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Caption: (Photo 2 of 2) This is the Fort Erie complex area looking East from the Central Ave bridge. We see how much track there used to be here..........on the right was the lead to the old CN Dunnville Sub., also to the shop itself. On the left the MCRR/NYC track which led to Victoria Yd which was out of sight on the far right in the photo 1 of 2. One gon on the track by the TH&B (MCRR) station, this building redundant after the last passenger (CP Budds) called here 04/1981 and was removed in the early 1990s. CR 5439 and 5441 are bringing in a transfer from the USA, they are on the CN yard lead. On the right, industrial stubs; there is a Boeing aircraft car back there, next to where the old GTR station used to be. By the bridge, Bridgeburg station is still there, known as B-1, built before Bridgeburg and Fort Erie (to the south) merged. B-1 moved to the Fort Erie Railroad Museum a mile or so away. The crew hostel (aka: the Bunkhouse) for CN employees laying over was a popular place, nothing left there now but a cement pad........only about 4 tracks left here now and it is very quiet with only the odd trains, a few CP and the NS daily transfer using the line these days.
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AW, you have some awesome shots that bring up some great memories for me my friend.
Most of the tracks were still there when i hired on. Only the team tracks had been removed.
I spent many a night in that “bunkhouse”lol. Terrible mattresses and no AC, but it was still the good old days.
The bunkhouse became either a half way house or womens shelter before it was finally torn down.
Hey!!! A happy viewer!! I’m pleased.
) Really? NO a/c in the place? What a bunch of cheap so and so’s. Lawd knows what those mattresses went thru. Thanks for your pleasant comment.
are you saying the majority of your viewers are, well, unhappy?
Geez. Another Snakebite. Nah, just saying I like them to be more than ‘passive’ viewers.:o)
you must be referring to that dust up on here Thursday night.
Dust up? Did I miss something good? Snake are you being a s**t disturber again?
Speak of the dust up devil !
What’s with the ‘switch’ in foreground? Always a pleasure Mr Mooney!
Thanks, Brad. Sort of a derail switch, I assume. Seems to me there is something similar on the approach to the Bridge 6 over Welland Canal.
Yes gentlemen that is known to railroaders as a “split derail”. Most derails are ones that the crew has to flip off and on to the top of the rail and derails a car by the wheels hitting the derail and moving the wheels off the track to a desired direction. The split derail basically derail the car off the track by lining the switch off the rail and onto the ground. FYI the position that the switch is in thos photograph is the “normal position” A crew member must line it to the non derailing position to go over it and it has to be set back to normal after use. Derails must always be left in the derailing position even if there are no cars in the track its protection.
AW, indeed there are split derails protecting the Welland Canal that are lined away from the bridge on both tracks at the east and west entrances to the bridge. The derails are automatically lined by the RTC when a permissive signal is given to the train to proceed. If there is no train it stays in the derailing position. There is also one at the west end of Aldershot governing movements at Snake.
Great picture Mr. Mooney. Bob Sandusky, John Mills and myself arrived on CN’s mixed train from Brantford on the far right track. If I recall correctly, the short mixed train went around a wye (was there a eye in steam days ?), and backed the coach just short of the building on the right. We detained and had to walk across all the tracks in your picture to the station on the left where we waited for the NYC-TH&B late-afternoon departure from Buffalo for Toronto. It was Mon Dec 31, 1956 and there was snow on the ground. Great way to celebrate New Year’s eve and my 19th birthday.
Many thanks.
Thanks. Yes, you could reach Fort Erie from Brantford all the way along the Dunnville Sub. Lots of great connections in those days. I was all of 8 years old in 1956.
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The approaches to the wallaceburg drawbridge also have a split switch derail of some kind. I believe controlled by bridgetender/rtc office when bridge is lined.
@ngineered4u the default derail reminds me of the grade switches in the Appalations. By default the swtich is aligned for a runaway train to go up the hill. Has anyone ever forgot to align the derail switch? woops.
@Brad…I only can remember one time a train ran off the track at a split derail. The engineer did not have control of his train up in what was S yard and the pullback track was right beside the Halton outbound track at Mac Yrd. The derail did its job and the movement derailed to the ditch instead of the mainline.
As for the flip on and off derails. Crews sometimes forget one and a car or locomotive derails. So the practice of stopping 30feet away and the employee in charge of the derail has to tell the engineer that the derail is off and in the non derailing position and the engineman has to acknowledge this in response.