Monday Afternoon August 4, 2003 At Smiths Falls

[railwaybob]

I also happened to be in Smiths Falls on the August holiday around 4pm. (It seems as if I have no choice but to be going home through Smiths Falls a lot!) I was running a bit late getting home from Brockville but decided to drop by the VIA/CP Rail station for half an hour. Two SD-40-2s (#5774 and #5587 ) were idling on the runaround track on the other side of the north main line with a string of boxcars, tankers, and hoppers headed for North Bay.

 

[railwaybob]

Shortly after I arrived, the Toronto-bound VIA (Genesis P42 #911) pulled in from Ottawa off of the VIA Smiths Falls sub onto the south main line.

 

[railwaybob]

This is #611 pulled into the station

 

[railwaybob]

I expected that, as soon as they had loaded their passengers, #611 would be pulling off the south main line onto the the CPR Brockville sub. However, the signal light stayed red - with very good reason. The Ottawa-bound VIA (F40PH #6404) came around the corner about 15 minutes later

 

[railwaybob]

As soon as #6404 cleared the switch, the signal turned green over red for #611 to head down the CPR Brockville sub.

 

[railwaybob]

And #6404 kept on going, switched north onto the VIA Smiths Falls sub around the corner and carried on to Ottawa.

 

[railwaybob]

But the action didn't end there. No sooner had the VIA #6404 disappeared around the corner to the north, when SD40-2 #5774 and #5587 uncoupled from their train, proceeded west, switched over to the north main line, then to the south main line and stayed at the far western end of the line.

 

[railwaybob]

Behind the strings of freight cars in the yards in front of me, I heard the sound of two locos starting up. A string of about 12 freight cars were being pushed out of the yard by two GP9s (#8231 and #8220), westwards towards the two SD40s. The freight moved out of the yard onto the north main line.

 

[railwaybob]

The two GP9s then moved back east on the north main towards the station and stopped- right in front of me.

 

[railwaybob]

Another shot

 

[railwaybob]

Then the two SD40s came back from the west end on the south main and stopped. #5587 was low on water and had to be refilled. So, here I had two GP9s (#8231 and #8220) on the north main and two SD40-2s (#5774 and #5587) on the south main.

 

[railwaybob]

As I moved to the SD40-2s, the two GP9s started to move down the line, crossed over to the south main and onto the Brockville sub chasing the tail end of VIA #611- maybe delivering cars to the industries down in Brockville or perhaps for an interchange with CN?

 

[railwaybob]

And out onto the Brockville sub

 

[railwaybob]

Oops, it was 6:30 pm and I was long overdue home. How time flies when you're watching the trains.

 

[Clerk]

Nice groupe of shots Railwaybob. It sure paid off for your stop.