Caption: In 1996, CN had officially abandoned their Newmarket Subdivision between Barrie and Longford Mills, severing the mainline as a through route and putting the Canadian on the preferred Bala Subdivision route permanently. While this section of the line had received extensive attention during its final runs, CN had also deemed the northern section of its Newmarket Subdivision between North Bay and Capreol as no longer required as the only freight traffic on this portion would have been occasional run through trains using the subdivision to reach Capreol. And with trains 450/451 only operating between Toronto and North Bay it was put up for discontinuance. Following its approval of abandonment, CN had contracted emerging company Cando Contracting to remove the heavy mainline rail for them. In the days before internet, cell phones and social media this lengthy operation basically went on virtually undetected and photos are very scarce despite the fact this was still an active mainline until the end. A lot of this had likely to do with the majority of this line being very remote and photo locations not very accessible.
So then this is where the expect the unexpected part of the hobby comes into play during one of yearly northern Ontario railfan trips.
In late summer 1997, a group of us were heading to Sudbury and decided to detour through North Bay during the morning, hoping to catch something on the Ottawa Valley Railway along the way. That morning, it was very foggy and after some photos at the CP North Bay station we continued our journey on the Trans-Canada Highway towards Sudbury. I believe some of us were even beginning to start nodding-off when a friend suddenly said “Ah buddy there’s GP9’s over there!” Yup there sure was. Catching us totally off guard were Cando Contracting 1000 and 94 as they slowly appeared between trees , headed to their waiting rail train that was likely situated somewhere in the remote wilderness. At this point the line started paralleling the highway from North Bay within sight so we were able to get ahead of the units and quickly pulled over at the crossing where the Trans-Canada highway intersected it. A mad scramble ensued as camera bags were quickly opened and we all piled out of my dad’s van as we set-up to photographs the units going over the highway. The crossing protection had been previously disconnected so Cando workers had to protect the movement each time a train crossed it. Unfortunately, myself and a friend got in my dad’s photo of the units as they crossed and he likely got one of the best photos of all of us as seen here. The late 90’s were crazy times; where high-hood GP9’s could tear out a mainline virtually unnoticed and then go on to start second careers on new shortlines the following year.