I can’t imagine how the ever anti-railfan friendly CN ever allowed this to happen. There must have been a big access payment to CN … to help Hunter lower his Operating Ratio
Money talks, nobody walks.
Motorcar/ s’peeders’excursion at the ‘Canyon’ area on the former Algoma Central - who’d a thunk it ?
Well, it appears there’s a precedent for it - see this photo from 1998:
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=62522
Also, other photos by the 2009 event’s photographer indicate that this was the last week of the Canyon tour train season, so maybe it was less disruptive than it would be otherwise.
Also, when you think about it - where else does CN operate this kind of service, for its own account ? It may be that the former AC is kind of an ‘out-lier’ or ‘exception’ operation anyway, and this is just one more way they can exercise their independence, despite the common corporate name now.
Thanks for pointing this out.
- Paul North.
CN is anti railfan?
True. That’s why people are so fat and out of shape.
I resemble that remark.
Al in Stockton
Maybe I over-stated it when, in my initial post, I said that CN was anti-railfan.
After all, there are so many no-trespassing signs around the CN yard in my town that I can’t really tell if there are trains behind all of those no-tresspassing signs to photograph in the first place. There may not be any trains there to photograph any longer, in which case, my initial comment would be totally unwarranted.
With the reservations processes, reductions in service and major rate hikes put in place by the CN over the last year, it wouldn’t be surprising that the traffic is gone.
What I do like about CN is that they will get back to you with a rate quote quickly…the rate may not be what you like but at least they do respond…which is more than can be said for some of the other railways. They’ve raised their rates? Good for them…it’s a pleasant respite from all the rate CUTTING that has been going on …nice to see someone is actually trying to get a fair dollar for services rendered instead of attempting to become a transportation clearing house.
Are those vehicles-on-rails dinky’s?
hi,cn probably isn’t as much anti-fan…as they are ANTI -EMPLOYEE…not a rosy place to be employed…especially in FOND du LAC…for that matter,anywhere on the system…railroading is not the glorious,glossy paged lifestyle you read about in colorful magazines…get yourself hired,you’ll see in about a month what we mean,if you last a month.
I can’t say much about being employed by CN, since I’m not, but I’ve never had a problem railfanning the CN system here in the Twin Ports. Friendly crews, good spots to shoot, never been hassled by an employee at all.
As the photographer of the shot that started this thread I’ll take this opportunity to throw in my two cent’s worth, based on my observations and semi-educated guesses.
First off, the CN Soo Sub (ex ACR) is not a heavily-travelled line in comparison to most of the CN mainlines. It seems to be all jointed rail, it sees 2 freights a day (@ Canyon the Northbounds pass in the AM before the Tour Train, Southbounds between 10 PM and 2 AM). In addition to the daily Tour Train which only runs the on southern 114 miles of the line there are three northbound and three southbound passenger trains per week runninig between the Soo and Hearst, and yes they are CN trains. Right off, that’s an indication that this is not your typical CN line. They do seem to operate with some degree of autonomy within the restrictions of what finances head office is willing to bestow upon them, of course (not enough apparently - also of course[(-D]).
This speeder tour consisted of around 30 cars averaging two occupants each which were accompanied by Hi-Rail pickup trucks, one leading, one following and one that seemed to be a “rover”, could have just been a section foreman tagging along on the same occupancy permit(s) for the sake of convenience. While they were running during what is probably the Tour Train’s highest revenue week (the week prior to Canadian Thanksgiving is usually the best for fall colors and therefore one of the most booked), there’s still only one Tour Train per day just maybe with more coaches so that wouldn’t have been a scheduling factor. Sure they could have waited until the next week when the tour train was not running but then it’s a craps-shoot as to whether they’d have any fall colors to look at themselves, not to mention the increased chances of early season snowfalls. So I guess you’ve got these 60-odd folks who obviously aren’t too badly off paying dues to some organization - possibly NARCOA I didn’t ask -
No. They are called Motor Car’s or Speeder’s. They were once the standard conveyance of MOW crew’s. They were once open top vehicles with only a plywood like panel across the front only high enough for the driver to see over the top of.
A retired section man told me once that it was a terrible way to travel at 30 below zero. The junior man on a gang was forced to look over the top to see where they were going while the rest of the gang crouched behind the panel. If the trip went on for more than 15 or 20 minutes then the next junior man would have to start looking over the top. They were claimed to have a top speed of about 25 to 30 MPH depending on load.
CN began putting tops and windshields on them around 1960 or so. As you can see the sides are still open. The only reason they got top’s is because the roof is held up by a roll-bar assembly for crew safety. Originally the roof’s gave them a reputation as “luxury” speeders for soft government employee’s. But to coin a phrase, once the CPR guys tried it, they liked it. CN was owned by the Canadian Government until 1995.
Dinky’s were usually some type of small passenger carrying vehicle for lines with very few paying passengers.
AgentKid
Don’t they call some of the Chicago area commuter trains “Dinky’s?”
“No Trespassing” signs I suspect often have more to do with possible legal issues than a desire to frustrate railfans. If someone wanders onto railroad property and starts climbing on freight cars and ends up hurting themselves, it helps the railroad’s case in court if they can show that the property was clearly posted with warning signs etc. to keep people away.
Still, of course, it’s never a good idea to railfan on RR or other private property.
Welcome to the forum, Mr. Shaw I enjoyed looking through all your pics. Nice work!
[:D]
Thanks Bob, nice to be here. Just had to see where all the hits were coming from! [:D]
~Wayne