1513 results for Cambridge; refer to date index:

December 13th, 2003

Steve and I spent a few minutes track-side on the Galt sub and then went up to visit the Toyota plant at Cambridge.

February 15th, 2004

With my regular camera getting a new LCD at Canon, I borrowed Laura's point and shoot analog camera and got the pictures back a week later on CD. This is the result of one roll of film. We caught 2 ex-Amtrak MMA F40PHs and CP 9303 switching the Waterloo sub. Interesting day.

April 29th, 2004

Laura and I headed down to work from the Junction again. The day started out nicely with OSR and CP's Guelph Junction turn working together in the Goderich wye. At 9pm, we found out two Alaska units were dispatched out of London on train 724. We scrambled to Galt station where we caught them at 23:48, catching them again at Guelph Line road in Campbellville at 00:16.

December 5th, 2004

GEXR laid CWR on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Saturday they worked for more than 14 hours straight in intense rain, but Sunday was a beautiful day and they were able to wrap up their work within only about 6 more hours. By the time I found them they only had 2 pairs of strands left to lay, and only one of them was near enough to a public road for me to see.

In the evening, CP's 2004 US-bound holiday train (there is a second holiday train which heads North and ends up in British Columbia) stopped in at the Galt station. Though I heard its clearance from Guelph Junction to Orr's Lake on the scanner, we didn't leave till later on and only caught it moments before it left.

May 25th, 2005

CP set out some CWR on the Galt sub around Galt/Cambridge.

October 30th, 2005

VIA 6403 - the CBC unit - was on VIA #85. I heard it too late to catch it, but tried anyway, getting it through some bushes. It met 432 at East siding switch Kitchener and I caught 432 through Guelph with 3 units and 2 cars at the station about 30 minutes after missing 85. Later on, Jay warned of a CEFX yellow on CP #248. We went for it, and caught CP #159 and #243 as well, though we were not expecting them.

December 3rd, 2005

Jay saw CP #424 go by Woodstock with an SD90/43MAC on it, so I took the opportunity to go down to Galt station and experiment with the various manual modes on my new camera.

December 31st, 2005

Acting on a tip from further up the line, we mobilised for an interesting leader on London Pickup, making for a very nice conclusion to 2005...

March 3rd, 2006

We ran down to Galt station to catch CP #138 and #147 and then heard 42 axles with a hotbox at mile 42.6 Galt sub with no clearance. Putting two and two together quickly we found a Loram grinder hard at work. Shot the heck out of it!

March 9th, 2006

A second CP #138 left London and it was suspected it might have an interesting engine on it. Did it ever!

April 15th, 2006

We went down to Copetown to start the day and ended up moving around over the next 11 hours or so, catching 15 trains. Not bad for a holiday weekend!

June 9th, 2006

Galt yard got a beaver-painted GP38, so I went down to shoot it and CP #424 lifting CP 3097.

June 20th, 2006

Steve and I headed down to Galt to see what we could see on the second longest day of the year. Typical for CP, though, most of the traffic waited until after dark to run. We saw CP #424, #243, London pickup, Galt yard job, #137, an eastbound, and #127.

June 30th, 2006

As a result of severe flooding in New York, Pennsylvania, and parts of New England, many detour trains are running on the CN and CP in Canada. We caught CSX #Q380 at the Galt bridge in strong storm lighting.

October 8th, 2006

We headed down to Bayview for part of the day, catching VIA #70, CN #385, and CN #148 there, CN #385 again at Paris, CN #390 at Paris and again back at Bayview, my first bi-directional chase. #385 had a BNSF GEVO trailing, #148 had CN 2237 leading, and #390 had WC 6497 leading, an exceedingly rare catch. Later on, I heard a westbound on the Galt, and, hoping for some fall colours shots finally, failed miserably and shot 2 GEs on an intermodal at Galt station. We then heard a northbound get a clearance on the Hamilton sub, catching it on the bridge at Carlisle after sunset, and beat it back up to Campbellville.

November 23rd, 2006

The Royal Canadian Pacific, CPR's business train, came to the Galt sub. In spite of nearly blinding fog, an army of railfans went to Guelph Junction for it. My whole day can be summarised as: Guelph Junction: CP #142, RCP, Milton/Trafalgar Road: RCP, CP #243, Scotch Block/mp30: CN #385, #148, #394, #271, Guelph Junction, Moffat, Corwhin, Arkell: OSR northbound chase, Guelph: OSR/GEXR #432, Cambridge/Galt: CP #159, #741, #141, with CP London Pickup working in the background, and CP #257, one unit light power, hiding just out of sight. Not a bad day!

