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H62 // CN Robbins
CP H62 holds at CN Robbins on the Stamford Sub, waiting for RTC to grant them a pass-stop to return to their train as daylight fades one day before the summer solstice.
I alluded to this day in my Stanpac post, having been my first attempt at documenting them being switched this summer. Prior to my recent epiphany that Stanpac is primarily worked by H61, I crossed the border on the Thursday immediately preceding the first day of summer on June 19th, or Juneteenth as it's come to be known in Buffalo and across the U.S. For Buffalo hockey fans, this is a day which lives in infamy however, as the famous Dallas Stars "no goal" happened on that day in 1999, securing a game six overtime Stanley Cup victory for Dallas over our hometown Buffalo Sabres. The 19th is also the birthday of someone whom I used to be very close with but fell out some years ago. So you could say I have some motivation to fill the 19th with better memories to offset all the negative ones associated with that day. This photo is one of my favorites I've snapped this year, so you could say I did alright on the memory front this year.
After picking up a couple friends in Niagara Falls on the Canadian side, we set off for Welland Yard with the hopes we'd hear the northbound unit on H62 calling for permission up to mile 39 on the Hamilton Sub. Instead we were greeted with the southbound unit calling for South Siding Switch Welland to Station Namesign Brookfield East, where the Hamilton Sub meets the CN Stamford Sub. This connection is used multiple times daily by CP and CN, mostly for CP road trains heading to and from the States, but also CN and CP locals interchanging on each other's railroads. Such was the case for H62 on this evening, handling an interchange run to CN's Southern Yard, where cars for/from some of CP's customers are obtained/passed off. Typically the other six days of the week, H61 will handle this run, but Thursdays seem to be a common exception to H61 covering that duty, instead passing it off to their second shift comrades who otherwise don't have any customers to serve on Thursday nights. This may be because H61 covers the Stanpac run to Smithville, and as a trade off H62 will venture over to CN in their place. Personally, I had never seen H62 make a Southern run. I heard them do it once way back in March this year, but I chalked it up as a one-off. Turns out this would become commonplace for them as a Thursday night activity throughout the summer. Intrigued by the different shot possibilities with the lighting, we stuck around in this day despite it not being what we were after. We set up our first spot at Yager on the Stamford Sub, a control point immediately south of Southern Yard, thinking we'd be shooting them pulling north. One of my friends has ATCS access for CN in the area, and we were surprised to find them lined past the west leg of the wye which they'd normally take up to Southern. Instead they were pulling past Robbins and shoving to the yard, resulting in a fake southbound shot at Yager.
While the crew worked, we couldn't help but speculate what they'd do coming back from Southern. Perhaps they'd shove back down to Robbins? Maybe they'd pull back south and run around? Was that leg of the wye actually out of service all night? Would they still run up to Smithville after getting back to Welland? (Spoiler: no.) The crew was friendly in this job since the departure of the old engineer who absolutely despised railfans, so we had that at least working in our favor, without fear of being called in anywhere we wanted to shoot them. The engineer that night even leaned out the cab window to yell hello at us when they first departed Welland. Huge improvement from past experiences with this job. Regardless of our speculation on the next move, the decision was to head to Robbins because we'd likely get something out of this job there if the wye was indeed out of service. Sure enough, the crew elected to pull back south, lined down the main on ATCS. In fact, at first it appeared they were lined all the way to Fort Erie without any opposing traffic, but that later turned out to be the routing for late night CN job L539, heading to CSX Frontier Yard from Port Robinson. By the time H62 was back down at Robbins, taking their sweet time to get there, sunset was approaching on the second longest daylight day of the year. They got their small train tied down on the south track not far past the eastern end of Robbins, cut away and ran light all the way to Robbins East, then back towards us up the north track to run around. The crew pulled up just past where we were set up and toned up RTC to obtain their pass-stop authorization with permission to return to their train. L530 was in Fort Erie at this point, returning from their interchange run to South Buffalo, and L539 was departing Port Robinson waiting for CP to get out of the way. With the crew stopped and blue hour setting in, we were firing off all the shots we could of them stopped at one of the Niagara region's iconic searchlight gantries. I caught a glimpse of the reflection on the rail and got down super low for this one, while listening to the crew repeating the pass-stop back to RTC three or four times, with a couple missed words here and there, radios cutting in and out. RTC takes their read-backs a lot more serious than the U.S. railroads it seems, with some flubbing of words and margin for error usually built in on NS and CSX. Not in Canada though. However many tries it takes to get something right word for word, they will make their crews repeat it until it's perfect. At last, H62 finally had their permission back against their train. They had to hold on the south track as L539 circumvented them on the north track, essentially running a through train into the siding to get around a stopped train on the main. We call that a River Line meet around here. After getting a couple short exposures of the signals and headlights of L539 passing, darkness had fallen for good across the region, and mosquitoes were becoming abundant. It was time to walk back to the car and call it a night. Not at all what I had hoped to see on this small trip, but some shots I'm no doubt thankful to have gotten that day in lieu of the one I came for. Now that I have both, I really can't complain at all. It's unique to say the least, and certainly something I don't expect to see again since the wye has been back in service. Gotta appreciate the little moments when you get the chance.
