Caption: Streetrunning? Not quite, although CP H17-27 mimicked such a scene when it crawled through the shallow-angled Old Weston crossing where one could capture the awaiting road traffic in the frame with ease. RTC, West Tower and the crew onboard 6045 were at this point hurrying to get the train into the yard before the crew's 12 hours were up, but decision making was time consuming enough that H17 slowed down to wait for instructions. At the moment this photo was taken, they only had 10 minutes remaining on the clock, and the straw that broke the camel's back was a failure by West Tower to notify RTC of a last minute change to the track H17 was lined into, and so they took the light onto the incorrect track and had to come to a stop until the clock ran out. They would block the crossing for about 90 minutes until H19 was ordered to rescue and subsequently use this consist eastbound. Before heading home, I would notify some of the drivers about the situation and advised them to take a detour. Among these included an unfortunate fellow (waiting second in line just to the right of the silver car in image) who was driving his motorbike to Cyclewerx just 1 block on the other side of Old Weston for repairs for a faulty start-up, and figured taking the risk of turning off his bike was worthwhile given the short distance. It was only once I told him that H17 was out of hours that this decision would become regretful as he couldn't get it to start up again. I'm unsure if he waited the full 90 minutes or if he pushed his bike for the 1.5 km detour to the shop (compared to 280 m direct). Part of me hopes he figured a way to get it started after I left.
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Interesting shot and commentary Eric. And SD40-2′s to boot! One question. Why wouldn’t they at least clear the crossing? Seems kind of irresponsible of the crew. Poor motorists.