December 17th, 2006

We got up well before dawn to arrive at Paris on time for the two endangered NS trains in spite of poor weather. NS #328 showed up with two cars exactly at sunrise, followed by VIA #70, #71, CN #391 with interesting power, CN #148, and NS #327 with a conrail-painted leader. We headed up to Ayr and caught CP #159 followed shortly by CP #257, a single unit light power, before heading to Breslau for VIA #85 and GEXR #432... which chose this day to not run.

January 6th, 2007

Derailment! CP London Pickup picked the north wye switch at Galt yard and put both units on the ground at around 20:30. We went down to see what we could see, catching CP #244 at Killean siding on the way in. Earlier in the day, CN #271 had a UP leader with an unpatched SP SD40 elephant style, but I was unable to see it, and in the afternoon, I tied CP #158 to the nearest crossing to my house on the Galt sub with 2 GEVOs in atrocious lighting and rain.

March 3rd, 2007

We headed down to Cambridge for CP #139, #257, #241, and #198.

March 18th, 2007

While Shane reported 13 trains with foreign power through the day, I caught only 5 trains and none of them with foreign power: CP #257, #242, #424, #243, and CN #271, the latter of which passed through Paris during the 15 minutes in the day the sun was not out.

April 22nd, 2007

We started our day dropping off family at Pearson airport where I got a call that there was a WC unit on 396 going over the Credit. Off we went to Bramalea GO via the 427 just barely tieing the train to the station and shooting it into the sun. From there we went to Georgetown for lunch and got another call, this time about a UP unit on CP #424 through Woodstock so we left without even stopping at the station catching CN #422 at the 10 Sideroad crossing at mile 30 by chance on the way through. We caught #424 at Puslinch, went down to Bayview where we caught CN #431 wyeing, up to Brantford where #580 was working and another phone call, this time about CP #240 through Woodstock with a SOO leader and 2 BNSFs. We rushed up to Cambridge, barely beating it to the bridge. He worked Cambridge for a while, lifting a unit, and then went off to make a brief set off at Guelph Junction. After getting #240 at Guelph Junction we went to mile 30 for CN #148 with a ratty war bonnet trailing and then came home.

May 5th, 2007

We went to mile 30 for CN #396 with CN-UP(SP)-UP-IC(CN) and CN #399 with CN-NS, waited around for CN #148 with sequentially numbered units and CN #393, then went to Campbellville hill for what I believe was CP #424, and Galt for CP #198 - which we missed, CP #243, and CP #257.

July 15th, 2007

Mike warned of 5 UPY gensets on 2-241 by West Toronto diamond at 16:07. We headed down to Galt bridge for them, shooting them in overcast conditions.

July 20th, 2007

I ran down to Galt bridge for a few minutes to catch CP 242 with 4 CN units, 198, and the ballast train on the bridge. The clouds got me for the first two, though. In the evening, I ran back down to Galt bridge for CP 240 with 2 more CN units, catching another eastbound on my way home.

July 23rd, 2007

I missed the train of the month on the Galt sub as it was through the Junction before 7 in the morning, with 2 CN and 6 BNSF units with no CP power on CP 242-21. In the evening the two CNs returned on 241-23 and I went down to Galt bridge for them.

July 24th, 2007

CP 198-19 had 4 UP Green Goats and a beat up old UP SD40 lettered for Railpower. I shot London Pickup, 424, 198, and 158 at Galt bridge.

August 30th, 2007

We stayed in Easton, Maryland after a late-night drive to the Maryland-Delaware penninsula, and headed directly for Federalsburg, Maryland for the Maryland and Delaware. We found the company's shops and office in short order, and a pleasant company employee when asked told us that the train was on its way to Cambridge, Maryland, and would be going across the entire network to the interchange with NS at Seaford, Delaware, before returning to Hurlock Junction. Acting on this information, we went directly to Cambridge where we found that the railway's self-touted tracks to the harbour in the city were abandoned and removed. Slightly frustrated, we started heading out of town, and went up a road toward a large grade crossing. As we approached, the crossing activated and we set ourselves up waiting for the Maryland and Delaware train with its small set of cars and rare CF7 locomotive to finish its work and head back east. After a long wait, it came back out and we chased it briefly, finding it too slow to chase and still get anywhere else in one day. From there we headed into Delaware to the interchange at Seaford hoping to find something - anything - there, but quickly decided heading north to the Norfolk Southern yard at Harrington would be a better bet. Sure enough, as we pulled into town we found ourselves pacing a covered hopper unit train of some description. Hoping to get ahead of it, we pulled off at a road where we found two locomotives sitting on the main. We looked around for a way to shoot the train but weren't able to find an angle. Hoping the train would proceed northward, we headed north a few miles until we found a good shot and began to wait. It quickly became obvious that the train wouldn't be coming so we returned to Harrington and found the train, complete with the two units that had been sitting on the main, sitting there talking to the Diesel Doc. We went into town, shot the yard power, returned to the head end of the train and shot what we could of it, then headed north for New Jersey. We crossed just south of Wilmington and quickly found a yard in Penns Grove with two NS trains in it. We shot them as best we could then took off northbound hoping to make it to Connecticut before it got too late.

