A Quick One – Back On The Horse

Posted on May 5, 2013 by Adam Walker

Hey gang.

I once read somewhere that you aren’t supposed to mention a gap between posts on a blog, that it draws attention to the fact that you haven’t posted.  As if someone couldn’t compare the dates of the posts and see that its been a while since the last one went up.

Anyway, here’s something I did today to tide everyone over while I go back into the photos I’ve taken over the past few months and create coherent narratives around them.

I was driving around today, running some errands with my daughter and decided to turn on the scanner.  I heard nothing for a while, then something interesting: train 369, led by CN 2317. was going to stop at Oshawa to pick up a unit (CN 7046) to take to Mac yard.  Intrigued, we drove around the Whitby/Oshawa area, near Wentworth Yard where the units live that serve the local industries in Oshawa, Whitby, Pickering and east Scarborough.

Its hard to find a different spot around there and will become harder to shoot that area once the new GO maintenance facility is completed, so South Blair Street it was again!  I waited, impatiently, for them to come.  I had to walk up and down the road between where I parked and the crossing with my daughter on my shoulders as she was rather fussy.  They had some trouble hooking it into place behind the lead engine, which caused a delay in them getting moving.  Finally, I saw them come around the corner from the east and got back to my car and ready to shoot.

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And the money, both units in plain sight.

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You can see the air hose running down the side of the engine; this was the problem they had getting going.  I guess sometimes you just have to get things done!  Here’s a closer look.

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The CN GP9 fleet continues to do its grunt work, serving those local industries that still use rail.  In this case, this unit would also be working the GM yard in Oshawa, so not only small businesses.  The train also featured some heavy DPU in the form of CN 8821.

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It was a beautiful day to shoot and a beautiful day to start posting again!

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Year Two In Review

Posted on January 16, 2013 by Adam Walker

A bit delayed, but yes, The Walker Express has been live for two years!  Let’s take a quick trip down memory lane, shall we?

In January, I shot the late 6444 at Liverpool.

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And one of the last un-rebuilt VIA engines at Oriole.

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I travelled to New York via Amtrak, catching a number of interesting sights along the way.

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In New York, we took in the High Line…

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And on the way home, saw things in a different light.

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I celebrated 100 posts with a new place to shoot…

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And caught a slow-moving tiger by the tail on the Havelock sub. 

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I shot a special train (regardless of what those on CanPassRail might say).

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And I said good bye to a friend.

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I could go on and on, about the train shows, the Quick Ones, the Level Crossings.  I’m so glad to have been able to share these experiences with all those who read and enjoy my adventures with trains.  I was blessed this year with the birth of my daughter Audrey and felt the loss of my grandmother, the last of my grandparents to pass away.  It’s been a ride this year, certainly more varied and unexpected than my first.  I’m very much looking forward to the future, to all the experiences I hope to have myself and those I hope to share with my daughter.  Thanks for reading!

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A Quick One – Cloud F—-d

Posted on December 18, 2012 by Adam Walker

I was out and about on November 24th and stopped by the Pickering GO station to try and catch a westbound VIA which had left Oshawa about ten minutes before.  When I arrived the sky was very pleasant, looking like this:

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But the clouds thought they’d fool around with me, passing in front of the sun as the train approached, resulting in some much darker than expected shots.  You can see the sliver of sun behind the last car, obscured by the completed but incomplete pedestrian bridge.

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This was train 55 from Montreal, with VIA 6414 leading 4 LRC cars.  Here are two shots, seconds apart, but I liked them both too much to not have both of them up.

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Catching 6414 in action continues my streak of non-repeating lead units, dating back a number of posts and many months.  One day this will end, but I’m going to ride it for as long as I can.

(thanks to Wayne Shaw for the inspiration for the title of this post)

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Level Crossings I’ve Known… – Mile 177.49, CP Belleville Sub

Posted on December 11, 2012 by Adam Walker

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After going to the Whitby Model Train show, I went down Hopkins Street to the level crossing at the old Ralston Purina factory.  I’ve crossed this more times than I can count, back to when I was a very young kid driving around with my parents.  This crossing is at the marker board for Whitby on the CP Belleville sub.  The board is just west of the crossing.

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Obeying the sign, all shots are taken from the street with a zoom lens – I don’t (usually) trespass.  Anyway, there is a siding from just west of here to just east of Brock Street.  My wife told me there were some old maroon CP cars on this siding, right on the bridge at Brock Street on the Thursday.  They were unfortunately gone by the time I got out to Whitby on Saturday the 17th.  Here’s the view to the east, towards the spur to the GM plant. 

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There was a fair amount of traffic as I stood shooting, so I stopped and got back in the car.  Another level crossing successfully catalogued!

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An Exceptionally Quick One…

Posted on December 10, 2012 by Adam Walker

Someone is still upset with LeBron James and chose a railway car to express it.

Warning: this contains some salty language.  Courtesy of The Basketball Jones

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Whitby Model Train Show 2012

Posted on December 4, 2012 by Adam Walker

A relatively quick one on the Whitby Model Train Show from November 17th.  Many of the usual suspects were present (Belleville, Ganaraska, Miner Junction, etc.), so here are a few I hadn’t seen before.

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The Erin Mills N scale setup was very good, lots of detail and interesting components.  I’m fascinated by how much you can do with very little space when it comes to N scale, but also by how dynamic it can be when used on a big layout.  Obviously, I still love my HO, but look at the track work here…

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And here…

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and here…

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I’m looking forward to maybe seeing them again at shows in the future!  But N scale wasn’t the smallest at this show – for the first time here on The Walker Express, observe the awesome power of Z scale!

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Okay, maybe not.  But it was very small and neat to see up close.  For those looking for time period accuracy, look no further than the Pickering club’s N scale layout. featuring your standard, common place T-Rex!  Watch out GO commuters!

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The neatest thing for me was the N Scale work of Jerry Randall and his Ontario Northland collection:

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This guy has got some serious talent and dedication and I was very pleased to make his acquaintance.  I opted not to try and shoot close-ups of each of his pieces, because he’s already done a superb job of doing so on his own website.  Hopefully there will be more for him to model in the future!

With that, I was just about finished.  I don’t think there are any more shows I’ll be going to until February when Ganaraska is on out in Port Hope.  Until then, maybe I’ll spend a bit more quality time down in the basement and get some actual work done on my own layout.  New Falkenburg, here I come!

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CP Holiday Train 2012 – Oshawa

Posted on December 1, 2012 by Adam Walker

My wife and I took our daughter to see the Canadian Pacific Holiday Train at Oshawa this year.  You may recall that we went last year, just the two of us and had a bit of fun.  This year, we were joined by my parents, as well as my sister and her husband and daughter.  It was quite cold and the crowd was a bit less large this time, although I believe we got there earlier this time than last.  The train approached from the east about five minutes earlier than scheduled, led by CP 9815.

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Followed immediately by the decorated boxcars…

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I attempted a long shot of the first four cars…

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At the same time, an eastbound container train rolled by, taking the track behind the Holiday Train but going faster than I expected.  No shots of it, exactly, but you can see it passing in some of the shots above and below.

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Santa was on board, of course.  He disappeared back into the train after it came to a full stop.  Old time maroon passenger cars brought up the rear, as per last year.

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A number of musicians were on board, starting with the Brothers Dube.  Here’s a “concert” shot if I’ve ever seen one.

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And with that, we were on our way.  Much too cold to stay, especially since it wasn’t really geared towards adults or very young kids.  But it was a lot of fun and nice to share with my family.  Hopefully it’ll be back again next year!

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A Quick One – VIA 913 at Harwood

Posted on November 27, 2012 by Adam Walker

I stopped in at the Harwood Avenue overpass on November 17th to try and catch a quick eastbound VIA.  I could see that I hadn’t missed it, since the eastbound signal on the south track was still open.

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It timed out nicely, so I only had to wait a few minutes before 44 was coming my way.

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As it approached, I was able to zoom in and see that it was being led by VIA 913.

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And the rear shot, now with the south track signal closed.

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Developments at Grace

Posted on November 20, 2012 by Adam Walker

I try and drive by Grace Chemical every couple of days to see if there is a car on one of their tracks.  I haven’t seen anything there since June 2011 and there have been de-railers on both of their tracks for sometime, but you never know.  The other day I saw that they had fenced off a large section of their rail area and I feared the worst: they were pulling up the tracks.  I’m pleased to report that it doesn’t necessarily seem like that’s the case.  It looks like they might be doing something to the building or the track bed, but the tracks look like they’re still in place and not all the track is covered by fence.

Anyway, I started shooting from the north side.  You can see piles of some kind of aggregate, along with caution tape and snow fencing.

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There were some interesting looking tools (?) lying around, such as this thing.

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Here’s the area from the south.  Much nicer with the sun from behind me.

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As I mentioned, there have been de-railers on the tracks.  I finally have a shot of one – they’ve been there for months but I’ve been a little bit lazy.

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One more, as I headed back to my car. 

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I’d like to say that a guy in an SUV rolled up about twenty seconds after I parked and just sat in his car the whole time I was there.  He wasn’t watching me, since I kept one eye on him while shooting, but it didn’t make it any less creepy.

Anyone heard anything about Grace Chemicals in Ajax?  Google isn’t terribly helpful and I don’t have anyone on the inside there (as I kind of do at some of the other places like Mead).

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A Quick One – VIA 920 at Harwood

Posted on November 6, 2012 by Adam Walker

I was out and about on October 13th and decided to setup at the Harwood Avenue overpass to catch one of the morning westbound VIA trains as they headed for Toronto.  This day was interesting, weather-wise, with spots of rain, snow, sun and cloud.  I was hoping for a bit of sun while shooting and got just that – a bit.  I heard little action related to the coming VIA, more for CN, but sure enough it came along.  It hit the detector in east Whitby, already at 89 MPH having just left Oshawa station.  Here it is splitting the signals at mile 304 on the Kingston sub.

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It was flying at this point, but I managed to get a fairly clear one just as it came close to the bridge.

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VIA 920, which I hadn’t seen outside of being part of this consist last year.  That was it for this part of the day.  I heard a bit more action on the scanner, but that’s for another day.

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