Non-Stop, Balls To The Wall
A great place to see a lot of action in a foreign land not so far from home was Brockville, Ontario. A short hop across the border in northern New York and you were transported into a balls to the wall mainline railroad know as the Canadian National. This double track main line between Montreal, PQ and Toronto, Ontario hosted dozens of freight trains and an almost an equal number of passenger trains. It also was the split of the CN to Ottawa. Some train would split power and cars at this point in order to serve both lines from one train out of Toronto or join trains if going west. The swap of these trains took less time than a regular Amtrak station stop! The mix of Alco/MLW power on both the CN and VIA outdid any US road during the mid 80's. So called "Rapidos" zipped through town at speeds shaming anything that ran on the rails to south. The friendly agents always gave a "heads up" if anything "special" was coming, like an all MLW consist. On VIA, everything was special. Which brings me to my "F-Unit Friday". Loads of MLW FP4's and GMD F's were a dime a dozen at the time and in the 80's a hard find south of the border. Here we find FP9A #6541 making a quick stop as it heads west at Brockville. Oh, did I mention steam heated passenger trains?
Non-Stop, Balls To The Wall
A great place to see a lot of action in a foreign land not so far from home was Brockville, Ontario. A short hop across the border in northern New York and you were transported into a balls to the wall mainline railroad know as the Canadian National. This double track main line between Montreal, PQ and Toronto, Ontario hosted dozens of freight trains and an almost an equal number of passenger trains. It also was the split of the CN to Ottawa. Some train would split power and cars at this point in order to serve both lines from one train out of Toronto or join trains if going west. The swap of these trains took less time than a regular Amtrak station stop! The mix of Alco/MLW power on both the CN and VIA outdid any US road during the mid 80's. So called "Rapidos" zipped through town at speeds shaming anything that ran on the rails to south. The friendly agents always gave a "heads up" if anything "special" was coming, like an all MLW consist. On VIA, everything was special. Which brings me to my "F-Unit Friday". Loads of MLW FP4's and GMD F's were a dime a dozen at the time and in the 80's a hard find south of the border. Here we find FP9A #6541 making a quick stop as it heads west at Brockville. Oh, did I mention steam heated passenger trains?