Comments on: CP 8600, an MLW RS-10s, works a cut of cars in front of the Woodstock station. Unit was built 1956 and gone by 1984. (Nice wooden name sign!! Where is it now?)

By: awmooney

awmooney — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 01:30:55 +0000

Thanks, Ronald.
I just seems to be so odd now for stuff to move in visible crates like that; as in stacked open in a gon as I once saw in Fort Erie.

By: RonaldB

RonaldB — Thu, 15 Jan 2026 23:47:02 +0000

Livingston’s had a number of tracks and switching them sometimes took a number of hours. In the early to mid seventies, both jobs worked 12 hour days except that Saturday seemed to only last 8 or so hours.
Track 1 got the auto parts boxcars like the one in this photo, so did track 8 around the back near the Penn Central, but only rarely. Track three got flatcars of plywood, tracks 4 and 7 got 4 hi cube boxes each. Track 5 received containers on flats and track 6 had all the gondolas that the wo0orden crates of auto parts went into.
Traffic for all those tracks came from CP, CN, and the N&W at the Loop Line transfer south of Tillsonburg Hwy 3.The crates for CP went to the Port of St. John for overseas. Those going to the N&W went to Buffalo and somewhere from there.Most of the wooden crate business went to the N&W. We got a few every night, they came in on the returning 2345 roadswitcher to Woodstock about noon. Every odd once & a while, the Penn Central would set off a flatcar of containers for track 5. It was typical to spend 5 or more hours switching Livignstons.

By: RonaldB

RonaldB — Thu, 15 Jan 2026 23:36:38 +0000

Yes Arnold. The company was called Livingston’s and they used to be really busy when I started. I spent my first few years on & off working the jobs that switched there in Tillsonburg. The day job started at noon except Sunday and was a “pickup” which could run as far as Port Burwell if required. The night job started at 2345 and worked Monday to Friday.

By: awmooney

awmooney — Thu, 15 Jan 2026 11:46:42 +0000

Is this the parts shipper that used crates, Ronald?

By: RonaldB

RonaldB — Thu, 15 Jan 2026 05:00:55 +0000

Another classic Arnold. It looks to me that this was taken just before the main track was re routed away from the station. The black covered hopper appears to be on the former Woodstock passing track, which is now the main.
The train in the photo may have been the Port Burwell Sub pickup, it handled boxcars of auto parts for Tillsonburg.

By: awmooney

awmooney — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 20:09:26 +0000

Awh. How observant of you. Looks like you nailed that one. To think they saved money on putting in a new post. )

By: Paul O'Shell

Paul O'Shell — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 19:54:18 +0000

Look at these light standards at CN Woodstock
https://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=35200

By: Paul O'Shell

Paul O'Shell — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 18:53:50 +0000

My guess is that pole is a former light standard.

By: Stephen C. Host

Stephen C. Host — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 16:05:45 +0000

Frig the sign…. the ornate pole it’s hanging onto is really really neat. Would this have been an order hoop? This looks like it’s late 19′th early 20′th century vintage.

I remember back in the 2000′s there was a Woodstock local who had a Woodstock sign on his house that was railway.. and this guy if I recall was protesting the horns of OSR at the time, so it wasn’t all that long ago. Lived near the tracks on the OSR/Turntable side of it all.

I do not recall exactly which house and I just checked google maps from the era. A couple friends should remember this in more detail and I’ll ask – I suspect that may have been *the* sign to be honest, or one of them since they were likely double sided.