Check this out, it's a location link in Google maps. Zoom a notch and pan after you open it.
https://maps.google.ca/maps?hl=en&ll=43.644515,-79.380346&spn=0.002935,0.004823&t=h&z=17
This is Union Station in Toronto. The train that juts out the east and west ends of the platform appears to be the VIA Canadian, the giveaway being the observation dome on the tapered end car on the east (right) side. A pair of engines, the first car and part of the second car protrude the west side while the trailing 3 cars and part of the 4th protrude the east side. Obviously too long for the platform, I guess to board and de-board, either shunt the cars to position in stages or everyone passes through to the platform adjacent cars.
I'd never noticed it before in the maps. Neat.
Showing posts with label Canadian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Canadian. Show all posts
Monday, 11 February 2013
Saturday, 17 November 2012
Unusual Sightings on a Saturday Bala Subdivision
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.
http://www.680news.com/news/local/article/422855--dozens-of-via-customers-affected-as-trains-re-routed-over-fears-of-unsafe-building-near-the-track
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.
http://www.680news.com/news/local/article/422855--dozens-of-via-customers-affected-as-trains-re-routed-over-fears-of-unsafe-building-near-the-track
Saturday, 15 September 2012
Another VIA Canadian vid
I was heading over to Bayview Avenue to check out the area around the CP overpass after reading a bit of this web page on rudy.ca about Old Pottery Road. I wanted to see if the area had any good viewing locations for the CP Belleville sub section that crosses this location. After crossing along Pottery Road and heading up Bayview Avenue, I heard the crossing signals at Pottery go off. I turned to catch the VIA Canadian train #2, but too far up the hill to make it back down in time to get a closer view. It's still an interesting viewpoint, higher up the hill, and you can watch it wind it's away beside lower Bayview on it's way to Union Station.
As for Old Pottery Road, the area is under construction by Hydro One as they have been working on the new towers just south of the CP Rails, and views shown in Rudy's page above are not accessible at this point. I suspect that once completed, any good viewing access that existed to the CP line will no longer be there.
As for Old Pottery Road, the area is under construction by Hydro One as they have been working on the new towers just south of the CP Rails, and views shown in Rudy's page above are not accessible at this point. I suspect that once completed, any good viewing access that existed to the CP line will no longer be there.
Saturday, 1 September 2012
I'll have a Canadian, please
Last Tuesday, on a day off, I headed down the valley with intent to catch Via's Canadian on it's eastbound run from Vancouver. Upon crossing under Don Mills, I'm sure I heard the distinctive metal on metal sound of a railcar on the Bala line. My thought was that it might be the Canadian running a bit early, which is always a possibility. Scheduled arrival in Washago is 6:30 AM, leaving some 3 hours to reach Union Station. It doesn't take 3 hours to get from Washago to Toronto, so if there's no blocking line traffic and it makes Washago on time, it could easily arrive early.
At this location, the northbound ONR's Northlander is always bang on time, as it only 5 miles out from the station. On that particular morning it was a few minutes late, which reinforced my thought that some southbound rail traffic did hold it up by a couple of minutes. I'd also missed it by about a minute as I was late getting out the door and didn't quite get into position.
Having missed the Northlander, I arrived at a level crossing at the rec trails a bit north of Pottery Road. It has a nice bridge over the Don River and a good viewing angle, an interesting location for catching some traffic. It has a set of signals to give a little advanced warning of an oncoming train. My hope was to catch the Canadian here as it crosses the bridge. However, after waiting around for almost 2 hours, there was no sign of the Canadian that morning, nor any other traffic since the Northlander went through, and so I headed back through the trails and home.
...
Skip forward to today (Saturday), I got up considerably earlier and headed back to the same crossing. No Northlander today as it doesn't run on Saturdays, but I was plenty early to not get caught off guard by an early arriving Via.
Bala can be mighty quiet on a Saturday morning. I could hear the occasional freight high up the valley along CP's Belleville sub. It was a good hour in when the crossing lights came on and the bell started ringing. Too bad the engine sound was from the south instead of the norh, so it wasn't the Canadian. Instead a GO train on it's way to Richmond Hill came through, lead by MP40PH-3C unit #613. The video's unfortunately rather shaky. I leave steadyshot off for close trains as the steadyshot highly distorts the image for large / close moving objects. It does give an idea of what this crossing looks like.
Figuring it would be 15 or more minutes before any southbound traffic could show up, given that it's all single tracked to north of York Mills Road, I jogged down to Pottery Road and back just to stay moving and keep my legs from tightening up. Returning back, I waited around for another lengthy period. It was well after 10 and I wasn't feeling much like waiting around too much more. I decided to head back along the north trail as it stays near the track area and gives the occasional good viewing spot should something happen by. I was less than a minute away when I could hear the crossing signals going off and high tailed it back, too late to catch any power unit so I was hoping to myself 'please just be a GO unit'. Sure enough, the familiar green and white double-deckers were passing by S/B, so I breathed a sigh of relief and returned back to the trail and headed north.