September 8th, 2007

Steve and I headed down to Galt station for a couple of hours to see what was happening. When we got there, we found CP 138 getting ready to leave and were not able to get out ahead of it, Galt yard job, and CPs #243 and #241 both with rent-a-wrecks.

November 10th, 2007

We headed down to Galt for CP #722 with a pair of GP9s ahead of bigger power and racks.

December 5th, 2007

I went to Guelph Junction to get CP's Holiday Train, only to find that it was not posing anywhere publically shootable but hiding out on the inaccessible west leg of the wye. After shooting it leaving, I got gas and meandered over to Galt to shoot it posed on the bridge after its show at the station. I had a grand plan: I would take a video of it entering the bridge, swap cameras on the tripod, take long exposures, swap cameras, take a video of it exiting the bridge. Only one flaw in my plan: it did not stop for the antiicipated 5 minutes, but only for around 20 seconds -- just long enough for me to swap tripod mount screws. My desperate, unfocused, failed shots of the tail end of the train as it disappeared have been left to allow you to share in my frustration at that moment.

April 27th, 2008

We headed down to Cambridge, tieing CP #159 to the crossing at 50.05 Galt sub. CP #244 came over Galt bridge with a CEFX bluebird leading. From there we went to Ingersoll for OSR's Salford shops to see the CP MP15s that have come in, finding two there next to the TH&B unit, and the other two tucked away in a spur in Mount Elgin. From there we headed back to Ingersoll for lunch and CN #385, then up to Stratford where we just barely caught GEXR #433 leaving town light power before returning home. Hopefully it's not another entire month before I get out again!

December 2nd, 2008

Trevor picked me up and we headed down to Killean ahead of the CP Holiday Train, which crossed the 42.6 detector as we crossed the 401. It came in relatively short order with my camera declaring "ERR 99" as the train entered the frame. From there we headed down to Galt where the show was taking place and parked down by the bridge. We set up for the annual bridge shot, and at the end of the show, the train took off without stopping on the bridge. Can't, apparently, have everything.

March 22nd, 2009

We took off on a cloudy morning to Guelph Junction, found silent tracks, and moved over to mile 30. CN 339 and 385 came through in short order and we took off back to Puslinch to see a 7000 foot 243 meet an eastbound. We didn't make it to Puslinch in time to get 243 arriving, and chased it to Galt where it had to set off two units. As soon as 243 cleared the bridge, the sun came out and remained out for the rest of the day, and, as a consequence, that was the last train we could find in four more hours out.

May 24th, 2009

Steve picked me up and we went to Galt to see what we could find in an hour. We caught an eastbound, fruitlessly chased Hagey job, and found some MoW equipment working a tie replacement program at the Highway 24 crossing on the Fergus sub.

June 9th, 2009

On my way home from reunion I stopped to chase the Batten Kill, which operates exclusively with the venerable RS-3. I asked the crew at Greenwich shops where the train was and was told it was parked at Cambridge, so headed up there to wait for them to come on duty and chased them to Greenwich Junction where I broke off and headed for Whitehall. There I caught CP 253 and continued north. Coming into the Laurentians I saw QGRY rather than CP power at Ste-Therese yard so bailed off the 15 and went for a closer look.

November 29th, 2009

Got a scramble wakeup call at dawn that a Canadian Forces extra was westbound by West Toronto. Went to Puslinch for it, but was fogged in, so shot it (no video) at Galt bridge.

December 21st, 2011

I left High Wycombe for London, dropped off my bag at a friend's house, had lunch with my cousin, got on the train to Cambridge at London-Liverpool St, watched trains at Cambridge for some time in failing light, had curry with a friend there, and hopped the train back to London-King's Cross and back to my friend's house.