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rsmith's Railpictures.ca photo upload statistics

Number of images: 371
Total gold: 3493
Number of comments recieved : 1081
Number of comments posted : 892
Total views: 533957

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rsmith's 371 photos on Railpictures.ca:

A crew of volunteers at the Toronto Railway Museum use the museum's CLC/Whitcomb 50T to position a flat car on the turntable. Viewed from the CN Tower SkyPod, 447 metres above.

Name:	Rob Smith
Railway:	Preservation
Date:	03/17/2022
Location:	Toronto
Province:	Ontario

3 Comments | 18 Favourites

Both Stuart Street yard jobs have parked by the office for the crews to have their morning coffee break. CN 7524, CN 4726 and CN 9427 had been switching the east end of the yard while CN 7241 and CN 7080 were switching the west end. After break, the GP9RMs would return to switching the yard while the triple-set would put a train together and depart the yard to go switch the north end industrial area. Kudos to the paint crew that neatly repainted the cab numbers on "7241" in the original font!

Name:	Rob Smith
Railway:	Canadian National
Date:	03/13/2022
Location:	Hamilton
Province:	Ontario

6 Comments | 21 Favourites

National Steel Car was building new ore cars for the "DMIR" (CN) at the time, so I went to the north end to try and get a photo of them. Successfully finding and photographing some in CN's Parkdale Yard, I also came across this SOR job at Beach Road while driving around. Not the most inspiring weather or locale for a photo, but looking back now I wish I had made more of an effort to photograph the SOR. Such is life... don't take the current railroad scene for granted!

Name:	Rob Smith
Railway:	Southern Ontario R…
Date:	03/22/2009
Location:	Hamilton
Province:	Ontario

1 Comments | 16 Favourites

CN 5676 and GTW 5946 couldn't cut it with their heavy train, and stalled on the grade at CN Hardy. They were forced to split their train and take the first half to Paris West, where they left the cars on the north track and are seen here returning to retrieve the tail end of their train. Unfortunate for the crew, but fine by me as it provided an opportunity for a decent photograph of the trailing SD40-3 in KCS paint. The unit was built as CN SD40 5240 and rebuilt in 1998, becoming KCS SD40-3 6629 briefly, before returning to the CN roster again as GTW 5946. When rebuilt, CN and KCS had a deal that each would use the 19 SD40-3s for six months of the year, however that arrangement didn't last very long and CN ended up taking over the full lease. A few of the SD40-3s have been sold, however most are still on the roster.

Name:	Rob Smith
Railway:	Canadian National
Date:	01/25/2008
Location:	Brantford
Province:	Ontario

Comments | 15 Favourites

KCS ET44AC 5015 leading CN 274 strikes a handsome pose in a brief moment of sunshine while making a lift out of the yard in Brantford. Thanks to those that provided the heads up, and I apologise I didn't return the favour to others because the cold killed my phone battery. Spring can't come soon enough.

Name:	Rob Smith
Railway:	Canadian National
Date:	02/23/2022
Location:	Brantford
Province:	Ontario

3 Comments | 16 Favourites

Desperate times call for desperate measures. If I recall, Ontario Northland had experienced some washout-related derailments in the Spring that put a few of the GP38-2s and/or GP40-2s out of service. Locomotive availability was so strained that Ontario Northland was forced to use a SD75I on a round trip on the Northlander to Toronto. Northbound ONT 121 (CN 697 on CN rails), is shown here north of Toronto on the CN Bala Sub. Proof that the Alaska Railroad isn't the only railroad to employ a SD70 variant in passenger service; soon to be joined by the Metra commuter agency in Chicago, IL.

Name:	Rob Smith
Railway:	Ontario Northland
Date:	07/29/2007
Location:	Mount Albert
Province:	Ontario

2 Comments | 16 Favourites

A quartet of CN GP9RMs pull down one of the yard leads while switching the west end of Aldershot Yard. CN 4125 and CN 4138 (1st and 4th) are still on CN's roster; 4138 being the unit lettered "AR Illinois" for it's appearance in the 1997 movie "The Wrong Guy" that never got its CN noodle back. CN 4143 was sold to Lampton Diesel Service, and then to Cando, now CCGX 4016. CN 7076 was sold to Indiana Boxcar Company, as IBCX 7076. I think this is the only time I saw four GP9RMs together in a consist.

