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Caption: This is a much broader view of the area covered when I posted a previous image of this train some time back. It is the first International Grain Train running the Canadian route from the US mid-west to Albany NY. Symbolizing Mid_west is SOO 6612, 6601 and 780; ahead of it CP 5529 denoting Ontario, and D&H 7309, brought over to lead the train thru D&H country from Niagara Falls to Port of Albany. This image is interesting because it shows the CN/AMTK bridge on the extreme right, as well as the NF passenger station. Too many changes in this nearly 25 year old image to list; but a couple of prominent ones are the demolition of the Customs building (tan coloured, left of AMTK bridge) and the old King Edward Hotel, that apartment-sized building behind the D&H unit by a couple of blocks. Even if the RR bridge had not closed down by 2000 and track removed; I would not be shooting again from this location on the US side off the Robert Moses Parkway. I was flushed out by the police...not just the city police, but the state police AND the border patrol :o)
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did you give them “the Look”…the same you you had whenever I showed up ?
Interesting view Arnold…is that a derail right in the middle of the CN bridge?
Great shot Arnold.
MrDan: Sure looks like a derail. Now I wonder what use comes out of it. After all, you probably remember the story a couple of years ago in which vandals unhooked a car in the CSX yard in NF, NY and it rolled freely right across the bridge under cover of darkness, stopping in front of the CN station in Canada. The agent looked out at 0800 and said, “WTF”???
No one had any idea it was there. No alarms, no border security on the bridge, no derail, no nothing. For all we know it could have been an autorack full of aliens!!! Really makes one wonder………
This is great. Love it.
Its not a derail. I have passed over it many times and there is no mechanism for derailing trains. It might have had use at one time. I do remember the car rolling across the bridge though. CN did know about the car though as the trainmaster I was working with had to leave to find out the details of the run away car. Funny thing is the US turns on the VACIS machine any time i bring traffic into the US, but its turned off when I take my trains from the US to Canada!
The tapered rails on the CN bridge are an expansion joint. There are a few joints like this on the TTC subway. Canada is colder, therefore more shrinkage.
Did CSX send an engine over to bring it back or did CN have to?
Eric is correct. The only place they seen to be used though on CN is on bridges.
I think CSX had to come get the car as Niagara Falls yard had no tracks or locomotives there and the closest power would have been at Pt. Robinson.
Thanks for the comments on that wayward car. The newspaper reports used the word “undetected” in reference to the crossing. But then, the media these days…………..
Interesting details on the Niagara Whirlpool Bridge. Thanks, gentlemen, for the information. It was almost worth the hassle, Arnold getting that shot. You were lucky though that you weren’t shot.
My understanding of the wayward autorack story was that it was only discovered when a surprised VIA 97 tried to make a station stop (VIA attendant was cut by then), and I believe it was retrieved by a Port Rob yard job…
Great shot and interesting story. I don’t understand, however, how a rail car can travel across the bridge assuming the switches were lined for the main.
@BradKetchen. The fact that the switches were lined for the main makes absolutely no difference. It is not uncommon for rail cars and or locomotives to run through switches. On many sidings there are derails to prevent such things happening. In a rail yard normally there is no derail as there are frequent movements and a derail would not make sense. There are of course exceptions, the west end of Aldershot Yard in Burlington, Ont has a dispatcher controlled derail at Snake. If a car got loose it would derail before getting on to the main line. A while back in western Canada a group of grain hoppers ran out of the yard and into an uncoming freight train, killing the conductor, engineer and an unauthorized rider. So yes it can happen even if the switch is lined for the main line. The car simply runs through the switch and keeps on rolling.
Phil and gang – another aspect of derails is a simple ‘risk’ calculation – Transport Canada also regularly reviews the risk of a ‘runaway’ at certain locations and will mandate to a railway that a derail must be installed where the risk is higher, whether the path of the oncoming runaway car is a mainline, at-grade crossing, or otherwise .
This may also be determined by the host railway, but it’s a two way street and regularly reviewed by both.
Then you have to gauge the severity of the issue, for example, if there is a switching lead up a significant grade, and if a car got loose, you have to install a derail type that can withstand the potential force and impact of a runaway car. For example, if it was just a switch and a small rail mounted derail, it is possible for the force of a run-away car to run right over the small derail, hit the switch with such force to throw it (breaking it in the process) but continue rolling down the mainline.
At Toyota Woodstock, the entrance to the new yard built actually has a double derail (two rails) using a heavy duty clamped type of derail that is mounted more akin to a switch, as opposed to a simple rail-clamped type derail. (I’m not a track guy so forgive my lack of nomenclature)
There are many different types of derails all designed to withstand ‘worst case scenario events’ and you can bet a dollar the protection from the CSX yard in Niagara Falls was increased since the last runaway.
Thanks Stephen, good info. I knew most of what you outlined and of course I am very familar with the different types of derails and that at some industries there are indeed 2 derails. One that is railroad owned and the other where the industry has the key and the rail crew has to call for the derail to be removed. I remember the very unhappy guy who had to come out at 3am to remove the derail because that was the time the railroad had arranged for the cars to be switched.
Split derails seem to be the ones that are used to protect run away cars from coming on to the main line or to protect structures. At Snake there is a split derail and what is also interesting is that dispatcher controlled split derails are used to protect the bridge over the Welland Canal at Seaway and also at Harbour Draw going into and out of Buffalo on the Stamford Sub.
Arnold, is that “world famous” Simon’s Restaurant at the foot of Bridge St with competing Family restaurant (green building behind it ? My Dad introduced me to Simon’s in the 1960’s, and visited many times when I went to NF through the decades – the huge piles of news papers by the front windows with a few flies buzzing around, but the best breakfast in town. Great picture, showing among other things the expansion rail on the rail deck of the Whirlpool Rapids double decked bridge for very hot weather. Can nicely see the width of this rail deck which in steam days was double double tracked. Hope to cross this bridge by rail once again later this year. Prior to suspension of the Maple Leaf, you could purchase a ticket from NF ON to NF NY, certainly one of the shortest passenger train trips. Glad to hear you avoided incarceration, what we do to get a good shot ! John