Caption: It Don't Get Much Better Than This

Here on a beautiful June day we see CP 9-WGA-08, a Herzog GPS Ballast train take the curve at the West Toronto Junction in some perfect evening light with a pair of classic GMD SD40-2s providing the motive power. Just the lighting and engines alone would make for an amazing catch, but what some of you may not know is that the section of track this train is on is otherwise passenger-only, as the only reason it still exists is so the GO Milton Line trains can enter and exit the Union Station Rail Corridor to and from the Galt Sub. CP owns it though, so they have to maintain it just as if it were any other part of mainline trackage they own. Today, they needed to dump ballast starting at milepost 3 of the Galt, which is located around Sorauren Avenue Park on the section where the Galt & Weston subs parallel each other before both lines amalgamate into the USRC. This meant they had to pull up past the junction, wait for the last Milton GO of the evening to clear, and then back down to where they needed to drop the rocks. After finishing their work down there, they’d continue to dump until mile 17, where they would run around their train and head back east.

Especially in the year 2021, it truly does not get much better than this right here.