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The 15:30 Kitchener Job is seen passing bustling Waterloo Town Square in Waterloo on the evening of August 18, 1993 as it hauls two tank cars to Elmira. Now in 2018, just as CN took back the Hagersville Subdivision from the Southern Ontario Railway in September, CN is on the verge of regaining control of the Guelph Subdivision from GEXR on November 16. 

 GEXR had originally begun leasing the Guelph Subdivision from CN for 20 years being operated under RailTex at the time. With the lease coming to an end and CN and current owners G&W not coming to an agreement to purchase or further extend the lease, CN had announced to the effected customers earlier in the year that they would be returning as the operators. GEXR will still operate the Goderich Subdivision between Stratford and Goderich as well as the Exeter Subdivision from Clinton to Exeter. 

Reportedly, GEXR will retain only QGRY GP38-2 2008, GEXR GP38-3 2073 and RLHH GP38-2 2117 for use on their scaled down operations. As for new CN train assignments, as of November 7, the following has been confirmed by CN sources as the operating plan, which is still subject to last minute changes and adjustments. 

 CN A431, will be scheduled 7 days per week, Kitchener Turn, ordered 21:00 out of Mac Yard.

 All assigned jobs will have the “L” designation and are as follows:

CN L540 (formerly 580), ordered 0:700 from Kitchener, 7 days per week- To service Guelph with Acton scheduled on Tuesday/Thursday- To service Kitchener and the Huron Park Spur-Including the interchange with CP at Kitchener 
CN L568 (formerly 516) ordered 09:30 from Kitchener, Monday-Friday, Stratford or St. Mary’s Turn operating St. Marys/Kelly’s/Thorndale-Tuesday/Thursday and Stratford other days
CN L566 (formerly 584) ordered 21:00 from Kitchener, Monday-Friday to service Waterloo Spur and Elmira
CN L542 (formerly 582) ordered 07:30 from Guelph, Monday-Friday to service Guelph/Fergus Spur/Cambridge

During September, CN began constructing a new operations centre in the Kitchener yard, which will be where the crews are based. As of early November the new building was seemingly complete having been assembled with modular sections and was 3600 square feet in length complete with newly constructed wooden ramps. It is situated near the old wye in the yard and according to sources; CN will base the power for the local assignments by this new building. CN will now interchange traffic with GEXR at Stratford as previously done 20 years ago with GEXR motive power still laying over in Stratford yard between assignments as CN will still retain ownership of the yard. The transition from GEXR to CN will no doubt be well documented so please stay tuned as all the latest sightings will be photographed as two decades later CN makes their return to the Guelph Subdivision.
Copyright Notice: This image ©Jason Noe all rights reserved.



Caption:
The 15:30 Kitchener Job is seen passing bustling Waterloo Town Square in Waterloo on the evening of August 18, 1993 as it hauls two tank cars to Elmira. Now in 2018, just as CN took back the Hagersville Subdivision from the Southern Ontario Railway in September, CN is on the verge of regaining control of the Guelph Subdivision from GEXR on November 16.

GEXR had originally begun leasing the Guelph Subdivision from CN for 20 years being operated under RailTex at the time. With the lease coming to an end and CN and current owners G&W not coming to an agreement to purchase or further extend the lease, CN had announced to the effected customers earlier in the year that they would be returning as the operators. GEXR will still operate the Goderich Subdivision between Stratford and Goderich as well as the Exeter Subdivision from Clinton to Exeter.

Reportedly, GEXR will retain only QGRY GP38-2 2008, GEXR GP38-3 2073 and RLHH GP38-2 2117 for use on their scaled down operations. As for new CN train assignments, as of November 7, the following has been confirmed by CN sources as the operating plan, which is still subject to last minute changes and adjustments.

CN A431, will be scheduled 7 days per week, Kitchener Turn, ordered 21:00 out of Mac Yard.
All assigned jobs will have the “L” designation and are as follows:

CN L540 (formerly 580), ordered 0:700 from Kitchener, 7 days per week- To service Guelph with Acton scheduled on Tuesday/Thursday- To service Kitchener and the Huron Park Spur-Including the interchange with CP at Kitchener
CN L568 (formerly 516) ordered 09:30 from Kitchener, Monday-Friday, Stratford or St. Mary’s Turn operating St. Marys/Kelly’s/Thorndale-Tuesday/Thursday and Stratford other days
CN L566 (formerly 584) ordered 21:00 from Kitchener, Monday-Friday to service Waterloo Spur and Elmira
CN L542 (formerly 582) ordered 07:30 from Guelph, Monday-Friday to service Guelph/Fergus Spur/Cambridge


During September, CN began constructing a new operations centre in the Kitchener yard, which will be where the crews are based. As of early November the new building was seemingly complete having been assembled with modular sections and was 3600 square feet in length complete with newly constructed wooden ramps. It is situated near the old wye in the yard and according to sources; CN will base the power for the local assignments by this new building. CN will now interchange traffic with GEXR at Stratford as previously done 20 years ago with GEXR motive power still laying over in Stratford yard between assignments as CN will still retain ownership of the yard. The transition from GEXR to CN will no doubt be well documented so please stay tuned as all the latest sightings will be photographed as two decades later CN makes their return to the Guelph Subdivision.

