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Caption: It's a minute past five and my thirteenth hour on the road. I was looking out at the road rushing under my wheels and feeling every bit like Jackson Browne. With 900 kilometres on the odometer and less than an hour of sleep keeping me going, I was running on empty. I'm not one to pass up a good opportunity, though. And seeing Canadian National stack trains on the Ontario Northland is no exception. With the sun now setting, the deep, dark forests have cast long shadows over Quebec's frozen Rte 117. Around the bend rolls a trio of smartly matched Canadian National EMD SD75is, catching rays of increasingly low sunlight as they press on towards Rouyn-Noranda. With a lengthy stack train for Montreal, detour no. 130 is taking the 'scenic route', having already traversed CN's Newmarket Subdivision, ONR's Temagami, Ramore and Kirkland Lake Subdivision's to join back up with the Canadian National further down the line. These rare detours are a result of the Wet'suwet'en First Nation rail blockade in Belleville, Ontario. For a once-a-decade opportunity such as this, I didn't mind running on empty.
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Nicely done Ryan.
This is beautiful Ryan.
Looks like this line is still operated as the Nipissing Central Railway – kind of neat.
The reason for that is simple – a railway crossing a border is Federally regulated by default.
In order to not force the rest of the ONR to federal regulations this line is continued to be operated separately. Not sure the reasons why doing so is advantageous… or if it’s just a holdover.
Yeah it’s all explained on the ol’ Wikipedia. I had just never paid any mind to the track up here until this morning when I checked it on RAC.
Ryan, you did it again, beautiful picture, and my first glimpse of the scenery along ONR’s Kirkland Lake Sub. Stephen is correct that a federal government charter is required if a railway company wants to operate in more than one province. In theory the ONR could own and operate the Kirkland Lake Sub to the Ontario-Quebec boarder, but then a Quebec provincial railway charter would have to be obtained to operate on to Rouyn-Noranda. Better to keep the Nipissing Central railway charter/operation. Thanks Ryan for a rare picture of CN on the ONR in a remote part of Ontario. Now go home and rest !