Caption: During fall 1994, railway crews were performing extensive undercutting work at CP’s Hunter Street tunnel in Hamilton, Ontario to reduce the actual tunnel’s floor. At the time this work was in preparation for future upcoming GO Transit service through the tunnel and into the city’s downtown. This project resulted in CP detouring some trains over the CN Grimsby Subdivision between Hamilton and Niagara Falls from October 29 to November 1. One of the trains detoured was the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey “Red” Circus train on October 31, which was powered by CP SD40 5550 and SD40-2 5478.
On the morning of October 29, my friends and I were doing our usual rounds in Hamilton, when we heard CP 1817 on the scanner getting a clearance on the CN Grimsby Subdivision. At the time we had no idea about the detour trains or the work being done on the tunnel. Luckily, we weren’t far from Stuart Street, so we made a beeline for the bridge over the yard. Upon our quick arrival, we saw the small crowd of local railfans already gathered there waiting for the CP train. They then gave us the details on what was happening as they were already well informed. Here, CP Toronto-Niagara Falls manifest #526 is viewed passing through CN’s Stuart Street Yard with CP 1817, HLCX 3110, CP 4704 and CP 1843 heading to Niagara Falls.