Caption: A Special T15

CP T15-01 heads east under the infamous Bartlett intermediate signals with an attractive pair of classic EMD units and just over 6,000 feet on the drawbar. Just before the units hit me the engineer throttled the beautiful EMD 710s to around notch 6-7 as their tail had just finished clearing Lambton and it was a highball to Agincourt from there on out. Man, what a beautiful sound!

Previously in the day (around 0700 to be exact) word got out that SD60 #6255 & UP SD70M #4033 were light power on a 244 headed for Toronto Yard after their entire train was dumped in Wolverton. After hearing this, I rode about as fast as I could on my bike to get it at Leaside. After arriving, I received a call from one of my good friends who went to Osler in attempt to catch it as well. He said that RTC had informed 244 the power was to be terminated in Lambton Yard instead of Agincourt and that a cab would be called for the crew, even West Tower (who are in control of all Lambton Yard movements) had no clue why RTC wanted to do this. At the time, hearing that made me pretty upset but I did not let that ruin the rest of the day. I decided to bike over to the west end and enjoy a nice relaxing railfanning day with my friend. A nice day it was, we caught a decent amount of trains as well as getting some nice souvenirs from a track foreman! Through all of this though, the biggest question of the day still stood; why did CP want these 2 units in Lambton?

Both my friend and I pretty much gave up on it after 421 had passed and both headed our separate ways. I started the trek back east and was slowly making my way along King Street at just after 5PM when I got the word that CP 6255 was being fired up in Lambton and brake tests were under way. Naturally, I biked as fast as my legs could carry me back up to the North Toronto (I was not inclined on missing this power if it was truly to be heading east). I got up to Bartlett with plenty of time to spare and set up, and after the scanner being quiet until just around 6, I started to question whether or not they would actually come.

It was getting to the point where I got extremely excited to hear the signature CP RTC call-in on the scanner only to find out it was either a Milton GO train or a track foreman... but finally, the wait payed off. "RTC T15 callin' over?" "T15, CP 6255 East, ready to depart Lambton for Agincourt with 6XXXft". In one small RTC call, the looming question from early in the morning was finally answered, and it was confirmed they'd be making a break eastward, and with no time to spare either, as the rain was just beginning to roll in and the sun was about to call it quits for the night. This was without a doubt one of my best and most satisfying catches of recently, and I hope you enjoyed that little story to go along with it! Hey, sometimes being a railfan on the North Toronto pays off!! :)