H62 // CN Robbins
CP H62 holds at CN Robbins on the Stamford Sub, waiting for RTC to grant them a pass-stop to return to their train as daylight fades one day before the summer solstice.
I alluded to this day in my Stanpac post, having been my first attempt at documenting them being switched this summer. Prior to my recent epiphany that Stanpac is primarily worked by H61, I crossed the border on the Thursday immediately preceding the first day of summer on June 19th, or Juneteenth as it's come to be known in Buffalo and across the U.S. For Buffalo hockey fans, this is a day which lives in infamy however, as the famous Dallas Stars "no goal" happened on that day in 1999, securing a game six overtime Stanley Cup victory for Dallas over our hometown Buffalo Sabres. The 19th is also the birthday of someone whom I used to be very close with but fell out some years ago. So you could say I have some motivation to fill the 19th with better memories to offset all the negative ones associated with that day. This photo is one of my favorites I've snapped this year, so you could say I did alright on the memory front this year.
After picking up a couple friends in Niagara Falls on the Canadian side, we set off for Welland Yard with the hopes we'd hear the northbound unit on H62 calling for permission up to mile 39 on the Hamilton Sub. Instead we were greeted with the southbound unit calling for South Siding Switch Welland to Station Namesign Brookfield East, where the Hamilton Sub meets the CN Stamford Sub. This connection is used multiple times daily by CP and CN, mostly for CP road trains heading to and from the States, but also CN and CP locals interchanging on each other's railroads. Such was the case for H62 on this evening, handling an interchange run to CN's Southern Yard, where cars for/from some of CP's customers are obtained/passed off. Typically the other six days of the week, H61 will handle this run, but Thursdays seem to be a common exception to H61 covering that duty, instead passing it off to their second shift comrades who otherwise don't have any customers to serve on Thursday nights. This may be because H61 covers the Stanpac run to Smithville, and as a trade off H62 will venture over to CN in their place. Personally, I had never seen H62 make a Southern run. I heard them do it once way back in March this year, but I chalked it up as a one-off. Turns out this would become commonplace for them as a Thursday night activity throughout the summer. Intrigued by the different shot possibilities with the lighting, we stuck around in this day despite it not being what we were after. We set up our first spot at Yager on the Stamford Sub, a control point immediately south of Southern Yard, thinking we'd be shooting them pulling north. One of my friends has ATCS access for CN in the area, and we were surprised to find them lined past the west leg of the wye which they'd normally take up to Southern. Instead they were pulling past Robbins and shoving to the yard, resulting in a fake southbound shot at Yager.
While the crew worked, we couldn't help but speculate what they'd do coming back from Southern. Perhaps they'd shove back down to Robbins? Maybe they'd pull back south and run around? Was that leg of the wye actually out of service all night? Would they still run up to Smithville after getting back to Welland? (Spoiler: no.) The crew was friendly in this job since the departure of the old engineer who absolutely despised railfans, so we had that at least working in our favor, without fear of being called in anywhere we wanted to shoot them. The engineer that night even leaned out the cab window to yell hello at us when they first departed Welland. Huge improvement from past experiences with this job. Regardless of our speculation on the next move, the decision was to head to Robbins because we'd likely get something out of this job there if the wye was indeed out of service. Sure enough, the crew elected to pull back south, lined down the main on ATCS. In fact, at first it appeared they were lined all the way to Fort Erie without any opposing traffic, but that later turned out to be the routing for late night CN job L539, heading to CSX Frontier Yard from Port Robinson. By the time H62 was back down at Robbins, taking their sweet time to get there, sunset was approaching on the second longest daylight day of the year. They got their small train tied down on the south track not far past the eastern end of Robbins, cut away and ran light all the way to Robbins East, then back towards us up the north track to run around. The crew pulled up just past where we were set up and toned up RTC to obtain their pass-stop authorization with permission to return to their train. L530 was in Fort Erie at this point, returning from their interchange run to South Buffalo, and L539 was departing Port Robinson waiting for CP to get out of the way. With the crew stopped and blue hour setting in, we were firing off all the shots we could of them stopped at one of the Niagara region's iconic searchlight gantries. I caught a glimpse of the reflection on the rail and got down super low for this one, while listening to the crew repeating the pass-stop back to RTC three or four times, with a couple missed words here and there, radios cutting in and out. RTC takes their read-backs a lot more serious than the U.S. railroads it seems, with some flubbing of words and margin for error usually built in on NS and CSX. Not in Canada though. However many tries it takes to get something right word for word, they will make their crews repeat it until it's perfect. At last, H62 finally had their permission back against their train. They had to hold on the south track as L539 circumvented them on the north track, essentially running a through train into the siding to get around a stopped train on the main. We call that a River Line meet around here. After getting a couple short exposures of the signals and headlights of L539 passing, darkness had fallen for good across the region, and mosquitoes were becoming abundant. It was time to walk back to the car and call it a night. Not at all what I had hoped to see on this small trip, but some shots I'm no doubt thankful to have gotten that day in lieu of the one I came for. Now that I have both, I really can't complain at all. It's unique to say the least, and certainly something I don't expect to see again since the wye has been back in service. Gotta appreciate the little moments when you get the chance.