February 15th, 2003
A derailment on the CN Dundas sub near Woodstock sent much of CN's high priority traffic along the GEXR Guelph sub.
Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario
(map) Kitchener-Waterloo is on the the GEXR Guelph sub between Guelph and Stratford. The GEXR Elmira spur heads North to service Elmira and the CP Waterloo sub out of Cambridge joins the GEXR Huron Park spur for interchange traffic here.
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GEXR 432 with 6 engines pulls into the siding at Kitchener station to await the passage of two rerouted trains.
March 1st, 2003
The GEXR was borrowing some CN power and we went to Kitchener-Waterloo to take a look, chasing it back to Guelph and almost catching it leaving the city, out near the airfield.
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"9581 CN GEXR", my audio reminder to myself at the end of the clip. GEXR is using CN engine 9581, here seen switching train 432 in Kitchener at around 11am.
October 6th, 2003
St. Thomas Central Railway's Essex Terminal Number 9 0-6-0 wrapped up three days in Guelph with a one-way excursion to Kitchener.
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.
March 28th, 2004
We planned to have 6 of us go to Ingersoll for the day. Like all well-laid battle plans, it did not survive contact with the enemy and Steve and Matt ended up going alone. I went to the Kitchener train show at Bingemans and checked out the Kitchener GEXR yard before leaving town. I missed GEXR 432 by only a few seconds... Late afternoon Laura Chris and I managed a trip to Guelph Junction. There we caught an Eastbound with 2 leasers - both having failed coming up to Guelph Junction. The crew told RTC that they weren't sure if they'd make the final grade into Toronto with only one engine and over 7000 tonnes, but that they'd try to start the second engine at the bottom of the hill and hope it lasted all the way to the top. Nuts.
April 18th, 2004
Amtrak's train called "The International" from Toronto to Chicago's final Sunday in existence... 27 people took the train together as a group trip up to Sarnia for a final-miles excursion, through the GHRA.
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 27th, 2006
We went to Kitchener to see GEXR #432 at the station there, a place I hadn't been in a while. We caught VIA #85, GEXR #433's power parked, saw GEXR #580 head North on the Elmira spur, and #432, then went to mile 30 for CN #392 with two NS units, Guelph Junction for two GEVO leaders and back to Guelph for VIA #681, the once-a-year Stratford Extra.
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GEXR #432 enters Kitchener station, passing the ever-patient VIA #85.
October 21st, 2007
EMD export special! We went to Breslau bridge for GEXR X432 with a set of Europe-bound Class 66s, beating him to Guelph station account of a meet with Via #85.
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GEXR X432 leaves Kitchener and crosses the causeway leading up to the bridge over the Grand River with export units in tow.
November 26th, 2009
Trevor had American Thanksgiving off and so picked me up first thing in the morning to head up to Goderich and see what was happening. We left the house a little after 9, catching Via 84 at P&H in Breslau. P&H's sign is gone and there's a rezoning application at the facility, but the backtrack is still full of grain hoppers. After that, we hopped over to the bridge coming into Kitchener and saw GEXR 580, found nothing at the station in Kitchener, and went on to Stratford where we found 433 with 4001-6061 preparing to head east. We went back to Shakespeare to shoot 433 on the bridge over Highway 7, got out of the car, and heard a loud hissing noise. We abandoned the chase and returned to Stratford to rectify the rapidly flattening tire and have lunch. It worked out well, as when the car was ready and we had eaten, 433 returned from Kitchener. We shot it working and then shot 85 at the station, then pushed on to Goderich, where we happened upon the two CN units GEXR is using moments before they headed into the salt mine. Don't know the last time CN power worked that mine...
April 29th, 2015
In Guelph for the nomination meeting, I took a few minutes to go shopping in nearby Kitchener and found 432 working in the yard. Returning to Guelph, we found 580 waiting on the Goderich sub to get past a work block.
