've usually been away the day it's held, but I got there this year, as did more than a record 40 other local railfans, including most of the 'railfan chat' regulars. The trains were not that prolific, but a good time was had all around. CN 385, 396, 422, 148, 399, 435, and 393 (no photos) plus the usual Vias went through while I was there. CP Galt sub was much busier thanks to some detours and I narrowly missed a 117 car empty coal train coming out of Puslinch on my way home.

June 22nd, 2008

I went to Guelph Junction for a few hours in the afternoon, catching 6 eastbounds in mediocre weather.

June 28th, 2008

We went on an Alco hunting expedition for the Canada Day long weekend, starting with the BSOR, NYLE, and WNYP with a stop at Angola for CSX and NS along the way.

June 30th, 2008

Using information from the fine folks at the Rochester and Genesee Valley Railroad Museum, we returned to Sodus first thing in the morning and asked at Ontario Midland's office what the itinerary was for the day. We found the northbound OMID outside Newark as it departed the interchange at about 10:30 and then took off to Avon to find the Livonia, Avon, and Lakeville where we expected to find them switching. They had already taken off and so we headed back to Henrietta to find them and some lunch at MacGregor's, whose parking lot backs on to the LAL-CSX connecting track. After CSX Q377 and Q393 passed, the LAL came back southbound, and we headed back to Avon to get them returning to town, the tracks being too fast to chase. From there we headed home, catching CP #426 and #155 near Guelph Junction and GEXR #432 at Wellington Rd 29 back in Guelph. A perfect end to a perfect trip.

July 5th, 2008

We went to Guelph Junction and mile 30 for a few hours. We saw CP #241 get scannered (hotwheel, axle 47) at 42.6 and it was shortly followed by #159. At mile 30 we got CN #148, #435, and #338 with WSX 302. Back at CP we wrapped up the day with #2245 meeting an eastbound at Puslinch.

July 22nd, 2008

We took Via 84 and 44 to Ottawa for OLS.

July 27th, 2008

We took Via 45 and 87 home after a week in Ottawa for OLS.

August 4th, 2008

In Guelph, the August long weekend is now known as John Galt Day. These are shots taken by me and my wife of the move of the handcars GHRA ran, borrowed from the historical railway group in Palmerston, and then only by my wife of the festivities -- and of course of VIA #85 crossing the viaduct.

August 21st, 2008

Guelph's new tourist train's first test run was sponsored by Sleeman and ran south from the River Run Centre with a number of VIPs. I took a few minutes to shoot it, the first passenger train this century on the Guelph Junction Railway, passing under the Goderich-Exeter viaduct over the river, then waited a few minutes for OSR 182 with one plastics car and VIA 85 to pass. Had 85 been running on schedule, I would have shot it in the same frame as OSR 182 -- the holy grail of Guelph railfanning.

September 7th, 2008

With our by-election in Guelph cancelled by a Prime Minister who can't keep his word on anything one day before voting day in favour of a general election, I took off to London to chase an EMD extra with 17 JT42CWR locomotives bound for France and Germany.

October 18th, 2008

For my first trainspotting excursion since the federal election was called, we took a few hours at mile 30. We caught CN #435 there, a 39x eastbound, X392 at Mansewood, and #547 working the Glass spur.

October 19th, 2008

I went to Alma to shoot GEXR #580 heading up the Guelph North Spur with 3 cars for Traxxside (formerly Bio-pro), went off on an errand, and caught them leaving town light power.

October 22nd, 2008

Needing a poutine fix, I headed to Pierre's Poutine on Macdonnell, easily the best poutine west of the Quebec border, and then went over to Guelph station for GEXR #432. While we were waiting for it to come through Guelph, OSR indicated on the radio that the Guelph Junction Express was coming to a stop at the River Run. A few minutes later, 432 went through the station and the GJE arrived, and I missed a chance to shoot them together on/under the viaduct. I then chased the GJE back to Victoria Rd on its way home.

November 29th, 2008

With only a month left in a crazy year, I headed down to mile 30 for a bit to get out. CN 382, 393, 422, and 338 came in short order and, with nothing else coming, I went back home. 382 was a bit of a sign of the times, operating with three engines and one single freight car.

