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Caption: Railroad locations such as Fargo are a stark reminder for me to not take things for granted. Time creates and destroys. Nothing lasts forever and Fargo is a good example of that. As someone who never got to experience Ontario's railroads in their glory days, it's almost impossible for me to imagine a place like Fargo being the crossroads of two busy mainlines with a controlled diamond. It's hard to imagine there being coaling and water towers, interchange yards, wyes etc occupying the land around there. Even when looking back at photos of this location 15 years ago it seems difficult to picture a CSX YN2 GP38-2 passing searchlights still serving a purpose with the words "CN Fargo" on an adjacent building. Now in 2020 the only evidence that this was once a diamond are turned searchlights slowly being taken over by growth, and a perpendicular unnatural ridge in the flat landscape. CN Fargo still sees action once a week though, and I'm glad I finally went out here to shoot a train at this historic crossroads.
I'd like to submit this photo into the Time Machine contest as a comparison to Stephen C. Host's photo from 2005. http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=35365
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Great shot and story. Definitely a reminder to never take anything for granted.
Thanks! I’m always astonished when I see photos of how some areas used to look. Especially around Windsor and just how much things have changed over the last 30-40 years.
I ‘m fairly certain a coaling tower was not here for NYC. As for water, its possible, early on (like Canada Southern Railway-early !) there could have been a water tower. But later, NYC had track pans for non-stop water pickup, about 2 miles west at Charing Cross.
Interchange between NYC and C&O took place in the southeast quadrant. There was no wye here, as that connecting track was only installed in 1986/1987.
@mercer There’s photographs of a coaling tower here over the double track main with a water tower off to the side. As for the wyes I was incorrect. I looked back on Google and only saw evidence of the two wyes you’re talking about. This is a link to the site that has the photos. http://www.canadasouthern.com/caso/search/search.php?zoom_query=Fargo&zoom_cat=0&zoom_per_page=20&zoom_and=1&zoom_sort=0
Blow me down, I forgot those existed !!
My apologies.
Haha no worries! It’s crazy how built up this spot used to be.