Caption: Although it's probably impossible to tell without proper context, this photo is actually 2 CN manifest trains passing each other at the infamous location of Bartlett Avenue. As indigenous protests were ongoing on the Kingston Sub near Belleville, CN was forced to attempt at finding solutions to keep their trains running. The one people will likely remember for years to come is them taking the so-called 'scenic route' by going up to Royun-Noranda, QC and running on ONR trackage from there to North Bay, then south on the Newmarket Sub down to Toronto. Man if only I was able to see some of that action.... Anyways, another method CN used that went a little more under the radar was running on CP trackage, as the entirety of the Belleville Sub had not endured any of the protests/blockades like the Kingston. A requirement from CP was that all CN reroutes MUST have a CP leader. From what I can remember, each day featured one CN intermodal and one manifest both directions, both about 7500 feet each so they could fit in all sidings on the Belleville Sub. Eastbound trains would exit off the Halton Sub at Halwest and head down the Weston Sub until the connection track at around milepost 0.5 of the Mactier Sub, where they would enter the CP mainline and proceed east. One of my bigger regrets is never making my way on the Weston to shoot any of these occurrences; I simply just plopped my ass down on the North Toronto. Regardless, in this photo a very fresh SD70ACu is on point of a westbound CN detour as it begins to crawl after waiting around 3 hours on the mainline for the eastbound detour to finally arrive. What a hectic but cool time!
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