December 2nd, 2008

Trevor picked me up and we headed down to Killean ahead of the CP Holiday Train, which crossed the 42.6 detector as we crossed the 401. It came in relatively short order with my camera declaring "ERR 99" as the train entered the frame. From there we headed down to Galt where the show was taking place and parked down by the bridge. We set up for the annual bridge shot, and at the end of the show, the train took off without stopping on the bridge. Can't, apparently, have everything.

January 10th, 2009

I finally took some track time and went to Gore Rd at mile 50 of the Galt sub for CP 147 and another westbound, and over to mile 30 for CN 385, 339, and 422.

January 24th, 2009

Steve called me to let me know that 580 had just left Cambridge with a dimensional. I took off down highway 24 and saw it crossing ahead of me at the crossing. I went back for it at Wellington Rd 32, and then waited for the light there to change. It never did, and after several minutes I turned south on highway 24 and turned around, going to CN Guelph Junction for it coming off the Fergus sub and heading west on the Guelph.

February 7th, 2009

We got an early start, leaving Guelph at 6:30, and chased a plow run from Stratford to Goderich on the GEXR. We then returned to Stratford to shoot some parked Class 66s (in tarps) and some KCS units in the yard, then headed to Zorra where we reported a defective crossing and shot CP 153, 138, T69, and 245. From there we went to Ingersoll and shot VIA 76 and CN X368, an army move that I did not know was coming. We chased that to Creditville and called it a (good) day.

February 21st, 2009

We went to Ingersoll for a wedding and stopped at the station for a few between it and the reception.

February 22nd, 2009

We heard about an EMD move of Egyptian Class 66s and went to Guelph station for them. We got the GJE leaving southbound and then began the waiting game. After several hours, we received word that the train was stopped in Stratford and went home, and immediately got word it had left. Trevor and I headed up to Breslau to get it and then chased it back to Guelph before calling it a day.

March 14th, 2009

I went to Wolverton to see the new yard there, just missing 152 and T69. Heard T69 switching at Ayr and went for it there, barely catching it, then headed to Paris, just missing 385, then to Killean for T69 one more time on the way home.

March 15th, 2009

We went to east switch Puslinch for an eastbound and #243 with two GEVOs.

March 22nd, 2009

We took off on a cloudy morning to Guelph Junction, found silent tracks, and moved over to mile 30. CN 339 and 385 came through in short order and we took off back to Puslinch to see a 7000 foot 243 meet an eastbound. We didn't make it to Puslinch in time to get 243 arriving, and chased it to Galt where it had to set off two units. As soon as 243 cleared the bridge, the sun came out and remained out for the rest of the day, and, as a consequence, that was the last train we could find in four more hours out.

April 11th, 2009

With a serious case of cabin fever setting in and beautiful weather outside, we went to the Galt sub for an unidentified westbound, came back for lunch, then went to mile 30 for an eastbound and rerouted CN Q199. With nothing else in the area we headed up to Tottenham to shoot the South Simcoe tourist train and then went to VIT for a southbound before returning home.

April 16th, 2009

On my way back from errands I ran across OSR at Woolwich/Speedvale heading north, so turned to follow them and shot them (video only) crossing Woodlawn, then chased 580 back down to Alma St./CN Guelph Junction and went home.

April 21st, 2009

Greg warned of a CN 5722-CN 5244-AMT 270-AMT 293-GOT 521-GOT 533-GOT 524-GOT 522-GOT 529-GOT 534 lashup on 422. I went to mile 30 for it and shot it between sunspots and rainshowers.

April 23rd, 2009

I went down to London for an interview, and stopped at EMD to see what was up on the way back. I then took the scenic route following the Guelph sub home, and narrowly missed VIA 85 on the St. Mary's viaduct and saw a very short 433 leaving Stratford not worth stopping to shoot (4019 + two cars).

April 25th, 2009

The Guelph Historical Railway Association put on a rare miles tour with the Guelph Junction Express, runnint into the industrial tracks in Guelph and doing two photo runbys. I volunteered on the train and took a few photos and some short video clips while not otherwise occupied using my wife's point-and-shoot camera rather than the bulky SLR I normally use.

May 11th, 2009

Returning home from New Hampshire we stopped for the night in Henrietta, NY. In the morning we chased the LAL from the RGVRRM museum back into Henrietta, then went back to the museum to pick up my sunglasses which I realised in Henrietta I had left on the trunk.... they were present, on the road, and had miraculously not been run over. From there we went over to R&S' tracks, found them shiny but with no indication as to where or how far away a train was, and pushed on to Brockport on the Falls Road, which we followed fruitlessly back to Lockport where we found a CSX local leaving. From there we went to Depew, missed 3 as we approached, and caught 377 and 63. Back in Canada a few minutes later we caught CP 254 at Guelph Junction and watched VIA 87 while our pizza was baked at a nearby pizzeria.

