A collection of rail encounters during my runs in and around the Greater Toronto Area, and wherever else I may be. I grew up near the 'coal banks' in Sydney, N.S. and often played on the coal train cars. I'm also an avid runner having logged over 20,000 miles. Here I put them both together.
Showing posts with label Crother's Woods. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Crother's Woods. Show all posts
In radio-free land, catches are luck and observation. Well, really just luck. And schedules. Commuter trains run on schedules you can usually look up. This works great near the source end but the destination end is considerably less reliable. Such is true of catching the Canadian as it rolls through the Don Valley on it's four day trip from the west coast. I've caught it by pure luck as late as 26 hours after it's scheduled arrival time.
I'm not big on long waits at crossings and locations, I give maybe 15-20 minutes if I have time, less if my run is more critical than catching some video. The Canadian is a frequent target since it's in my running territory and usually the only train rumbling through lower Bala on a Saturday morning. Since I don't know when it might arrive, I generally stop at a level trail crossing and look for signs that a train may have passed through, usually a clean path along the top of the rails free of the mud and dirt left behind by cyclists and foot traffic. The line signals help but only one is in a convenient spot, and it's for the south section so won't tell me if the north section is occupied by traffic.
Last Saturday I ran over to the valley and stopped at the bailey bridge crossing near Don Mills Road to check. The signal south was full green, unusual as it's normally yellow since it's not far before it feeds into the Union Station corridor. I decided to check the north signal which meant following some trail near the rails that offers a peak at one point. The signal glowed red, indicating a closed line north. Southbound train? Maybe, or maintenance work or something else. I ran a few hundred metres further to an open viewing point and prepped the camera just in case.
Within a minute came a heavy rumble form the north, and the sound of a ringing bell, definitely the Canadian. Passenger services through here always ring the warning bell. The Northlander when it would pass through had a quite loud and distinctive bell that could be heard well before it arrived. Sure enough, seconds later the Canadian pops into view, and on this morning had a decidedly sprite pace, unusual along this winding and aged section of Bala. 6435 lead, 6446 second, 19 Budds. The location granted a slightly lowered view and from the bright sunlit side. With the camera held well overhead to clear the ROW fencing, I grabbed my minute of video, another successful catch VIA's train #2 from Vancouver to Toronto.
After packing up the camera and heading back along the trail I rechecked the north signal...still red. I'm not sure how long the interval is before it switches status, or maybe there was something up line still holding it closed. Hard to tell. Maybe I just got lucky.
I haven't had much time to be out taking images of trains lately. There is a bridge under repair that connects my local area of Taylor Creek with Sunnybrook and it's throughly fenced in until the workers have completed their tasks. If you're familiar with the area, it's the bailey bridge that crosses the CN Bala tracks near Don Mills Road. The area has been undergoing renovations to replace the aging footbridge under Don Mills. That work is completed and now they are doing the decking on the bailey bridge. Before the bridge closure you could still navigate across Don Mills but a deckless bridge isn't very useful. Most people are just going around the fencing and cross the tracks but I have this inate refusal to tresspass on the Metrolinx right of way so I'm staying away from the area until the work is done.
Bala below Doncaster sees not a lot of CN action these days. VIA's Canadian #2 still uses it and Richmond Hill GO service on weekdays, but I haven't seen freight action there in months. CP's Belleville and North Toronto subs are my freight train sources these days. The bridge work at Don Mills makes this less accessible for the time being. I can still get around through the area near Cottonwood Flats if I have time for longer runs. The level CP crossing at Wicksteed needs only 25 minutes for me to get there with the bridge open, but over an hour with the bridge out. Summerhill is more accessible right now and Summerhill has better viewing, albeit not at track level. I did try a few longer shots of the Leaside yard area from Cottonwood Flats but there are just too many trees in the way.
The reliable Kingston sub is always nearby. 6:30AM and on that is one busy line. Mutliple GO trains an hour, plenty of VIA trains coming in and going out. Being wakey wakey with the ever earlier sun shining in through the window and the window opened a crack for air, the Lakeshore line gets mighty noisy. This morning I headed down Woodbine Avenue to the crossing north of Gerard Street just in time to catch VIA combo 50/52 heading to Ottawa and Montreal with it's unique two train tandem.
Blink and you'll miss it:
They don't have the high-speed train warning signs posted everywhere on that line for nothing.
While scoping out some other locations on the streets nearby I'm glad I had the camera rolling here for this GO eastbound unit:
Not the best location, it was over a fence at the base of Westlake Avenue just south of the Danforth, but it was a unique catch. This double-ender had two of GOs refurbished F59PH units, #564 up front and #563 tacked onto the rear. These 59s have to double up to meet the performance demands of 10 car passenger service as they lack the oomph of the MP40PH 4000HP powerhouses on most of GOs trains.
It's starting to brighten up out there. However, I will have to have a talk with those gophers that predicted an early spring because it's been anything but for the last several weeks.
I managed to turn an ankle while running frozen trail a couple of weeks ago on some ruts and sidelined myself for a week. I could have run as it doesn't really affect straightline running but I wanted to play it safe, and the less than desireable weather meant I didn't feel too bad about sitting around for a few days.
The trail system is peppered with signs informing users to stay off the trails in muddy conditions as this damages the slopes and really messes up the surface. I've been running them all winter and conditions have been good but it looks like plenty of people ignored the signs when the temps crawled over freezing and the trail was heavily rutted from walkers and a small handful of cyclists. After it froze over, which is when I ran it, it's like cobblestones turned on their edge and I managed to misjudge on a downhill, rolled my ankle and hobbled home. The swelling a couple of days later let me know it needed some rest.
