Background image
The world of trains according to David Graham

Railfan information

Places

Aerial Photography
Africa
- Kenya
Americas
- Bahamas
- Canada
-- Alberta
-- British Columbia
-- New Brunswick
-- Nova Scotia
-- Ontario
-- Quebec
-- Saskatchewan
- USA
-- Alabama
-- California
-- Connecticut
-- Delaware
-- Florida
-- Georgia
-- Illinois
-- Indiana
-- Iowa
-- Kansas
-- Louisiana
-- Maine
-- Maryland
-- Massachusetts
-- Michigan
-- Mississippi
-- Nebraska
-- New Hampshire
-- New Jersey
-- New York
-- North Carolina
-- Ohio
-- Oklahoma
-- Pennsylvania
-- South Carolina
-- Texas
-- Vermont
-- Virginia
-- Washington DC
-- West Virginia
Asia
- Hong Kong
- South Korea
- Taiwan
At Sea
Europe
- Austria
- Belgium
- France
- Germany
- Holland
- Italy
- Liechtenstein
- Switzerland
- UK
-- England
-- Scotland
-- Wales

Latest by month

All years

Other indices

3127 results for Americas,Canada,Quebec; refer to date index:

2004-06-28

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.

2004-12-19

December 19th, 2004

Travelling from Ste-Agathe, QC (the site of the Ste-Agathe sub, abandonned in the late 1980s) where I grew up to the US, we stopped at Ste-Thérèse yard, near a recently abandonned and torn down GM car factory and the site of a CP-QGRY interchange, then on to Beaconsfield and across the border to the origin of Amtrak's Vermonter at St. Albans.

2004-12-29

December 29th, 2004

On the final leg of our trip from home to Quebec to Vermont and back, we saw a CN train with 3 CN units and 2 CSX units heading East on the Kingston sub just West of Montreal. Frustrated, we went to the tracks at Coteau Junction. There we caught wheel service work, and a CN freight with a BC Rail dash 9 in second place, pretty well making up for missing the CSX engines.

2005-06-12

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.

2005-07-24

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.

2005-09-07

September 7th, 2005

We headed from my parents' place in Quebec to Laura's parents' place in Brattleboro, Vermont via the scenic route. While Laura had a meeting in Montreal, I spent an hour on the pedestrian bridge in Beaconsfield where I caught 6 trains from 4 companies (CP, CN, AMT, Via), with one foreign unit for good measure. We went to eat on the border between the burroughs of St-Henri and Verdun in Montreal and caught a CN TankTrain unit train heading through town on our way to find food. After that, Laura and I headed to Farnham in the townships to see what Montreal, Maine, and Atlantic had to offer. We found a pair of MMA-lettered GEs switching the yard there but not too much else. From there we went across the border to St. Albans where we caught NECR train 324 leaving town. We heard it get a clearance to Milton to meet a northbound. We did beat it to Milton, but then didn't find the tracks. By the time we found the tracks, we watched the train go by from five or six cars back at the grade crossing line up and didn't try to photograph it. We then found the train it was meeting, which turned out to be a unit train of 6-bay hoppers, but we found no roads to the head end of the train.

2005-12-17

December 17th, 2005

On our way to visit my family, we stopped at Coteau for a few hours, venturing twice up to De Beaujeu's diamond for CP trains. We saw an eastbound with CN 2205, CN #327 with 2 CSX units, #149 with a BNSF, a westbound with ONT 2105, CP #107 with a DPU, and CN #538 switching with the slug leading. After that, we went for lunch and subsequently saw the CN TankTrain heading West and a Loram rail grinder heading East through Montreal, but got no pictures of either.

2005-12-20

December 20th, 2005

On our way South, we stopped to shoot QGRY's Job 27 on the Lachute sub. We caught it with 2 units and 5 cars.

2006-05-07

May 7th, 2006

We stopped at Coteau Jct. for a few hours of shooting with a Discovery Channel crew for the show "What's That About", finally catching the OCRR.

2006-06-04

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.

2006-07-23

July 23rd, 2006

Following most of a week at Ottawa Linux Symposium, my parents came up to Ottawa and took us on an HCW steam excursion for my birthday.

2007-06-03

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.

2008-01-03

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.

2008-06-14

June 14th, 2008

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

2008-06-15

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.

2009-06-09

June 9th, 2009

On my way home from reunion I stopped to chase the Batten Kill, which operates exclusively with the venerable RS-3. I asked the crew at Greenwich shops where the train was and was told it was parked at Cambridge, so headed up there to wait for them to come on duty and chased them to Greenwich Junction where I broke off and headed for Whitehall. There I caught CP 253 and continued north. Coming into the Laurentians I saw QGRY rather than CP power at Ste-Therese yard so bailed off the 15 and went for a closer look.

2009-12-30

December 30th, 2009

I went to Terrebonne to meet local railfans Sam and J-F. They took me on an excellent adventure along the CN Lac-St-Jean subdivision to chase CN 369 with DPU south back to Shawinigan and catch VIA 601 with ex-GO units. We caught both of those and CN L522 in Shawinigan, finding out only after returning to Terrebonne about a wind turbine train on the QGRY that we silently passed in Trois-Rivières. Excellent, if extremely cold, day over all. The time between shots and videos was mostly taken up warming the camera batteries so they would have enough strength for the next set of shots, not always succeeding as the video camera frequently gave up from the cold -18C + windchill chase.

