Caption: During summer 1997 the railway scene in Waterloo, Ontario was buzzin with activity. The long awaited Waterloo-St. Jacobs Railway (WSJR) had finally arrived and the newly constructed station near Erb and Caroline Streets had been completed and was ready to go. The former Les Trains Touristiques du St-Laurent had arrived that June complete with two FP9u’s along with several passenger cars. Following the bankruptcy of Les Trains Touristiques du St-Laurent, WSJR had purchased all the equipment at an auction. The future was bright and the Waterloo Spur to Elmira was being given an injection of new life with FP9’s now powering long-awaited tourist trains between Waterloo and St. Jacobs much like a retro throw-back to the CN passenger excursions that had powered Sugar Bush Express excursions to Elmira during the 1970’s.
While the WSJR was now busy operating on the spur, CN continued to provide regular freight service to industries on the line at Waterloo, St. Jacobs and Elmira that were all still frequently receiving cars. While both WSJR and CN operated separately, there were rare occasions when the two interchanged equipment. One instance was the highly anticipated move of former VIA Rail coaches that WSJR had also purchased to operate with their newly acquired equipment from Quebec.
Here in the sweltering heat of a summer afternoon, CN GP9RM’s 4134 and 4137 are seen about to cross Regina Street in Uptown Waterloo as they slowly haul nine-ex VIA Rail coaches for WSJR as well as their regular freight traffic for Elmira, which required the use of two units on this day’s CN 15:30 Job.