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.
Breslau, Ontario
(map) This is a small town between Guelph and Kitchener-Waterloo on the GEXR Guelph Sub.
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 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.
video
GEXR #516 - GEXR's CWR work train - backs into P&H siding to clear for VIA #85.
video
A GEXR hy-rail gets on the tracks at Breslau in 20 seconds flat with one guy driving and another putting the wheels down.
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.
video
VIA #85 flies through Shantz Station Terminal and over the detector at 56.2.
November 25th, 2007
EMD move! Algerian and French EMD units came through after meeting 85 in Kitchener.
video
GEXR X432 heads east with 5 SNTF GT36s and 4 ECR Class 66s.
May 11th, 2008
GEXR has received 3 6-axle units which means some of its 4-axle power is going to be distributed to other RailAmerica lines. I went to Stratford to find what I could of them, chasing GEXR #431 to London. There it lifted 10 EuroCargo Rail Class 66s and returned as GEXR #432, which I dutifully chased home.
video
GEXR X432 crosses a field a mile or so east of the Breslau detector.
February 22nd, 2009
We heard about an EMD move of Egyptian Class 66s and went to Guelph station for them. We got the GJE leaving southbound and then began the waiting game. After several hours, we received word that the train was stopped in Stratford and went home, and immediately got word it had left. Trevor and I headed up to Breslau to get it and then chased it back to Guelph before calling it a day.
video
GEXR X432 with Egyption Class 66s crosses a field near Breslau. I had to do both still and video on this one as my videographing wife could not join me, so the video quality is a bit... unlike most of my stuff.
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...