Now, the city is busy rebuilding the pedestrian walkways on the trail at Don Mills. As a result, it takes some inventiveness to get around the fenced off construction areas. For the crossing at Don Mills into ET Seton Park, you have to scale a somewhat steep rise to Don Mills Road, cross the roadway, then back onto the regular trail and to the bridge. The footbridge is not part of the construction. On it, I had to get on my hands and knees and peer low to see the railway signal to the south, which glowed green. The signals are in crappy locations down here and are almost useless to figure out traffic conditions on the line for railfanning.
Standing on the bridge, it's about 15 minutes back home from there, it's quarter to 11 and I've been out since 7:30. I'm standing and pondering whether to give a few minutes first and then leave, or leave now, when a very distinctive blast of a horn to the north beyond the bend in the rails made the decision for me. Opened the Sony and positioned it, resting my hand against part of the bridge, and there it is...Via Canadian train #2, eastbound from Vancouver, rolling nice and easy through the valley. A couple of extra blasts from it's horn (the first one caught me off guard and my hand jerked) echoed off the surrounding area. #6429 leads #6411 in tandem, with 21 stainless steel Budd cars in tow (including 3 domed units). Lots of passengers were seated in the domes taking in the final views of the valley as their trip was coming to an end.
At this location, the northbound ONR's Northlander is always bang on time, as it only 5 miles out from the station. On that particular morning it was a few minutes late, which reinforced my thought that some southbound rail traffic did hold it up by a couple of minutes. I'd also missed it by about a minute as I was late getting out the door and didn't quite get into position.
Having missed the Northlander, I arrived at a level crossing at the rec trails a bit north of Pottery Road. It has a nice bridge over the Don River and a good viewing angle, an interesting location for catching some traffic. It has a set of signals to give a little advanced warning of an oncoming train. My hope was to catch the Canadian here as it crosses the bridge. However, after waiting around for almost 2 hours, there was no sign of the Canadian that morning, nor any other traffic since the Northlander went through, and so I headed back through the trails and home.
...
Skip forward to today (Saturday), I got up considerably earlier and headed back to the same crossing. No Northlander today as it doesn't run on Saturdays, but I was plenty early to not get caught off guard by an early arriving Via.
Bala can be mighty quiet on a Saturday morning. I could hear the occasional freight high up the valley along CP's Belleville sub. It was a good hour in when the crossing lights came on and the bell started ringing. Too bad the engine sound was from the south instead of the norh, so it wasn't the Canadian. Instead a GO train on it's way to Richmond Hill came through, lead by MP40PH-3C unit #613. The video's unfortunately rather shaky. I leave steadyshot off for close trains as the steadyshot highly distorts the image for large / close moving objects. It does give an idea of what this crossing looks like.
Figuring it would be 15 or more minutes before any southbound traffic could show up, given that it's all single tracked to north of York Mills Road, I jogged down to Pottery Road and back just to stay moving and keep my legs from tightening up. Returning back, I waited around for another lengthy period. It was well after 10 and I wasn't feeling much like waiting around too much more. I decided to head back along the north trail as it stays near the track area and gives the occasional good viewing spot should something happen by. I was less than a minute away when I could hear the crossing signals going off and high tailed it back, too late to catch any power unit so I was hoping to myself 'please just be a GO unit'. Sure enough, the familiar green and white double-deckers were passing by S/B, so I breathed a sigh of relief and returned back to the trail and headed north.
Now, the city is busy rebuilding the pedestrian walkways on the trail at Don Mills. As a result, it takes some inventiveness to get around the fenced off construction areas. For the crossing at Don Mills into ET Seton Park, you have to scale a somewhat steep rise to Don Mills Road, cross the roadway, then back onto the regular trail and to the bridge. The footbridge is not part of the construction. On it, I had to get on my hands and knees and peer low to see the railway signal to the south, which glowed green. The signals are in crappy locations down here and are almost useless to figure out traffic conditions on the line for railfanning.
Standing on the bridge, it's about 15 minutes back home from there, it's quarter to 11 and I've been out since 7:30. I'm standing and pondering whether to give a few minutes first and then leave, or leave now, when a very distinctive blast of a horn to the north beyond the bend in the rails made the decision for me. Opened the Sony and positioned it, resting my hand against part of the bridge, and there it is...Via Canadian train #2, eastbound from Vancouver, rolling nice and easy through the valley. A couple of extra blasts from it's horn (the first one caught me off guard and my hand jerked) echoed off the surrounding area. #6429 leads #6411 in tandem, with 21 stainless steel Budd cars in tow (including 3 domed units). Lots of passengers were seated in the domes taking in the final views of the valley as their trip was coming to an end.
I didn't get to catch it at the crossing I wanted, but this was pretty good substitute. It really is a magnificent train to see, especially in the valley I can only imagine what it's like to ride in.
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