Comments on: Such was the scene at Hamilton West in 2006. Searchlight signals everywhere, about two trains every hour on average, and on this day I photographed 11 moving trains in 5 hours, starting with NS 328 at Parkdale at 0837. After this I went home. CN’s bought some of the four axle BNSF fleet in all manner of paint schemes. Question for your BNSF fans, do any of these exist as four axle active on BNSF still? I know shortlines have these all over the place. Anyway, this was back in the Foreign Power days of CN, check this account by Arnold Mooney for the day’s activities and a tip of the hat to Mr. Mooney for posting as I don’t take many notes and his notes filled in info I used for this caption. I would shoot 3 in this scheme in 3 months in 2006 in Ontario. We also didn’t chase them – why would you when you had so much good stuff coming?

By: Noe

Noe — Fri, 07 Feb 2025 17:46:22 +0000

We would often chase westbounds from Copetown to Paris or further west depending on the consist. As you say back then in the CN FPON days it was certainly busy and colorful.

By: Foamer88

Foamer88 — Wed, 05 Feb 2025 11:24:10 +0000

I would burn up some gas for that neat Cat loads behind too. If only there was more good video from then (myself included)

By: Marcus Stevens

Marcus Stevens — Wed, 05 Feb 2025 03:37:36 +0000

Good old 394, so reliable back then for good foreign power

By: Stephen C. Host

Stephen C. Host — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 21:17:06 +0000

I think there was a definite difference in attitude back then. Chasing versus not.

I only chased branchlines. Rarely did that on the mainline. 2816 was a chase event. When the RCP came you chased it.

Unusually you went to a spot or two and waited for stuff to come to you….

Now people chase shit to kingdom come.

How often would you chase back then Jay?

By: Noe

Noe — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 15:15:27 +0000

Oh people did still chase. Myself included.

Nice photo location for this one Steve.

By: cp5756

cp5756 — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 06:03:57 +0000

This is an SD40-2, so not a 4 axle. 6731 became BNSF 1612 and is still active in H4 paint. Yes, there are still a good amount of SD40s, GP39s, GP50s, GP60s & a few GP38s still in bluebonnet

By: Kevin Flood

Kevin Flood — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 04:38:00 +0000

Wild. I must have missed this one. This was a typical 394 at the time though – that was the symbol to always watch for the various BNSF schemes.