Caption: Heading up a long X371 made entirely of empty multilevels, CN 5443 takes the sweeping curve at Bowmanville, Ontario. 1315hrs.

The location is somewhat notable as being the former location of the beginning of the Goodyear spur that crossed over the 401 freeway on a 1981 vintage bridge to access the original spur, which included some interesting street and backyard running to reach the plant located just south of the downtown. The spur was deactivated in the late 1990's, the exact date or even year escapes me, but I recall seeing switch had been pulled from the service track by 1998. It's getting difficult to see now, with all of the foliage growth, however you can see a concrete bridge on the spur directly over the 4th multilevel.

Prior to the completion of the bridge over the 401 in 1981, the spur came out of the Bowmanville Yard area and crossed the 401 at grade... one of two locations between Bowmanville and Toronto where spurs crossed it at grade (the other being at Whitby, a remnant of the old Nip & Tuck). The Bowmanville bridge was finally removed in 2011 or 2012, concurrent with the removal of the bridge that carried the one time Oshawa Railway over the 401, about 10 miles west of here, which was abandoned in 1997 or thereabouts.

The lead unit is also somewhat notable in that it started life as Oakway 9000, the class unit of the 'power by the hour' fleet of SD60's. When new, the concept created a lot of controversy as Burlington Northern's shop craft Unions were vehemently opposed to the Oakways being maintained by non-BN personell at an independent shop, thereby cutting the Unions out of the deal and was feared to be the tip of an outsourcing iceberg.