Caption: Almost the end, Part 2. After moving about the yard (see part one here), mixed train 273 is now on the station track, and with the step box down, waits for passengers to board combine 7210. Note the blue and gray shack at right which appears to be a scale house.

Situated along the original National Transcontinental Railway line, built through the area in 1913, Hearst lies at the west end of the Kapuskasing Subdivision (Coachrane, mile 0 - Hearst, mile 129.1) and the east end of the Pagwa Subdivision (Hearst, mile 0 - Nakina, mile 144.1). Situated away from CN's mainline, the Kapuskasing and Pagwa Subs saw few upgrades and deferred maintenance over the years resulting in equipment restrictions on both lines. The Pagwa Sub specifically was still largely comprised of rails smaller than 80lb resulting in SW1200RS units being the heaviest permitted on the line, giving us the interesting scene here.

Officially mixed trains 272/273 in the timetable, and operated by VIA Rail by the time of this photo, the trains no longer operated with freight in the consist as only one customer remained on the 144.1 mile line, Arthur Lecours Lumber Mill at Calstock (mile 22.7). It would typically be serviced by a job from Hearst. There is not long left for trains 272/273. With virtually no traffic on the line, attributed to the mainline further south, and deferred maintenance restricting load capacity, CN's request to abandon the Pagwa Sub west of Calstock would be approved, with the rails lifted in 1986. In August 1993, the Kapuskasing Sub and Pagwa Sub to Lecour's mill would be sold to the Ontario Northland Railway. Information per Chris van der Heide and his website, Algoma Central in HO Scale (more info on Hearst here).

By this time, the original Hearst station had been retired but still stood with it's smaller replacement a few feet to the west (as seen in Arnold's linked image).

CN 1392, built by GMD in 1960, would meet an untimely end on November 9, 1997 while assigned to the to the Shawinigan Falls Terminal Railway after being destroyed by a landslide. It would be chopped up onsite.

More 1392
Pups through Bayview, Dave Burroughs, 1967
Departing Toronto Yard, First954, 1969

Combine 7210, a Canadian Car & Foundry product of 1919, was assigned to mixed 272/273 for at least a decade before being reassigned to the "Muskeg Mixed" in Alberta:
At Hearst 1976 with journal boxes, by Paul O'Shell
At Egremont, AB, July 1986 in VIA Rail colours, by Seth B.

Don Jilson Photo, Jacob Patterson Collection slide.