Caption: In summer 1994, Norfolk Southern trains 327 / 328 were changed over from operating across the CN Cayuga Subdivision between Fort Erie and St. Thomas to running via CN’s Grimsby, Dundas and Talbot subdivisions. On July 29, 1994, NS C39-8 8578 officially led the first 328 on this new routing.
While some did already know of this permanent change, my friends and I had only heard rumblings about the possibility as the news was slower to travel 30 years ago. Until early one foggy morning while waiting at Paris West, we heard a strange American horn blowing on an approaching westbound for the Broadway Street crossing in town. A couple minutes later and I would be shooting my first NS 327 on the new routing with C40-8 8725 leading solo to St. Thomas. Both 327 and 328 would go on to operate via this route for over the next twelve years, until 328 ran for the last time on December 30, 2006.