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Caption: A long time back, (image 12431) I posted the first Detour Train that I witnessed courtesy of the infamous Mississauga Wreck of Nov. 1979. This incident was caused by a night-time derailment in Mississauga of CP train #54, a burned off wheel mid-train caused a pile-up and explosion that resulted in the evacuation of more than 200,000 people. A few following trains caught in the resulting closure of the line detoured down from Guelph Jct into Hamilton and then eastward to Toronto. This was the second train I caught, and it is rather late in the afternoon already. CP 4242 and C&O 3539 snake down over the Hwy 403 bridge with what is a rather amazing number of autos and truck cabs on the old style wide open carriers. Prone to vandals! By this time of the day word has gotten out and rather than just the one lone fan on the hillside overlooking the highway, we see 4 or 5 in this image.
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Arnold..smile..I’m waving to you !
Well Sufferin’ Succotash !!!
Hahaha!! Funny enough, I lived in Brampton at the time and wasn’t evacuated. I didn’t know about the wreck until I saw a memorial at Erin Mills town centre a few years later.. which gave me nightmares !
This routing was also used for lower priority trains until the Galt Sub was re-opened. High priority trains were run on CN from Mimico to London, but other trains used the (then) Goderich Sub. Clearance issues had to be considered because the Desjardin’s Canal Bridge could not accommodate some multilevels. I was on en eastbound train that had to switch out a few cars at Guelph Jct. that were too high to go to Hamilton. Rather than run the entire train around the wye at Main Street, the trains wyed the power (if necessary) but just run around their train at Hamilton Jct. Cabooses were still in use back then requiring some switching after the power returned from the other end.
Thanks for this, Ronald.