May 19th, 2003
This was a routine railfanning trip to the Bayview Junction/Aldershot area.
Hamilton, Ontario
(map) Hamilton Ontario is an industrial region on the tip of lake Ontario.
May 15th, 2005
Steve woke me up to hit the tracks as soon as he was up and from there we went to the cowpath at Bayview Junction, caught an absurd number of trains in an hour, and moved on to explore Hamilton before coming back for a few more trains at Bayview and going back to Guelph, where we caught 431 - sans CN unit.
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CN #154 heads down the Grimsby sub.
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CN #338 comes down the Grimsby sub bound for Toronto.
August 6th, 2005
Kevin picked me and Chris up at quarter to 7 and we headed down to Hamilton West to catch 327 and 328. Even at that hour, we were too late for 327, though, but we caught plenty of other trains, then checked out Hamilton yard and caught VIA #85 back in Guelph before calling it a day.
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Southern Ontario Railway SW1200s pull yard duty at RailLink Hamilton yard.
October 16th, 2005
We got up at a somewhat ungodly hour and got to Hamilton West at about 06:50 am. Even at that hour we *still* managed to miss NS #327 and its two UP units by about 20 minutes. We caught a variety of trains around the area, the highlights being an NS horsehead unit leading NS #328, a cabless BNSF GP60B on CN #148, and an ex-SOO 700-series SD40-2 on CP #167 at both Hamilton West and Guelph Junction.
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CN #339 overtakes CN #421 at the South end of Parkdale yard.
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NS #328 heads down the Grimsby sub with a horsehead C40-9W in the lead and a high-hood SD40-2 trailing.
November 13th, 2005
Brian reported that CP #167 had 2 GEVOs working the yard at Welland. Laura and I headed down to Kinnear yard to catch them at the yard office. We arrived about 90 seconds before the train did. The new crew found a marshalling violation on the train and it got tied up at the yard for another 3 hours while we darted aimlessly around Bayview Junction and Hamilton West on a relatively quiet Sunday afternoon. Eventually #167 got moving and we chased it up to the Junction, missing it there by a few seconds and going around by 1st Line-10th sideroad-Guelph Line to catch it in Campbellville.
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CP #167 enters Kinnear yard with 6 units, the last two being brand new ES44AC GE Evolution locomotives, fresh from Erie, Pennsylvania.
January 22nd, 2006
I wanted to see CN's new GEVOs, numbered in the 2200 series and likely to be forever lost to our various coasts for DPU service. We spent the day at Hamilton West catching 3 BNSF leaders and a CP GEVO leading a CEFX SD90/43MAC on the way home, but never did catch the CN GEVO we knew was supposed to come at some point. At one point during the morning, it had been so long since we had heard or seen any trains that we decided it was time to move West to Paris. As soon as we were committed to highway 403, 394 with its BNSF leader showed up on the scanner and we had to go all the way up to the top of the hill, turn around, and come back down, only managing to catch it at Burlington West.
February 26th, 2006
Steve called a little before sunrise suggesting we go after some trains. This sounded like a good idea and it proved to be a very fruitful morning, netting us NS #328, Amtrak #97, CN #421, VIA #70 with 6424/Budweiser, CN #399, #396 with GCFX/WC-BNSF-BNSF-CN, CP #167, CN #392, VIA #73, and CN #394 with BNSF-CN-CN-FURX. No videos today, though.
April 1st, 2006
No jokes here for this April fools day. CP ran a couple of coal trains down the Hamilton sub during the week, which is exceedingly unusual. CP #889 returned today, CP 9773 and a long string of empty black coal hoppers, so we went after it in spite of the dark, gloomy weather.
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CP #889 empty coal train enters Kinnear yard with ex-holiday train unit 9773 on point.
May 29th, 2006
I took my first foray into the railroad jungle of the Niagara region on a hunt for Trillium. In hours of searching I caught an S-13 and two cars precisely once, missing them on their street running and never finding the other job in spite of hearing it in Port Colbourne.
October 28th, 2006
Steve picked me up and we took off after an NS 328 described as 4 engines, 60-70 cars. After more than an hour longer than it would normally take to arrive from Ingersoll, we watched it go by on the far side of the wye from Bayview and chased it into Hamilton, barely catching it. Steve counted 91 cars.
December 16th, 2006
Steve took us down to Hamilton for NS #328 and whatever else we could find. We got to the Grimsby sub at around 08:15, in line with when NS #328 would arrive from his 07:15 sighting at Ingersoll, but CN NI dispatcher had other ideas and #328 was stabbed for the Amtrak, VIA #97. With 45 minutes to kill we went over to Kinnear yard and caught CP #135 parked and CP #254 coming in with three new GEVOs as only power before returning to shoot #97 and #328. After that we returned to Kinnear and shot #725 also with a new GEVO meeting CP #254 in quite poor lighting, caught Rail Link working at Hamilton harbour, and watched CN #148 go by from Ham West before going home, as Steve was out of time. CN #385 had a CN leader with KCS 4019 and a WC, and CN #435 had two CN GEVOs and CN 398000, one of two custom built articulated covered hoppers, but we were not able to get either, though we did manage to get a relatively bland GEXR #432 in Guelph.
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VIA #97, the Amtrak Maple Leaf, starts down the Grimsby sub.
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NS #328 heads under a pedestrian bridge in Hamilton, homeward-bound.
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CN #422 heads into Hamilton.
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CP #725 meets CP #254 at south siding switch Kinnear, both sporting only latest-order GEVOs for power.
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SOR's industrial switcher works in the harbour area.
March 11th, 2007
Jay warned me about a CP #244 coming wtih CP 8798 leading. Wanting my 100th GEVO, I went for it, shortly finding CP #424 behind it with 6 units, 3 of them some of the less than 20 remaining CP 56xx SD40-2s, then getting CP #159 and #243 block on block westbound. We then headed down to Hamilton West for CN #394 with BNSF-CSXT power, CN #384 with two dimensionals, and migrated westward to Copetown following a CN #547 off to rescue a stalled CN #385, which met #330 at Copetown West before #547 cut off to go back to work at Aldershot. We then moved a couple of miles west, catching CN #385 and CN #394 by the detector at Lynden and finished off the day by checking out the current selection of power parked at Aberdeen yard.
March 24th, 2007
CEFX 101-CEFX 110 led CP #254 which took the Oakville in the evening. I took a chance and went after it, getting VIA #98 (the Amtrak Maple Leaf), CN #599 (SOR steel train), VIA #79, CN #275, CN #385, and finally CP #254, none of them in shootable light... not that it stopped me from trying. We went after #254 at Kinnear yard, but it did a crew change north of the north switch and didn't stop, with CP #255 blocking any chance of viewing it anyway on the passing track.
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CP #255's FRED blinks away as CP #254 with a pair of CEFX SD90/43MACs pulls by it.
January 30th, 2010
Steve needed to go down to Hamilton to pick something up, so he picked me up and we hit the Steel City's industrial tracks. We shot 3 QNSL SD40s parked in the harbour area, CP 426, CN probably 421, and SOR working at Stelco with three geeps. Not bad for an unplanned outing!
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CP #254 leaves Hamilton to the south.
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CN #422 enters Hamilton.
