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Caption: Trillium 1859 climbs up the Thorold grade, one of the steepest in all of Canada. I was a little confused with it's load, a single autoparts car, considering they don't serve any places that ship out autoparts. Anyways, this line, the Thorold Spur, was once a main line that served as a connector from Niagara Falls to St Catharines. After the Stamford Sub was built through Niagara Falls, this line was no longer needed, and eventually, the main bridge that connected the two cities (Bridge 10 in Thorold South) was dismantled in the late 90's. The only use it sees nowadays is Trillium a few times a week and that's it. The sound of an Alco climbing up this hill is quite the sound.
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Oooohh! that is so sweet, the train is pretty nice too.
Just pulling your leg and happy to see girls in their summer attire stopped to wave at the train.
I bet you enjoyed the sound of the 1859 working up the hill.
Hey!!!! The doc is on the ball!!! What a nice shot. I agree with ’1014′….that would have been one sweet sound of that old clunker clunking.
Schools out! I have time to go out and shoot again. It was quite the sound. 110 used to be the best up the grade, that thing echoed for miles.
Nice work – love the effort put into this!
Can’t wait to see Trilliums work on the OBRY line!
Thanks Steve — this has been a shot in the making for a while now. It’s paid off. And honestly same, it’ll be super interesting to watch them up there.
A source told me there are some GTW autos parts cars being used in pulp service! Some have moved from Grand Prairie AB area to Dunn Paper!
Ahh okay thank you for clarifying!
Great shot !
This line is also one of the oldest in Canada, completed in 1859 coincidentally, as the Welland Railway.
Hey all, according to a CN track profile the grade between merriton and thorold is 140 feet in 1.9 miles or 1.4%
It’s steep but there’s definitely much worse out there even on cn.
Former CN goderich has a claim on that too
Goderich is 2.78% per https://www.bst-tsb.gc.ca/eng/rapports-reports/rail/2021/r21t0007/r21t0007.html.
Here’s a discussion on the subject of grades
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?15,3116207
Doing some reading of Andrew Panko and Peter Bowen’s “Steam in Niagara” and of course this grade is referenced. This may lend some clarity:
Page 25: “Along this line, between Merritton and Thorold, a distance of about 3 miles, the difference in track elevation is extreme due to the Niagara Escarpment. The elevation change in this distance is almost 190 feet, making this a 1.2% grade. A central portion from just east of Glendale Avenue, to about the Thorold Freight office, just south of Lock 7 on the Welland Canal, rises 150 feet in one mile, a grade of 2.8%. This is purported to be the longest continuous grade of this magnitude on the entire Canadian National System, including the Rocky Mountain areas.”
I have not researched anything myself, just sharing the quote.
It is indeed steep track, unfortunately Trillium/GIO has quit using it and reactivation or use by CN is unlikely!