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Caption: GEXR ran out to Goderich today, departing Stratford this morning with one grain hopper (presumably), four salt loads, and about eight or so Potash Corp hoppers. The salt was set off in Seaforth at Smith Packaging (which seems like a rather interesting operation), the potash in Clinton, leaving one hopper for the trip to Goderich. They ran around their train at the station, and shoved the lonely hopper down the hill to the Port of Goderich. They set it off a little past the switch that it is sitting on in the picture. I believe it was for the elevator in the Port, as it was not one of the two bay hoppers typically seen at the mine, but rather a three bay rib-sided hopper. We got the impression that they were expecting to lift loads from the salt mine, but as you can see none were ready for them, so they departed light for the return trip to Stratford. It looked as if they were contemplating work at the elevator east of Mitchell on the way back, but continued without making a lift there either, making for an entirely light power run from Goderich to Stratford.
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Nice shot of recent GEXR operations, post-CN takeover of the Guelph Sub. It is sad to see the lack of snow though. But at least there was sun!
Yeah the sun appeared for a relatively brief yet very well timed window!
Neat, clear capture James … albeit never seen this complex so vacant … no ships (tied up for winter or otherwise), no salt / road transports, both rail tracks empty and only a handful of vehicles on site … must be on some sort of shut down?
Thank you, Glenn. If you look closely you can see a couple of hoppers on the siding towards the plant underneath that red and white sign, but yes I agree, it appears emptier than usual. It may have been that the hoppers were within the facility itself – I know when I stopped in this past October I happened to see the trackmobile shove quite a few out from there. That said I cannot say if this is the case. There were quite a few of the two bay salt hoppers kicking around Goderich at least, I did observe that much.
As an aside, there was a ship in the harbour today (the Algoma Sault), but it was over at the elevator. They spun it around in the harbour while we were there.
Great shot Jamie.