May 24th, 2009

Steve picked me up and we went to Galt to see what we could find in an hour. We caught an eastbound, fruitlessly chased Hagey job, and found some MoW equipment working a tie replacement program at the Highway 24 crossing on the Fergus sub.

June 1st, 2009

I headed down to mile 30 to catch up with a once stalwart local railfan returning for a visit and caught CN 384, 148, and 339.

July 24th, 2009

I waited at Erindale GO to pick a friend up from work nearby to go to Parry Sound for his bachelor party, only seeing a single GO train while I waited.

July 25th, 2009

I spent the day around Parry Sound, based out of Oastler Lake Provincial Park, catching 3 CP intermodals, all with DPU, at Reynolds, the connection point between CN and CP for the Parry Sound<->Sudbury directional running.

July 26th, 2009

A 'blue banana', a Babcock and Wilcox 505-ton steam generator component, the first in about 5 years, spent 9 days sitting in the yard at Guelph. I received a report shortly after waking up in Parry Sound that it had left Guelph at 08:40. With the help of MDC, I was able to intercept it at Bramalea GO station with about one minute to spare. It spent the rest of the day winding its way down to Toronto harbour. While I had originally planned to chase it, the extremely bad weather dissuaded me.

August 1st, 2009

I went up to Sarnia for Mischa's wedding, stopping for 394 just short of the city, missing 383 and 397 and getting 385 and 301 at the Via station, all back/cloudlit.

September 3rd, 2009

I received a scramble for an EMD extra coming into Guelph with assorted export units and got it just after sunset at Guelph station along with Steve, Chris, Bill, and Trevor. The train had: HLCX 6091-HLCX 6522-EMDX 11002-Veolia Transport (France) 077501-077502-077503-Egyptian Railways 2157-AAST2-2161-2159-2154-2150-2151-2155-2152-2158-2160-2162-2156-2149-2153-2163-EMDX 11001.

October 8th, 2009

With a few hours to kill on a rare beautiful but cool day, I went to mile 30 and Guelph Junction to meet Mischa and see what would come. CN #392 was first up with a BCOL C40-8M, then saw CP #525, #426, #242, and #421.

November 8th, 2009

I went flying over lunch hour and saw the Guelph Junction Express, then later went back out for GEXR X431 with the recently arrived FEC unit at the Alma St crossing.

November 16th, 2009

I was downtown at the right place at the right time for OSR heading southbound with three rockets by the River Run Centre, and then caught GEXR 431 with 2 CN units at last light at the station before going home for the day.

November 26th, 2009

Trevor had American Thanksgiving off and so picked me up first thing in the morning to head up to Goderich and see what was happening. We left the house a little after 9, catching Via 84 at P&H in Breslau. P&H's sign is gone and there's a rezoning application at the facility, but the backtrack is still full of grain hoppers. After that, we hopped over to the bridge coming into Kitchener and saw GEXR 580, found nothing at the station in Kitchener, and went on to Stratford where we found 433 with 4001-6061 preparing to head east. We went back to Shakespeare to shoot 433 on the bridge over Highway 7, got out of the car, and heard a loud hissing noise. We abandoned the chase and returned to Stratford to rectify the rapidly flattening tire and have lunch. It worked out well, as when the car was ready and we had eaten, 433 returned from Kitchener. We shot it working and then shot 85 at the station, then pushed on to Goderich, where we happened upon the two CN units GEXR is using moments before they headed into the salt mine. Don't know the last time CN power worked that mine...

November 29th, 2009

Got a scramble wakeup call at dawn that a Canadian Forces extra was westbound by West Toronto. Went to Puslinch for it, but was fogged in, so shot it (no video) at Galt bridge.

January 30th, 2010

Steve needed to go down to Hamilton to pick something up, so he picked me up and we hit the Steel City's industrial tracks. We shot 3 QNSL SD40s parked in the harbour area, CP 426, CN probably 421, and SOR working at Stelco with three geeps. Not bad for an unplanned outing!

February 20th, 2010

Mischa and I went down to Hamilton for the morning. We didn't find anything in Hamilton, owing largely to a pub that took nearly an hour to bring burgers to the table, but did get two at Guelph Junction.