Name:	Rob Smith
Railway:	Canadian National
Date:	02/27/2005
Location:	Aldershot
Province:	Ontario

1 Comments | 16 Favourites

"Well, that was the shot of the year!" I recall thinking to myself after taking this photo back in April. It was early in the year to make such a prediction, but now that we've reached the end of 2021, I can safely say this was my favourite photo of 2021. A great consist, in perfect light, at a favourite location. You can't ask for much more. There were surprisingly many out to photograph this train on a Tuesday. The pandemic-delayed March break was moved to this week in April and I was on vacation, so the operation of this ballast train dumping ballast on the Hamilton Subdivision couldn't have been timed better for me. Here's to a happier 2022! Let's see your favourite photos of 2021.

Name:	Rob Smith
Railway:	Canadian Pacific
Date:	04/13/2021
Location:	Waterdown
Province:	Ontario

1 Comments | 18 Favourites

Where have all the standard cab six-axles gone? I haven't seen one since March. I assume most of the Dash-8s are stored, although I believe a few have been scrapped in the last year or so. Hopefully we'll see them return to service when the world returns to normal after the pandemic, however with fifty more ex. Citirail ES44ACs coming on line in 2022, the Dash-8s and perhaps even the SD60s days may be numbered. CN 331 was always a good mid-day catch on the Dundas Sub., and on this day it had C40-8 2010 and SD60 5462. It was fun while it lasted.

Name:	Rob Smith
Railway:	Canadian National
Date:	02/11/2016
Location:	Brantford
Province:	Ontario

5 Comments | 7 Favourites

For the third time in just over a month, CN 3008, the Illinois Central heritage unit, led a train on the Dundas Subdivision. Today it was paired with KCSM 4871 on CN 397, seen splitting the signals at Copetown West as they get back up to track speed after climbing Dundas hill.

Name:	Rob Smith
Railway:	Canadian National
Date:	12/17/2021
Location:	Copetown
Province:	Ontario

4 Comments | 16 Favourites

FWDX 0002, a Tractive Power Corporation TP70, is shown on the Southern Ontario Railway on the way to Stelco for testing. Stelco is looking for a replacement for their remaining GMDD switchers, and I guess their Republic RX500s aren't cutting it. The TP70 is a smaller cousin to the TP90 that operates at American Iron & Metal (AIM) in Hamilton, ON.

Name:	Rob Smith
Railway:	Other
Date:	10/29/2021
Location:	Garnet
Province:	Ontario

5 Comments | 21 Favourites

The CN 07:00 job has backed in to National Steel Car to retrieve a cut of new cars as one of NSC's critters waits. As soon as CN cleared, CP was also going to back in to pick up new cars. Although it was very dark all day, the clouds actually helped for this photo; had the sun been out I would have been shooting directly in to it. I hope a GTW beside a NSC tonner qualifies as better than mundane!

Name:	Rob Smith
Railway:	Canadian National
Date:	10/08/2021
Location:	Hamilton
Province:	Ontario

4 Comments | 18 Favourites

CN 580 didn't run to CGC on Wednesday or Friday, so CN opted to run an extra 580 on Saturday to serve their Hagersville Sub. customers. The boxcar was lifted from Rembos in Caledonia. The train is shown at Fifth Line south west of Caledonia, on their way to CGC just outside of Hagersville. We learned that 580 no longer goes in to Hagersville to turnaround; I guess they split the power and get the power to the opposite end of the train while switching at CGC. With the GMD-1s gone from the roster, zebra-stripped GP9RMs are the next best thing.

Name:	Rob Smith
Railway:	Canadian National
Date:	09/18/2021
Location:	Caledonia
Province:	Ontario

Comments | 12 Favourites

CN SD50AF 5500 and a matching zebra-stripped SD40-2W grind up hill through Copetown, ON. It's hard to believe this was taken 17 years ago. CN 5500 was sold to the Dakota, Missouri Valley & Western and continues in service for them with many other CN cast-offs, including several SD50F, SD50AF and SD60F.

Name:	Rob Smith
Railway:	Canadian National
Date:	06/08/2004
Location:	Copetown
Province:	Ontario

1 Comments | 11 Favourites

The OSR Woodstock job returns from Putnam with five cars, seen approaching Five Points Road. It was a miracle I had sun here, as you can see it was a mostly cloudy morning. They would stop in Ingersoll to lift three more tank cars and an empty flatcar before proceeding to Woodstock to interchange with CP. With an active roster of GP7, GP9u, SW1200RSu, FP9Au, and RS-18s the Ontario Southland never disappoints!

