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Caption: I call this the "new wedgie": Rail into corner? Check. Telegraph pole framing the shot? Check. Well, sorta. It's quite small so it doesn't really form much of a frame, but it's there. I try not to mimic this "new wedgie" technique these days.. as it is becoming quite mundane, as is this location. However, the only things in this shot not mundane is that Conrail paint of that now retired NS SD50 in the lead, and of course, the great early morning light. The time is 0757 and NS 327/8 made sure you got out of bed early if you wanted to shoot either of these trains and I made sure I did. While half the time NS ran with ubiquitous and boring Dash 9's in this era, when they didn't you sure paid attention.
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I first got into photographing trains in 2006, and that fall I found out about the NS in Ontario and made a drive to St. Thomas the first week of Jan 2007 only to find out I missed them by a few days.. ohwell. Classic shot!
Ouch… we were all out for the last run – I chased it from London to Grimsby (not easy as they did track speed, despite being light power). But it was Christmas break and I was scheduled to go from Sarnia to Beamsville for another Christmas dinner – my timing was impeccable, Saturday December 30 2006 in the mid to late afternoon – NS 327 ran earlier that day, which we didn’t know about and very few captured on camera.
Rob Eull photo : http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=431
You can see here even the information out there wasn’t 100% accurate:
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?2,1304307
Article here
https://bytownrailwaysociety.ca/phocadownload/branchline/2007/2007-02.pdf
I don’t remember where I saw the picture of the last 327, I think it may have been in the St. Thomas Times Journal. I think only one or two people captured it.. and it wasn’t light power.
And the last thing is in the final months.. they didn’t run daily.. often holding a few days of traffic for one monster train.. it was quite unpredictable, but if a 327 ran, then a 328 would run the next day , so we knew at least that would occurr.
Probably a lot of guys who were out in those years thought this to be an “oh, well, it is better than nothing” lashup. We were spoiled. I’d sure love to see something like this again. Wonderful, basic uncluttered scene !!
Will always be one of my favourite trains
Nice shot!
Wow this is nice!
Thanks Liam. I just have to remember young guys like you and Myles think this stuff is great – to me it’s just NS 327/8 and I have a couple hundred shots to pull from…
But then when Arnold posts N&W… it’s the same.. as if I was you
Liam make sure you go to Fort Erie for the transfer soon and over to CSX Sarnia. Time is running out.
Steve, I’ve been to Sarnia to shoot the CSX before but with my luck, it was rainy so not the best shots. For Erie is still on my bucket list though!
Interesting that they didn’t run every day in the end, it’s a shame there’s not more photos of the last 327. I’ve never seen any photos of the last CSX trains on the CASO in ’96 either..
As for the NS Fort Erie transfer that’s at the Very top of my bucket list and plan a trip this spring to the Niagara region. I’ve waited for the NS at Fort Erie before but both times came up short.
Oh I agree Myles – we were all caught off guard thinking the last run could be on the 31st. Someone let the word out at St. Thomas (Likely 328′s inbound crew) and word spread quickly from there.
As for Fort Erie – right now the train meets with CN 531 to exchange cars around 1400-1500. Instead of setoffs and lifts, it’s basically now a planned direct transfer and runs much more predictably than before. But they are also much quicker and spend far less time on the Canadian side of the border.
Re: CSX – Bruce could answer that one, I was still in Highschool chasing girls.
The last CSX trains – R320/321 to/from Buffalo and R322/323 to/from Sarnia/Rougemere were probably not photo’d because there was no internet coverage to broadcast the word swiftly. I know I phoned a couple of individuals but I can’t recall if they ever saw them ( on a personal note, I was not in a good place at such moment because I was losing my job and frankly, I could have cared less)
Thanks Bruce. I don’t blame you one bit really. It was a different world in ’96.
BUT There *was* some Internet back then, but largely most of the people were not using it yet. I was certainly on it (since ’93) but didn’t know Trains was a hobby yet..
Check this out though, some familiar names and RP.CA members were attempting to track it back in 1996 and it’s online for all to see:
https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en#!search/csx$20r323/bit.listserv.railroad/Enz1TTnX6rI/Q1ODp02n0IMJ
322 was always a Walbridge-Sarnia train, and 323 was simply Sarnia-Rougemere. After 2/29/96 they reverted to being Rougemere/Walbridge only.
Myles posted a shot for you yesterday
hope you enjoy.