2010-04-01

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.

2010-09-01

September 1st, 2010

Sam and I met up in St-Esprit and we took off for a day of seeing what we could see. He showed me the bridges at St-Ursule and St-Leonard and we caught a QGRY train coming into Trois-Rivieres. Another great day with one of the Montreal masters.

2010-10-14

October 14th, 2010

Traveling from my new apartment in Gatineau along the QGRY to west in my first explorative journey in the area, I found two units parked at Masson and a switcher working in the yard at Thurso. I was expecting a train from Ste-Therese as well but it did not materialise and likely came shortly after my departure. The tracks in Gatineau proper along the QGRY Lachute sub have been ripped recently enough that some of the trucks involved are still kicking around. So much for any thoughts of running the O-train across the bridge into Gatineau (same alignment)!

2010-10-27

October 27th, 2010

I had a couple of hours to kill in Montreal in the evening so went over to check the Deux-Montagnes sub, an electric commuter line that runs from Central station through the mountain to the north.

2010-10-30

October 30th, 2010

I went to the east of Montreal to do some preliminary exploring finding a yard job working with 4 GP9s and CN 461 heading west, and worked my way along the CP commuter track west out of Windsor station along de Maisonneuve but did not go when any trains were scheduled. I then explored one edge of CP St-Luc yard before running out of time, which is just as well as the weather was quite uncooperative for the whole day.

2011-10-28

October 28th, 2011

Catching me off-guard, I found that the Lachute sub along Maloney Blvd in Gatineau is being put back in, displaced slightly from its previous alignment to make room for a bus transitway. Need to figure out how they're handling the single-track bridge along the route further up...

2014-01-18

January 18th, 2014

We stopped at Beaujeu Diamond for a CP #143 and headed back to Coteau for CN #326, catching another CN freight and several Vias while waiting.

2016-03-05

March 5th, 2016

The final leg of our trip saw us wake up to the persistent sound of a symmetric braking unit on the scanner in Bellows Falls, which led us to parked-running Guilford engines on the Walpole side of the river, before we turned north to see the Claremont and Concord, west to Rutland, and north to Burlington, stumbling completely by chance on a local working the Omya plant in Florence that we did not hear on the radio. We wrapped up our impromptu vacation stopping in Montreal to visit family.

2017-05-23

May 23rd, 2017

I traveled up to Manicouagan to the local community about rural issues, and took a few moments at Sept-Iles yard on the way by between meetings.

2017-08-16

August 16th, 2017

We caught the QGRY coming into Gatineau on our way back to the riding.

2017-08-30

August 30th, 2017

In Alma for Quebec caucus, I heard a horn from the hotel and we followed the Roberval-Saguenay to Saint-Bruno and back to the plant in Alma.

2017-08-31

August 31st, 2017

Mishiel heard the RS passing and took pictures of it from the hotel room window.

2017-09-01

September 1st, 2017

Moments before leaving Alma to head for home, we caught one last Roberval Saguenay run from the hotel.

2017-11-18

November 18th, 2017

VIA #26 Ottawa to Montreal.

2017-12-25

December 25th, 2017

I took VIA 35 from Dorval to Ottawa behind wreck-rebuild unit 6459.

2018-05-19

May 19th, 2018

Took Via #15 Halifax to Montreal; #35 to Ottawa.

2018-08-30

August 30th, 2018

On my way to an appointment in Dorval, I had just enough time for an eastbound Via renaissance set.

2019-04-19

April 19th, 2019

We explored our way around the East Coast of Canada, finding the CN unloading the St Lawrence ferry at Matane.

2019-04-20

April 20th, 2019

We stated our day in Gaspéand worked our way along the coast of the Baie des Chaleurs to Bathurst, New Brunswick, seeing the tourist train equipmentand MoW equipment along the temporarily abandoned Chemin de Fer de Gaspe.

2019-04-25

April 25th, 2019

We followed the CN from Campbellton to Mont-Joli, finding only a hy-rail on the line, but found a local preparing to head West at Matane on the branch. At the end of the day my daughter helped me find and record a train leaving Riviere-du-Loup but we didn't catch the symbol.

2019-04-26

April 26th, 2019

On our way home, we found an eastbound 306 with a BC Rail unit trailing and DPU at L'Islet off the 20.

2019-05-13

May 13th, 2019

Heartbreak in Gatineau: The Hull, Chelsea, Wakefield is truly no more, with both the track and the train itself ripped up. While the Union Pacific gets Big Boy 4014 up and running again, this is what Canada's national capital region tourist train looks like today. Surely we can do better. I had a chance to ride this train in 2006 and chasd it in 2005. It was closed almost a decade ago by washouts and never recovered, the equipment put up for sale and vandalised too much to save before it could be sold.

2019-12-06

December 6th, 2019

Traveling between Ottawa and home, I decided to finally take the time to look for the QGRY Friday run, which I had passed a few times without ever having time to watch it over the past few years. I found it faster than expected and chased it up the Buckingham spur to the end before carrying on.

2020-02-25

February 25th, 2020

Waiting for an Exo train from Montreal to St-Jerome, a QGRY northbound slipped by the station with BNSF and CP power.