April 1st, 2010

Travelling to visit family for the long weekend, we stopped at Belleville to shoot CN #369, and took a few minutes at Dorion to see the AMT commuter train rush.

April 18th, 2010

CN #525 passed through Georgetown station with mostly new boxcars from NSC as I waited to pick a friend up on the GO bus.

May 29th, 2010

The evening of the 28th, Mischa and I went to Guelph station to watch GEXR 432. Months after the arrival of GSCX 7362 and 7369 from the NECR, I still had not seen them running. True to form, the unusual happened right in front of me. We decided to watch the train from the east edge of the Walker Building parking lot at the west end of the Guelph viaduct. Right in front of us, about 6000 feet back, we heard a pop and saw the hosebag separate between two cars. Moments later, 432 was stopped in emergency and, being the good foaming samaratins we are, we took off to try and find the head end to alert them to the reason for their emergency brake application. After rendering the crew assistance in moving around the two kilometre long train to repair it, 432 set off for Toronto with 3 cars jettisoned in the out-of-service Guelph siding. The next day, I shot a very short X432 lifting the cars which were repaired over night after stopping at the farmers' market for my week's vegetables.

June 3rd, 2010

I stopped at Guelph Junction for a few minutes, missing 243 and catching 421 with 3 SD40-2s.

June 15th, 2010

With only a few days left before I moved out of Guelph, CN 6167 was finally moved across the tracks to its new home as part of the city's new Transit Hub. I was only able to watch a few minutes of the progress.

July 29th, 2010

We took off after CN 396 with an EJE unit catching it at Lynden Junction and again at Aldershot station.

October 23rd, 2010

I went down to Cornwall to have dinner with an old friend from high school and ran across a Baldwin electric parked next to Brookdale Ave that I am pretty sure was not there last time I went to the city.

February 17th, 2011

With a few hours to kill, I finally made my way down to Smiths Falls to see what there was to see, seeing one intermodal heading west, two Vias, and the yard job. Being somewhat rusty I did not catch any of the symbols.

February 19th, 2011

We stopped near highway 138 to catch a CP on the Winchester sub on our way to Montreal, but missed three in the process.

August 13th, 2011

After an extended trainless period and with the death of my as-yet unreplaced Tamron 18-200MM superzoom lens, I finally got out to the tracks southbound out of Ottawa via Bank St to the St. Lawrence, picking up a westbound stack train at Winchester on CP, CN #377 at Iroquois, and an assortment of Vias in the Brockville area. Years after the first one went into service (and was subsequently wrecked), I finally shot one of the rebuilt VIA F40PHs.

December 12th, 2011

I took a breather from my chaotic Ottawa life to test my new camera on CP and CN and on some aircraft at CYOW on the way back up. I learned on my lone CN that my camera's mode dial is much easier to knock than its predecessor and blew the approach shot completely. Overall, big fan of the new camera, though! Keep an eye on the site in early January, should be quite a bit of interesting new material from the holidays...

May 19th, 2012

We were in Brockville for the afternoon and caught 5 trains at the Via station. No video.

December 24th, 2012

Stopped in Brockville.

May 25th, 2013

We stopped for two in Newtonville on our way through breaking a very long trainspotting drought, and then stumbled across the Toronto Railway Historical Association's Doors Open display when we got downtown, which we were not expecting.

April 29th, 2015

In Guelph for the nomination meeting, I took a few minutes to go shopping in nearby Kitchener and found 432 working in the yard. Returning to Guelph, we found 580 waiting on the Goderich sub to get past a work block.

November 10th, 2015

Steve picked me up from a conference in Toronto and insisted that we stop and see the switching operation servicing the Casco plant in Cardinal, Ontario on our way to Ottawa.

May 24th, 2016

I took Via from Ottawa to Toronto to connect with Via #1 to Winnipeg.

May 25th, 2016

I took Via #1 from Toronto to Winnipeg.

November 27th, 2016

We went to Merrickville for the 18th annual Canadian Pacific Holiday Train.

November 4th, 2017

On the way back from a family party in Brockville, we chased on odd sounding horn to Cardinal.

November 27th, 2017

Mishiel went to Smiths Falls for the CP Holiday Train.

November 8th, 2021

I met with a colleague to do some work near Newtonville, catching CP 142 with a light rail set heading east on the Belleville sub as we prepared to head back.