Name:	Rob Smith
Railway:	Ontario Southland
Date:	07/30/2021
Location:	Putnum
Province:	Ontario

Comments | 11 Favourites

It seems as though the earlier I show up to photograph Trillium the earlier they've already started working. JLCX 3502 has finished switching at Feeder Yard and is shown departing east at 7:23 a.m. Where they head to next is anyone's guess when they've got a boxcar for St. Catharines, two hoppers for Port Colborne, and tank cars for Dain City. They often switch WH Yard next, which they did this day, and then they proceeded to Dain City to switch tank cars for hours. Since I was after TRRY 108, I didn't feel like waiting around. A check back at the Trillium operations base at Feeder found TRRY 1859 and 108 behind a blue flag and getting some maintenance attention, so it didn't look like there would be a second job going on duty.

Name:	Rob Smith
Railway:	Trillium Railway
Date:	09/03/2021
Location:	Feeder
Province:	Ontario

2 Comments | 11 Favourites

The Essex Terminal 08:00 job is an hour and 20 minutes in to their day as they near Ojibway Yard. They will spend the rest of the morning and likely a good part of the afternoon sorting cars and serving nearby industries. ETL 108 began life as Cartier 59, and 104 is a SW14, originally built as a SW7 for the IC.

Name:	Rob Smith
Railway:	Essex Terminal
Date:	09/01/2021
Location:	Windsor
Province:	Ontario

4 Comments | 15 Favourites

The joys of this hobby... My intention was to have a leisurely day following GEXR 581 to Goderich. After arriving good and early in Stratford, and watching crows walk on RLK 4095 for over an hour, I threw in the towel shortly after 09:00 and headed for Salford. Is the crew for GEXR 581 not on duty at 08:00 anymore? Anyway, I got to Salford in time to watch the Woodstock turn's crew fire up Ontario Southland's RS18s 181 and 182, so chasing them became plan B. I'm sure the crew thought I was an idiot by the end of their day (if not well before), after I spent all day fighting clouds in an attempt to get a few semi-decent photos. Earlier in the day Mr. Bishop informed me that CP 7017 was leading CP 235, and I had kept that in the back of my mind. Now late-afternoon, I found out CP 235 was still at Wolverton so I decided to wait for it. Of course CP T69 scooped 235 while they were at Wolverton, and then worked Coakley, so 235 was at Wolverton for almost 2 hrs. After starting off as a mostly cloudy day, the intended targets not going as planned, the late-day unexpected photo op. ends up being the photo of the day. The lengthy CP 235 finally showed slowly rounding the curve at Coakley, approaching Woodstock, in nice evening light. Gotta love it.

Name:	Rob Smith
Railway:	Canadian Pacific
Date:	07/30/2021
Location:	Woodstock
Province:	Ontario

9 Comments | 16 Favourites

Perusing through the Canadian Trackside Guide a few weeks ago, I was intrigued by an entry indicating that there is an ex. Erie caboose on display in Chatham, ON. I found it on Google street view, and was initially appalled by the gaudy paint. Returning from week at a cottage today, we took a break off the 401 to go check out the caboose; mainly to see if it's still there and in hopes it looked a little better. Nope, still horrendous. I'd love to know the story of how this Erie Dunmore caboose (and a fire truck) ended up on display next to an End of the Roll carpet store on the north side of Chatham. I suppose it could have come off the CASO when it was still operated by Conrail, but it was obviously trucked to this location. The trackside guide lists the car as "No #". It'd be easy to figure out the car number had the "KarTrak" barcode tag not been painted over. Shortly after I took this photo the skies opened, so I wasn't able to look around much. The interior looked mostly gutted, with a card table and chairs inside. Usually you see cabooses on display that are local to nearby railroads, so this Erie caboose sure isn't what you'd expect to find in Southern Ontario.

Name:	Rob Smith
Railway:	Erie
Date:	07/24/2021
Location:	Chatham
Province:	Ontario

7 Comments | 6 Favourites

Spiffy JLCX 3502 leads the northbound Trillium Railway train to St. Catharines across the old Welland Canal and in to Dain City. The two gondolas would be dropped off at a customer in Welland, leaving only the two boxcars to continue on to St. Catharines. The GP35 started life as Denver & Rio Grande (DRGW) 3036.

Name:	Rob Smith
Railway:	Trillium Railway
Date:	06/25/2021
Location:	Dain City
Province:	Ontario

2 Comments | 12 Favourites

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