Caption: Beautiful February day some years ago, I am standing on the bridge just to the west of the Grand River trestle waiting for CN #401 west after having gotten ahead of it coming up from Bayview. Too nice a day to pass this up, and the power consisting of those big MLWs 2024 and 2000 was well worth the chase. This was the final shot of a sequence, others being at bayview and Copetown, of course.
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Anyone know what that complex in the middle background is? Love that 1961 paint scheme!
Its a gravel pit that used to be there. There was also a rail line right near the bridge. I remember seeing TH&B boxcars down there.
1980 eh, a mere 38 years ago.
No ditch lights on the power; when did they become standard across CN’s system?
That should be the Lake Erie and Northern Railway right of way – seen a few photos of Gravel Pit trains in “Steel Wheels along the Grand” by George Roth – highly recommended if you can find a copy.
@Cdn..I know they used ditch lights out west and were so the crews could spot rock slides. I knew that they were not standard when i started my engineers training in 87. I would guess by the mid 90′s. I would have to go look up some old operating manuals to be sure.
Thx Stephen. I remember the gravel pit and the abandoned box cars.
Ditch lights were mandated in 1975, although I don’t recall seeing them in Ontario before 1978. Retrofitting older units would have taken a while.
They might have been mandated in western Canada, but they did not appear on units out east in any kind of quantity until well in the late 80′s. I just checked one of my old rule books and they are not mentioned as an operating rule.