Photographer:
Jason Noe [916] (more) (contact)
Date: 08/18/1993 (search)
Railway: Canadian National (search)
Reporting Marks: CN (search)
Train Symbol: 15:30 Kitchener Job (search)
Subdivision/SNS: Waterloo Spur (search)
City/Town: Waterloo (search)
Province: Ontario (search)
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Photo ID: 34250

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10 Comments
  1. Wow, thanks for sharing Jason! You must have been really young when you took this photo.

    And, thanks for the information. Curious what about CN A432?

  2. Thanks for the comment Kevin. I was 13 when I took that photo.
    It appears that whn CN operations begin A431 will turn at Kitchener and head east to Toronto and not go through to Stratford. Train L568 will handle the traffic between Kitchener and Stratford and interchange with GEXR at Stratford.

  3. Where’s Graydon???

  4. Love this shot Jay, it’s quite interesting to see how much some of these locations have changed in just a couple decades. Did the tracks always lead to Elmira or did they ever go further? And were the Chemical facilities there since the line was constructed?
    You sure are lucky to have been born in 1980, I REALLY wish I could be a teenager in the 1990 like you were. As quite a few of you on here know, I really enjoy seeing local operations and back in the 1990s, pretty much all disused railway spurs in my area would still be active as that is before the majority of the customers switched to those darn trucks…
    And I’d be able to see the Waterloo Spur in daylight plus, CP would still be running to Owen Sound
    But I’d say I was pretty lucky to be able to catch what I get in the 2010s so I can’t complain. Wonder how many railfans in the next generation will wish they were teens in this decade? Bet the GEXR and SOR will definitely be a contributor to their wishes.

    Seen this photo Steve right when it was posted, favorited it, was amazed by it and ment to comment for sometime but had some other stuff going on so there are my thoughts now.
    Kind of funny you mentioned me in this photo as well because I actually had a question in mind about night photography at this location.
    I remember you mentioned to me a while back that a tripod is a MUST for night shots plus, I should go to a location that isn’t too dark. Do you think I will have a good chance with night time shots of the CN at this location as long as I follow the requirements?
    It appears that they now run Friday nights as Jay mentioned so looks like I’ll be able to make it up much more than before!

  5. Graydon, it will be very difficult, you have to get about 1/50 to 1/100 at around ISO 3200 minimum on a really good camera to pull it off, i’d recommend 1/200 to 1/400 at ISO 26,000 or so and some with the right camera can, but these are $6000 cameras right now.

    They won’t stop at that location, the only place they may stop is at King St… and you can do a night shot there, if you can set it up for the 10 or 20 so seconds they may stop

    Of course, if you have the right flash bulbs you could pull it off.. but those are all advanced photography topics. Give it a shot, and good luck.

  6. Sorry Steve but just to clarify, were you saying that I need the $6000 camera to do the in-motion shot of the CN passing through the Town Square parking lot therefore, I could still do a still night shot with my Nikon 7200 when they stop at King st or do I need the $6000 camera to do any kind of night shot weather the train is in motion or not?

  7. Graydon, surely your inexperience in photography is talking, but basically, if you want to shoot it with YOUR camera it has to be sitting still and you need to use a Tripod and a proper exposure while it’s sitting still.

    If you want to shoot it in motion beside the Waterloo Town Square mall, and freeze motion, you can do so on a $6000 camera at ISO 32,000 at 1/200…. in ambient light with no flash bulbs

    Flash bulbs will freeze motion on any compatible camera if you have the right equipment, and flash bulbs do not include your built in flash..

    You’ll have to google for how and gain more experience with night photography to understand young man :)

  8. Waterloo town square. OH my. There was a hobby shop in the basement in the ’70′s. I bought a lot of magazines there. There was also a good barber shop down there.
    The exterior of the building looks like it was done in the ’70′s – awful graphics

  9. Continued.
    I see that a LRT system is being built. Both downtown Kitchener and Waterloo seemed to be suffering last time I was through the area, about 10 years ago. Have things improved or is it a “if you build it, they will come” situation

  10. Steve – completely changed.

    The Tech core, which was in the north end of Waterloo by U of W has migrated into Kitchener. Google bought a large building near downtown Kitchener by the VIA station (just west of it)

    Condos are going up everywhere in Waterloo and Kitchener, and high valued tech employers are set up in lofts and old factories all over the landscape.

    South of downtown Kitchener, it’s much of the same, and a few purpuse built rentals have been built along the LRT corridor,

    but downtown Kitchener into Waterloo is being transformed. Also you’d hardly recognize the area by Laurier, it’s turning into highrise city mostly rentals for students.

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