First Ops Of September

September's Train Ops

We gathered this morning for the first time in the month of September and it was a joy to run trains in the cooler weather this 9th month of the year offers up.

We revisit Nelson Yard on yet another Saturday morning in this season's train sessions to find this "Black Beauty" earning its keep for the railroad.

This is the latest locomotive to be found along the route of the IPP&W, a new road switcher for "The Ironwood Road."

Master painter, Bill Sn3 Scobie, along with Fred performed their magic in bringing this little puppy to life.

Love that simplistic paint scheme...one of my favourites in fact!

She sure looks handsome nestled up alongside the enginehouse...if I can use "she" and "handsome" in reference to the same object!

Paul's CP GP30 has the honours on the stainless steel on this morning.

Len, Bill and Paul congregate for Father Bill's blessing of the new locomotive.  "Forgive us Father...for we have sinned!"

This "sinner" loves to run his D&H GP38 on any day of the week.

This striking diesel emerges from the shade in Firgrove ready to take on the challenge Trains 302 and 312 are willing to offer up.

Marcel and Mike will crew her today.

We act as the Firgrove yard masters in making up our train in the confines of Ralph Yard.

It's "back and forth" as we go about our business and in short order we will be ready to tack onto our caboose for our eastward run.

Marcel and I marvel at the beautiful day we will have ahead of ourselves following the rain of the past couple of days.

Nearby the passenger extra finds RP&M rails as she begins her ascent up to Rat Portage.

Rat Portage has an interesting history and association with the city of Kenora.  In fact, Kenora derived its name from the first two letters of Keewatin (its sister town), Norman and Rat Portage, an early name given the town because of the migration of muskrats between the lake and the Winnipeg River..

Aha!  Keewatin, Norman & Rat Portage...Kenora!

I have mentioned this interesting piece of trivia before, but in case you had forgotten...the Kenora Thistles won the Stanley Cup in 1907.  Seeing as it is the hockey playoff season I just thought it would be fun to remind you of this fact.  So, the next time your crew travels the prestigious route of the RP&M through the town of Rat Portage you could say something like this..."and now you know...the rest of the story!"

Tourists visiting this wonderful area of our province gain unobstructed views from the dome of the majestic scenery along the route of the RP&M.

With the sun at his back, Paul runs his train through the western area of Ontario along the RP&M route.

This railfan spots a lovely New York Central car in the consist of the passenger train.

Thanks for running past, Paul!

Two eager railfans appear out of nowhere!

Before we seek clearance east to Bell, Marcel and I verify that we have all cars on our train out from Firgrove.

Surveillance of our train orders shows that we will be "six cars out" plus locomotive and caboose.

We "bad-ordered" one car in Ralph Yard and refused to add it to our consist...

...so...rather than "six out" we will be "five."

As we approach the halfway milepost between Firgrove and Bell, the dynamic brakes hold us to the speed limit.

This confident road switcher offers up a typical railroading vignette as she goes about her work in Nelson Yard.

Len admires the look of this latest addition to the railroad.

Extra 7316 (IPP&W Train 302) takes the curve along the western environs of Bell and will proceed down the yard ladder at any moment.

Our work at Bell will be a straight exchange of one CP 40' boxcar for another near the interchange.

We verify this move with our list.

I spot that beautiful Pullman car once again.

We complete our moves quickly...

...and our train will await clearance down to Wellington Lake.

With that straight exchange we will remain "five cars out" from Bell.

We gather the tail end of our train and will be on our way shortly.

That's one camouflaged car in my books!

Here's Grant!

Aha!  He has commandeered the "Executive's Special" and is spotted departing RP&M rails and entering IPP&W territory.

We decide to hold in Bell for the passage of this important train.

She looks smart, doesn't she?

Lovely!

We don't mind holding for this "one of a kind" train.

She's through Bell and on her way eastward.

Wasn't that 50's song entitled "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying" instead of smiling?

With his mask on...who knows what he's doing!  Big grin!

Extra 7316 is on the move again through the yard lead...

...and down to the siding at Watkins.

Here is the lift we brought to our train at Bell...CP 40' boxcar #59174.

Over at Nelson Yard we catch the passenger train on its approach to this vast expanse of trackage...

...as Paul takes the Arrival/Departure track through the big yard.

Len is dreaming of a "No-Covid" world...

...and Marcel concurs with him!

Little Olie is immune to the anxiety as he and his friendly locomotive make their way along the tracks outside of Mount St. Helens.  (Thanks, Bernie, for this photo along with the next three images.)

Later in the session, Lawrence brought out the trestle he and Fred have been talking about in recent times.

The bents and the roadbed look awesome, Lawrence and Fred!

We can't wait until the construction is complete and we can once again switch out the industries to the east of Nelson Yard!  I will showcase more pics of this project in a future posting later this week.

Please enjoy this wonderful Labour Day Weekend everyone.

Cheers, Mike Hamer, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada