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Caption: And a photo that has aged well - many of these things are no longer possible - GP9's on CP? Nope. The frame train? Gone. That building at left - gone. Question is - what was it? It is clearly a railroad structure and quite old at that.. I'd bet it dates to the Credit Valley Railway though!
Sometimes it's best to hold onto your shots - in time they do age and eventually, your 'dreary crummy day shot' can turn into gold if you wait long enough.
In this photo, this is Train 141, the daily frame train - which is now on the St. Thomas Sub headed for St. Thomas. The frame train was an interesting thing - in 1997/8 CP put the St. Thomas sub on the block due to lack of traffic, but in 1999 they won a contract from GM to run frames from Formet (Magna) in St. Thomas to the GM Truck plant in Oshawa, putting shortline plans on hold. CP had to become creative - as in doing this, two crews would be required for 141/2 due to crossing terminals (from London Division to Toronto Division) and an exception was granted by the Union to allow a single crew to man the train - which was the London Division that crewed it. The train ran seven days a week and was very predictable - ordered about 0500 in St Thomas - it was one of the hottest trains on the line, and as soon as it got to Oshawa, they hooked and hauled the empties turning immediately - same crew would usually bring train back to St Thomas. Due to this, crews loved the train as you were working basically, days, home at regular predictable times, thusly to hold this job, you basically needed to be top of the seniority list. Jeff Willsie was one of the men that held this job. Only until this frame traffic dwindled did CP re-activate the shortline plans - bringing us to OSR's operation today. Also interesting, around this time, in the event of major derailments on the CP or CN - this connecting track would be used to detour trains back to/from CN or CP - anyone shoot re-routes here? I never did!
So youngins - your lesson is things change - and fast. This is only 10 years ago. :) Get your shots, things will continue to change as they always have :) Corrections and insight always welcome, add in comments please.
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Cool shot!
I wish CP still had the GP9′s.
Looks like the structure was for the section crew… looks like they stored their speeder in there.
Hey, at least the track is still in place.
Thanks. Note: Photo taken with 50mm 1/8 at 3:30 PM.
I think that’s actually the old scale house, there was once a track right beside the main at that location.
Love the detailed information Steve!
Wow, great shot. I wish more structures would have survived. Great marination Steve
I like marination… when it comes to Steaks
This is one of the things I chose to shoot cause it spoke to me – I enjoy old structures. I kind of wish I did it on a sunny day though!
The building was used to store Roadmaster Russ Cain’s motorcar. Between the track & the pavement there was a track known as “the chips siding”. We used to put the odd OCS car in there, and on the 1830 roadswitcherwe’d park the 6589 in ‘the chips’ and shuffle across the street to the Chuckwagon’ restaurant, hopefully still in business when COVID settles down. Ray, the scales were east of here, this shot is closer to Governor’s road (Hwy 2).