Caption: In what might be some news out of northwestern Ontario, there is some competition heating up for the coke traffic into Thunder Bay Terminals in Thunder Bay. The coke loads, unloaded at TBTL onto ship, have historically been handled by CN U701 (inbound loads) and CN U702 (outbound empties) using run through power. From what I have heard, this may have been the last U702, as later in the week the first CP 822 ran (inbound coke loads for TBTL). Things of course can change and traffic can revert back.

I followed this train out of Thunder Bay, and they were going relatively slow for unit empties as they were having issues with their power. The diesel doc was quite surprised to learn/see they had no CN units on their train at all when they called him. The weather for the chase was mostly dreary - in fact this was only the second fleeting moment of sun I had seen in the previous 48 hours.

The operation at TBTL is quite impressive. This train arrived there the morning of June 13, all 99 cars unloaded that day, and had departed CN Neebing Yard midday June 14.