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Having grown up in Summerhill, and lived there in more recent years frequently as well, there were times I pondered on the idea of what if? What if a train on the CP North Toronto Sub just a couple hundred feet from my house derailed? Although a kilometer west of my location, the question was answered, thankfully not catastrophically. CP 235's power was running light to West Toronto Yard around 5am and the crew missed the stop signal at Howland, and ended up taking out the last cars of CP 118. 235 hit the ground, but the ballast and adjacent track rails managed to stop the units several feet short of the Howland Avenue bridge. Had 235 been a full manifest, this likely would have been a vastly different scenario. Luckily, things turned out rather minor compared to what could have happened.

Upon talking with a CP mechanic summoned from Agincourt, I told him it's amazing how minor the damage is. He promptly shook his head, and said "it's huge damage." Obviously, a railfan's point of view versus a locomotive mechanic is going to be very different. Nonetheless, he and his colleagues spent the next few hours weld repairing 8849's front trucks, which snapped from the force of the derailment. 

In this photo, 8849 has had its weld repair completed, and the front axles are slowly being rerailed. 9617 was rerailed rather quickly hours earlier, having sustained no safety-problematic damage to the trucks and wheels. Both units were ready to roll by 10:30pm. Around 12am, a Geep set from West Toronto Yard picked them up and very slowly tugged them back to Agincourt Yard. Traffic was running again before sundown, and the track repairs continued into the next day. The east switch of the Howland interlocking and a section of storage track P66 needed to be rebuilt.
Copyright Notice: This image ©Daniel Odette all rights reserved.



Caption: Having grown up in Summerhill, and lived there in more recent years frequently as well, there were times I pondered on the idea of what if? What if a train on the CP North Toronto Sub just a couple hundred feet from my house derailed? Although a kilometer west of my location, the question was answered, thankfully not catastrophically. CP 235's power was running light to West Toronto Yard around 5am and the crew missed the stop signal at Howland, and ended up taking out the last cars of CP 118. 235 hit the ground, but the ballast and adjacent track rails managed to stop the units several feet short of the Howland Avenue bridge. Had 235 been a full manifest, this likely would have been a vastly different scenario. Luckily, things turned out rather minor compared to what could have happened.

Upon talking with a CP mechanic summoned from Agincourt, I told him it's amazing how minor the damage is. He promptly shook his head, and said "it's huge damage." Obviously, a railfan's point of view versus a locomotive mechanic is going to be very different. Nonetheless, he and his colleagues spent the next few hours weld repairing 8849's front trucks, which snapped from the force of the derailment.

In this photo, 8849 has had its weld repair completed, and the front axles are slowly being rerailed. 9617 was rerailed rather quickly hours earlier, having sustained no safety-problematic damage to the trucks and wheels. Both units were ready to roll by 10:30pm. Around 12am, a Geep set from West Toronto Yard picked them up and very slowly tugged them back to Agincourt Yard. Traffic was running again before sundown, and the track repairs continued into the next day. The east switch of the Howland interlocking and a section of storage track P66 needed to be rebuilt.

Photographer:
Daniel Odette [155] (more) (contact)
Date: 08/21/2016 (search)
Railway: Canadian Pacific (search)
Reporting Marks: CP 8849 (search)
Train Symbol: CP 235-21 (search)
Subdivision/SNS: Mile 3.4 CP North Toronto Subdivision - Howland (search)
City/Town: Toronto (search)
Province: Ontario (search)
Share Link: http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=25896
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Photo ID: 24747

Map courtesy of Open Street Map

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4 Comments
  1. Nice capture, Daniel. I suspect the 8849 will find a nice spot on the Agincourt deadline for the foreseeable future.

  2. This is spectacular! Well done!

  3. Another exceptional image, Daniel! The selection of black & white is very effective.

  4. Thanks guys! This was a relatively urgent shot, so I had to bump up the ISO and lower the shutter to 20fps, so the quality wasn’t the greatest. Especially since this isn’t even a DSLR. Sure enough, the CP cop shooed me away just moments later.

    I was amazed how well 8849′s field repair on the trucks was done. It looked good for service again. The ruptured fuel tank, destroyed catwalk and grab handles are a different story though.

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