Thursday Proto Photo, Nov 22/12

[Lenny53]

[Bob Bufkin]

[Guilford Guy]

Pan Am spilled a container train a few weeks ago, and were nice enough to leave the wreck train sitting around for a couple weeks.

[cv_acr]

Nice, an old troop sleeper car now serving as a tool car.

You don't always get to see this sort of work equipment too often.

[Guilford Guy]

Yes, and I believe Pan Am is the last railroad to operate wreck trains. To have this be only 7 miles from school was a real treat, especially because it spends most of the year hidden in the yard.

[lock4244]

Received a text tip about this train 596 coming down the Bala Sub on Saturday. Was about 45 miles away, but couldn't pass up the chance to get the last GTW SD40-2 in blue. The IC SD70 and repainted GTW SD40-2 were just icing on the cake. It was hard 15 years ago to catch a CN train with all standard cabbed units for power, so in 2012... nice. Capped the day seeing Gordon Lightfoot in concert at Massey hall. Never get tired of seeing him, either.




The kind of lashup I really miss... the ones with 251 powered units leading! HR616 2112 takes a GTW GP38 (6212) and a GP38-2 (5832) on a tour east of Toronto on train 144 back in 1996.

[Scottl]

I can't recall ever seeing a CN train carrying trailers.  Nice catch with the GTW SD40

[lock4244]

At that time they actually had quite a business in TOFC on 89' flats, tripple 57's (only loaded with 48' and 53' vans) and even front runners would show up. Never saw solid train of pigs like one would in Buffalo, but they seemed to be blocked as TOFC, double stacks, TOFC. SGT, Schneider National, and JB Hunt were the most common that I can recall, however they transitioned to pretty much all double stacks slowly by the close of the 90's/early 00's.

[Scottl]

Interesting, thanks for the info.

[C855B]

...the last GTW SD40-2 in blue. ...

Good luck with that. Judging from the traffic in and out of the paint shop here, CN's getting pretty aggressive about repainting. With the shop geared-up for and completing repaints of all those off-lease Oakway SD60's, it appears that Centralia is becoming a black hole for predecessor paint schemes. 

[lock4244]

Too bad they're seemingly not interested in painting the blueberries (2455-2465). The Jokeways and next round of trash 8's might actually keep the 5936 out of the paint booth for a while, but who knows. They're (SD40-2's) are in worktrain service, so as long as that keeps them busy there is hope. Either way, glad I got her once leading.

[cv_acr]

They still have GTW GP38-2s in blue as well, I saw a pair of them mated with a BC Rail (also unrepainted) -9 this summer here in Sarnia.

[C855B]

Too bad they're seemingly not interested in painting the blueberries (2455-2465). ...

Oh, I dunno... 2455 was on the lead here a couple of hours ago, along with a black IC. Sounds to me like they're corralling stuff due for painting on the ex-IC so when they're due for running service, they don't have far to go to the facility with the paint shop.

[lock4244]

They still have GTW GP38-2s in blue as well, I saw a pair of them mated with a BC Rail (also unrepainted) -9 this summer here in Sarnia.

Yeah, but there were only ever eight GTW SD40-2's, and only three wore blue (others all painted from UP to CNNA). I won't sneer at a blue 38, and would likely chase one a good distance to shoot it, but they're still not that rate (yet).