CSX in Canada, eh?


cncproadwarrior

cncproadwarrior

North of the 49th
I've learned more about railroads in the past year from this forum than I learned in my entire life. What a great forum!!;)

When I began building my model railroad last year, I decided to concentrate on Ontario railroads and thought that I would only have 2 roadnames: CN and CP. No Santa Fe, Conrail, UP, SP, BNSF... Pretty boring, eh?:D

I'm well aware of the small local railroads that run in other provinces but I am only concerned with road names that ran in Ontario from 1970 to 1989. Along the way, I discovered the Ottawa Central Railroad, Ontario Northland and the fact that GT and SOO also ran locos here in Ontario.

Now, I just learned that CSX ran locos in Ontario until the mid 1990s thanks to this site: http://trainweb.org/csxcanada/.

Since I am modeling from 1970 to 1989, I am in the process of adding some CSX SD40-2s to the layout.;)

Just wondering if there were any other US railroads running in Ontario during that time?
 
CSX is still running between Sarnia and Wallaceburg. They service our tanker siding 3 times weekly. Usually a GP38 (?) (no dynamics) or a ratty SD-40.

Conrail ran through the rail tunnel in Windsor and carried on the CASO subdivision to St. Thomas. I remember an old torpedo tube GP in CR blue.

Norfolk and Western would send power across the car ferry at Windsor into the CN yards and engine facility.

Lots of interlopers that are no more, sadly.

G.
 
I ran an NS loco in St. Thomas for a couple hundred feet and back around 12 (?) years ago.
It was weird, long hood forward as I recall. I have a pic somewhere if you want to know what loco it was.
New York Central used to run up as well I believe.
 
If you search "St Thomas" in Railpictures.net you will see everything from:

Chessie System and B&O (Use to run local freight)
View attachment 16215
More pictures of Chessie and B&O action in St Thomas on Railpictures. When working down in Sarnia and driving along the waterfront there I have seen a few bridges on the Canadian side labeled C&O but I am sure that the lines have long been abandoned?

Conrail Units outside the Shops in St Thomas Ontario Mid 80's
View attachment 16214
View attachment 16213
This shop is home of the St Thomas Railway Museum and owned by CN. It is in a pretty sad state now with an aging concrete roof that is slowly falling in, I think you have to sign a waiver to get in there now.


Norfolk and Western (later NS) use to service the Ford Automotive Plant in Talbotville before CN took over in the 90's. Mostly autoracks and box cars of parts.
View attachment 16212
This yard is now run by CN and the track in the foreground towards Windsor was abandoned years ago. The yard will probably be abandoned in the near future as the Ford plant has been announced to close in September 2011 if I am not mistaken.

It would have been quite a sight to see St Thomas in the 80's with all those different US roads up here. I am sure there was also some Wabash action here too. It's just too bad things have changed so much since then and allot of the lines are abandoned or have been removed entirely.
 
NWCanuck said:
This shop is home of the St Thomas Railway Museum and owned by CN. It is in a pretty sad state now with an aging concrete roof that is slowly falling in, I think you have to sign a waiver to get in there now.
Click to expand...

Well by the end of the year, the ECRM (said museum) will own the building and surrounding trackage, with rumour of a connection with the Talbot spur through downtown St. Thomas....

NWCanuck said:
Norfolk and Western (later NS) use to service the Ford Automotive Plant in Talbotville before CN took over in the 90's. Mostly autoracks and box cars of parts. This yard is now run by CN and the track in the foreground towards Windsor was abandoned years ago. The yard will probably be abandoned in the near future as the Ford plant has been announced to close in September 2011 if I am not mistaken.
Click to expand...

Southwold yard (pictured) was serviced by the N&W, but IIRC the switching of the plant itself has always been done by CN. The Talbotville yard is about 4 miles North of the Southwold yard. CN 586 switches the plant, and CN 589/584 handles traffic to and from Southwold.
 
GlennC said:
CSX is still running between Sarnia and Wallaceburg. They service our tanker siding 3 times weekly. Usually a GP38 (?) (no dynamics) or a ratty SD-40.

Conrail ran through the rail tunnel in Windsor and carried on the CASO subdivision to St. Thomas. I remember an old torpedo tube GP in CR blue.

Norfolk and Western would send power across the car ferry at Windsor into the CN yards and engine facility.

Lots of interlopers that are no more, sadly.

