CP #2816 at Smiths Falls

There was a fair bit of action at Smiths Falls on Friday 28 May. CP #2816 arrived around 4pm but I missed her entry by about 45 minutes. However, I did arrive in time to see lots of action. CP #2816 had to back down the south main line to reach a fire hydrant to fill the tenders with water. As such, she was blocking one of the two main lines and, more importantly, one of the crossovers from the CN Smiths Falls sub. But she was clear of the crossover that would take CP freights from the north main line to the south main line - but with not a lot of clearance. It was slow orders all the way through.

First was the Toronto-bound VIA which has just come off the CN Smiths Falls sub from Ottawa. It will continue on the north main until just after the CP Smiths Falls station before it turns onto CP's Brockville sub.

Quite a contrast between the old and the new.
 

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The VIA train is moving towards the station platform. However, it doesn't make a stop at Smiths Falls so it will continue on to the CP Brockville sub and on to Toronto. You'll notice that the police are keeping people away from the tracks and the loco as there's going to be quite a lot of train activity here.
 

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Next up are a couple of CP freights with AC4400s on the front end with some older SD40s. The train on the north track came in behind CP #2816 on the south track and is crossing over to the north track from the crossover which is located just behind the last passenger car on #2816. It will take the crossover just east of the VIA station and cross back over to the south track and continue on to Montreal. This train is an auto-rack that was loaded with brand new cars.
 

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CP #9680, an AC4400, had come in from Montreal and was sitting on Siding #1 waiting for some freights to get by. This was a heavy freight with a fair number of tank cars, covered hoppers, bulk-head flats with lumber loads, and a few empty grain cars.
 
Now came the interesting part. A Toronto-bound VIA train has just come off VIA's Smiths Falls sub from Ottawa. However, it's going to meet the Ottawa-bound VIA train from Toronto which will be coming off CP's Brockville sub. Normally, this isn't a problem as the Toronto-bound VIA train arrives first, taking the crossovers so that it's on the south main line. It waits for the Ottawa-bound VIA which comes off CPs Brockville sub. The Ottawa-bound train takes the crossovers as it comes off the Brockville sub and ends up on the north main line.

However, there's a problem. CP #2816 is blocking the crossovers so that the Toronto-bound VIA train can't get onto the south main. It has to take the north main. How's the Ottawa-bound train going to get by?
 

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The VIA Toronto-bound train simply pulled ahead and took the crossover east of the VIA station as if it was heading down the CP south main line to Montreal. And stopped. Then, in came the VIA Ottawa-bound train from Brockville which took the same crossover, ended up on the north main line, carried on down the line and took the crossovers to VIA's Smiths Falls sub and on to Ottawa.

Then the VIA Toronto-bound train backed up until it had cleared the crossover, waited until the turnouts had aligned, and took off down CP's Brockville sub.

Which made for some interesting train movements.
 
By this time, CP #2816 had finished filling her tenders with water from a small fire hose and was ready to move to a siding in the freight yard for the night. The crowds had tired of waiting and most had moved on. First, she backed up west so that she could gain access to the freight-yard leads, then she moved forward.
 

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For a few minutes, I though she might derail as she was taking some of those turnouts at quite a clip.
 

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However, she navigated the turnouts quite easily pulling a fair string of business cars.
 

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By this time, it was about 6:30, I was hungry so I went and got a bite to eat. On my way back home, around 7:30 pm, I decided to take a last minute shot. Here's CP#2816 parked on the siding for the night. Some people were tempted to cross the tracks to get a closer look. However, this wasn't a good idea. Those tracks are live with fast freights coming in all directions. And there were at least a half dozen police making sure that nobody came within distance of the train.
 

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MasonJar

It's not rocket surgery
Bob - nice pictures! I will have to catch her on the return trip, which may require a day off... ;)

Andrew
 

spitfire

Active Member
Wow!

Fantastic photos Bob!!!! And your descriptions of the train movements are fascinating. I would guess from your knowlege that you railfan this spot fairly often. Thanks for sharing!

:thumb: :thumb: :thumb: :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

Val
 
Smiths Falls is only 30 minutes from my place. On the weekends, it's standard operating procedure to take a trip to Merrickville (best MR hobby shop in Canada), Brockville, Prescott, and Smiths Falls. Smiths Falls is a crew-change point with some GP9s, GP30s which do a bit of local switching. However, with the proposed changes on hours of work, I don't think it will remain a crew-change point for much longer. Even now, the auto-racks and Iron Road trains don't stop.
 
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