Nonetheless, back at it this weekend and inspected the trails on Sunday. They seemed fine until I got to some messy muddy sections near Bayview Avenue and had to run off-trail. While high in the section near Bayview I heard a consist trundling it's way southbound on Bala near the trial crossing at the 5 mile mark. I had my camcorder with me and was a bit out of position for a clear shot which left me finding a reasonable opening through the trees. Much to my surprise, being a Sunday, it was VIA train #2, the Canadian, running more than a day late after being held up by snowstorms in Saskachewan.
Quite the catch as there isn't much activity on south Bala outside of the Canadian and the weekday GO commutes. I used to see a lot more freight action along this line. For freight action these days I hang out around the level CP crossing at Wicksteed when time allows:
GO's Richmond Hill train makes it's way northward on an early departure from Union Station to get New Year's Eve revellers home in time to get ready for the evening.
I positioned myself in the trails above Crother's Woods in the Don Valley with a wide view of this section of the Bala sub that runs just north of Pottery Road. The signals at a pedestrian trail crossing are marked as 4.92 on the crossbucks. Just really trying out this new camera in twilight conditions (Sony CX250), this being shot at 4:42PM on Dec. 31, 2012.
Upgrading to HD for my videos as Santa put a Sony CX250 under the tree with my name on it. After poking around with it in the house for a couple of days, I took it along with me on the trails, after a decent little 8 inches of snow came down late on Boxing Day. The trails are nicely runable with good packing snow down. With shorts on I did get a couple of "Aren't you cold?" questions coming my way with -6C temps. The cool air feels nice on the legs when your pushing through the snow as it burns calories a whole lot quicker than flat dry stuff. I managed all of last year with shorts although it really didn't have any of the really nasty cold days we can get up here.
Bala was quiet but the CP rail lines that comprise the Belleville and North Toronto subdivisions as well as Leaside Yard are always active. After making my way through the snowy trails to the Bayview Avenue I waited near the CP rail bridge over Bayview to see what might come my way. It never takes long and from the west came a consist of 115 tankers, two auxiliary cars and a pair of ES44ACs (8737 and 8784) leading . This one was unusual with an AC400CW unit 9585 pushing from behind for assistive power. The sound of the AC4400CW is quite distinct from it's ES44AC cousin, you hear it coming through near the end of the video.
Since I haven't had much opportunity to be catching anything new I figured I'd upload some clips I gathered of a lengthy CP consist doing some shunting in Leaside yard. I was passing through an open area in Crother's Woods just off the Bala line and heard some action high above in Leaside. With the trees bare you can see quite a bit of the western portion of the yard from the valley.
It started with 6 assorted CP power units coming into view, given away by the sheer noise of these units even this far down the valley. It stops to wait as a shorter CP unit speeds by westbound on the southern track, then proceeds down the North Toronto Subdivision in prep to drop off a set of hoppers in the yard. The consist was pretty mixed with some covered vehicle carriers, assorted tankers, the hoppers, some engineering and MOW units, and at the very back a GO unit probably used as a makeshift caboose for housing maintenance crews.
JayJr2007 grabbed some footage of a GO unit at the end of a CP freight consist in Parry Sound on November 29, likely the same unit, and again it appears in Lambton Yard on December 2 in my clip of the CP Holiday Train.
Lots of noise in this one as the cars rattle about while being positioned in Leaside. I wasn't going to get any power unit numbers unless I was carrying binoculars with me but it looked like an interesting assortment.
After seeing the initial action from the valley,I scooted up to the crossing at Bayview to get a little closer and better sound. After about 20 minutes or so it was getting fairly chilly standing on the hill in shorts and a couple of shirts so it was time to get moving again. Back in the trails of Crother's Woods I caught the end of the consist with the GO unit heading west and the hoppers left behind in Leaside.
Glad I took along the video today. I dropped off the car for service and hopped down into Crother's Woods, seeing it was a picture perfect sunny day for running some trail and maybe catch a unit going along Bala.
I was checking out an open area a bit north of Pottery Road, it's about 11 or so. After grabbing a couple of shots of a bridge, I was in between open sections and could hear a horn blast further north, followed shortly by activating signals at a foot trail crossing. I had to sprint back to an open area and luckily caught VIA Canadian #2 passing through. Odd setup with 4 power units up front lead by 6442, 6410, 6456 and 6441 in that order. Then the shorter winter consist of 10 cars.
After poking around the trails for a while, I wound my way back near the line and found the north signal showing red, and the south signal green. Nothing had gone north so either something was heading southward or track maintenance was happening further up the line.
I got a call that my car was ready for pickup and headed back up the trails to the dealership. Just before passing the waste treatment facility below the Redway Loblaws, a diesel sounds on the line. This is about 12:30. I'm a fair bit away but open the camera expecting a CN freight unit.
Surprise! It's another VIA! A more modern unit with light cars making it's way southbound. Not what I was expecting at all. I know of no other VIA units using Bala on a regular basis outside of the Canadian. I was too far away to see any numbers.
So two interesting catches. A 4 power unit short consist Canadian and a light modern Via unit.
Update: Apparently there is some problems with a building near Union Station in danger of collapsing onto the tracks. The Canadian was delayed and some other trains rerouted, notably VIA 84 out of Sarnia. This is most likely #84 as the timing fits.
