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Caption: It was getting late in the day as I shot this. Heard a #640 on the scanner and just made it to this location ahead of it. This is at the foot of Main St in Waterdown, once known as Waterdown South, and there used to be a silo and rail spur here on the left (see RP photo #46311).
I was rather shocked to see a gaggle of gals sitting on the rails while one was photographing another. I guess they thought they were "pros" using an umbrella for lighting balance. I yelled at them a train was coming and the one yelled back saying "they don't use this track any more". And then the rumble............. If they were locals, they should pay more attention to their surroundings. Stay Off The Tracks. You can never say that enough. Anyway, the power shown is CP 8512, CEFX 1026 and CP 8203. An earlier drizzle sure brought out the colours; as did Mr. Host, who worked on this image a bit to sharpen it as I had shot at a very low shutter speed.
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Haha. “They don’t use this track anymore.” That’s what all non-railfanners say. It’s because they don’t pay attention to trains, and most of the time when they go by the tracks they don’t see anything. They draw a conclusion based on that. Reminds me of a time when a guy walking his dog was about to head down the tracks when a VIA was due. I told him there was a train coming and he found another route. But what if I wasn’t there? Not much space to get off to the side quickly there.
Yeah, Kevin; too often when they DO “learn” it is too late and……….case closed.
Around 1990, a short London destined northbound train was switching at Barnes Sand Waterdown North a couple of miles from this shot. A loaded covered hopper got away from them & rolled out the south end of Barnes & onto the main track. It continued for about 3 miles before derailing on a curve. On its way to its “resting” site, it passed 2 trespassers who were walking the tracks and had stepped aside when they heard it coming. It seems that the noise made”clacking” over the rail joints had alerted them in the nick of time. Now it’s all welded rail so far as I know.
“They don’t use this track anymore” = famous last words.