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On this Thursday evening I had biked down to the Kitchener yard and saw that the CN 15:30 Job was nowhere to be found. They were likely still down the Huron Park Spur at the Budd Plant doing their work, so I waited at the yard for hopefully 421 from MacMillan yard to arrive. In due course a headlight appeared to the east and it became clear that in keeping with routine it was 421 and it was taking the siding. With its pending lift of new loaded car frames still on the Huron Park Spur and the eastbound International coming soon, the RTC had no choice but to put 9473 west in the hole at Kitchener.  

I waited at Lancaster Street and soon enough 421 slowly rolled to a stop so the conductor could uncouple their set-off from the train. I snapped a photo and could see they had on four units tonight and they had quite a long train as well. While taking it all in I saw the engineer wave at me and lean out. “Hey, you want to go for a ride? We’re going to be here for a while.” I nodded “yes” and parked my bike by the laundromat building beside the yard. The engineer pointed to the front and I climbed aboard the GP40-2L(W). Walking-up into the cab and through all the doors, the first thing I realized was how much bigger the inside was compared to GP9RM 4134 that Dennis Fleet let me up in three weeks prior. “You can sit down over there,” he said pointing to the conductor’s seat. He slowly inched the train ahead to the crossing and waited until the gates came before throttling-up 9473 ahead to clear the switch for the conductor. As we crossed Lancaster Street I remember looking down at the stopped traffic thinking how the crew could see everything from up here and just being in general awe of what was happening. I asked the engineer if I could take a couple photos from the cab and we briefly talked. In no time at all we had reversed the set-off into the yard. While we waited for the conductor to finish uncoupling the engineer asked “you want to take over for a minute for this next move?” I don’t honestly remember my response but in a matter of seconds I was sitting in his seat in front of 9473’s controls. With the engineer standing behind me giving me instructions I slowly notched the consist ahead after the conductor had climbed aboard the trailing unit. Once we got to the crossing, he took back over for their final move to clear the power for the 15:30 Kitchener Job, which was getting closer to arriving with their lift. Once we had rolled to a stop he asked, “do you want a picture of you sitting in my chair?” I handed him my camera and he climbed down to get a photo of me waving from the cab. He climbed back-up and gave me back my camera with me giving him a big thank you as I headed back to my waiting bike. The crew headed-over to the Dairy Queen, which was next-door to the laundromat, as they still had some time on their hands. I remember biking home later that evening thinking that I was fortunate that the engineer took that photo because my dad was never going to believe what had just happened when I tell him the story. All I can say is that the 1990’s were awesome.
Copyright Notice: This image ©Jason Noe all rights reserved.



Caption: On this Thursday evening I had biked down to the Kitchener yard and saw that the CN 15:30 Job was nowhere to be found. They were likely still down the Huron Park Spur at the Budd Plant doing their work, so I waited at the yard for hopefully 421 from MacMillan yard to arrive. In due course a headlight appeared to the east and it became clear that in keeping with routine it was 421 and it was taking the siding. With its pending lift of new loaded car frames still on the Huron Park Spur and the eastbound International coming soon, the RTC had no choice but to put 9473 west in the hole at Kitchener.
I waited at Lancaster Street and soon enough 421 slowly rolled to a stop so the conductor could uncouple their set-off from the train. I snapped a photo and could see they had on four units tonight and they had quite a long train as well. While taking it all in I saw the engineer wave at me and lean out. “Hey, you want to go for a ride? We’re going to be here for a while.” I nodded “yes” and parked my bike by the laundromat building beside the yard. The engineer pointed to the front and I climbed aboard the GP40-2L(W). Walking-up into the cab and through all the doors, the first thing I realized was how much bigger the inside was compared to GP9RM 4134 that Dennis Fleet let me up in three weeks prior. “You can sit down over there,” he said pointing to the conductor’s seat. He slowly inched the train ahead to the crossing and waited until the gates came before throttling-up 9473 ahead to clear the switch for the conductor. As we crossed Lancaster Street I remember looking down at the stopped traffic thinking how the crew could see everything from up here and just being in general awe of what was happening. I asked the engineer if I could take a couple photos from the cab and we briefly talked. In no time at all we had reversed the set-off into the yard. While we waited for the conductor to finish uncoupling the engineer asked “you want to take over for a minute for this next move?” I don’t honestly remember my response but in a matter of seconds I was sitting in his seat in front of 9473’s controls. With the engineer standing behind me giving me instructions I slowly notched the consist ahead after the conductor had climbed aboard the trailing unit. Once we got to the crossing, he took back over for their final move to clear the power for the 15:30 Kitchener Job, which was getting closer to arriving with their lift. Once we had rolled to a stop he asked, “do you want a picture of you sitting in my chair?” I handed him my camera and he climbed down to get a photo of me waving from the cab. He climbed back-up and gave me back my camera with me giving him a big thank you as I headed back to my waiting bike. The crew headed-over to the Dairy Queen, which was next-door to the laundromat, as they still had some time on their hands. I remember biking home later that evening thinking that I was fortunate that the engineer took that photo because my dad was never going to believe what had just happened when I tell him the story. All I can say is that the 1990’s were awesome.

Photographer:
Jason Noe [916] (more) (contact)
Date: May 1993 (search)
Railway: Canadian National (search)
Reporting Marks: CN 9473 (search)
Train Symbol: CN 421 (search)
Subdivision/SNS: CN Guelph Subdivision (search)
City/Town: Kitchener (search)
Province: Ontario (search)
Share Link: http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=51247
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Photo ID: 49956

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3 Comments
  1. Wonderful story ! Sadly, it’s likely unrepeatable today.

  2. An interesting story Jason…I had a similar experience in the mid 80s…these days it is unlikely to happen…I tried to help our local trash man put some garbage bags in the bag of the truck…that was a big no-no….different world today

  3. Thanks for the comments guys.

    Yes a different world for sure Klaucker!

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