G.
Click to expand...

The New York Central ran through Ontario, enroute from Buffalo to Detroit. There was extensive passenger service, as well as a freight operation, and this lasted through the Penn Central era. The passenger service ended with the beginning of Amtrak, and Conrail eventually spun off the freight operation sometime in the early '80s. There is a CASO website with tons of interesting details about this operation.
 
iomalley said:
with rumour of a connection with the Talbot spur through downtown St. Thomas....
Click to expand...

Could you imagine? That would be very cool if the rumor was true. That would be the first new track laid in St Thomas in... well who knows, a long time. That city has an amazing rail history, I would have loved to see it in its hay day. I am not sure why the museum would spend money on a link to the Talbot sub when they already have a link to the CP out of Ingersoll. Then again, I am not sure if that track still exists all the way to the museum.

I am in St Thomas from time to time working and a few months ago I saw a couple of CP GP9's idling on the First St over pass looking down the over grown line to the museum (probably having lunch and telling stories of days gone by). Those rails over Talbot street haven't seen action like that in years.

As I am sure you know watching "A" Channel news there was talk of commuter service by a teenager who wanted to see service between London and St Thomas but I just don't ever see the demand for it. The cost to bring that Talbot spur up to snuff and allow anything over restricted speeds would be to great, with their local economy that way it is right now.
 
Brad I think that was the extension of the old London and Port Stanley RR he was thinking about. I remember getting into several discussions with people over that little rumour. As for St. Thomas----with Talbotville ford plant scheduled to close in 2011 and the loss of 1500 jobs there and spin off jobs disappearing-----sheeesh:eek::eek::(
 
I do have a map of all railroad in quebec and ontario, and belive me, there is around 20-25 major RR and shortline
its on my other computer so ill post it tomorrow
allrigh, eh? :D
 
Caso

The bridges by BX tower have been replaced and what I,ve heard CSX is going to run through to Buffalo can,t imagine fixing bridges if you won,t run trains,the musuem paid 100,000 dollars for the rail so I think at some point rail should go back in I don,t know what is taking so long but something should happen soon!
 
shortlines own the whole line east of St Thomas to Canfeild junction since 2004 some big players like STE and Rail America and Genese Wyoming and other small frys
 
soupman said:
The bridges by BX tower have been replaced and what I,ve heard CSX is going to run through to Buffalo can,t imagine fixing bridges if you won,t run trains,the musuem paid 100,000 dollars for the rail so I think at some point rail should go back in I don,t know what is taking so long but something should happen soon!
Click to expand...

WOW! When did this happen? I was in St Thomas a couple weeks ago and didn’t see any new bridges over Ross or First St. Are they laying new track somewhere, because the Caso sub is gone, and the Paynes sub is dead west of number 4 HWY to Glencoe. What are they going to run on West of St Thomas?

Oh yeah, welcome to the forum Soupman.:D
 
NWCanuck said:
WOW! When did this happen? I was in St Thomas a couple weeks ago and didn’t see any new bridges over Ross or First St. Are they laying new track somewhere, because the Caso sub is gone, and the Paynes sub is dead west of number 4 HWY to Glencoe. What are they going to run on West of St Thomas?

Oh yeah, welcome to the forum Soupman.:D
Click to expand...

Well I used too work for cn at BIT and asked about this line and in 2004 when I was there everything east of St Thomas was sold to STe and Rail link Genese Wyoming WNYR etc but a day later I got fired because nobody was supposed to know anyway bridges cost millions so does right of way so I assume from what I see CSX took the west half of CASO becuse NS and CN put 6 tracks back in FT Erie becuse of what CSX is doing in New york State with Frointier Yard and Ft ERie was 1 track 2007 and in 2008 like magic heavy guage railway track and a yard appeared like a rabbit out of a hat and A 1 mile train of cn cars and 1 mile train of NS can be seen in these yards that used to be empty and withou any rail except for 1 line and now there is 7 forgot cp rail used 115 lbs rail last year for 1 mile still heavy guage bought in the usa that is what the rail said
 
soupman said:
Well I used too work for cn at BIT and asked about this line and in 2004 when I was there everything east of St Thomas was sold to STe and Rail link Genese Wyoming WNYR etc but a day later I got fired because nobody was supposed to know anyway bridges cost millions so does right of way so I assume from what I see CSX took the west half of CASO becuse NS and CN put 6 tracks back in FT Erie becuse of what CSX is doing in New york State with Frointier Yard and Ft ERie was 1 track 2007 and in 2008 like magic heavy guage railway track and a yard appeared like a rabbit out of a hat and A 1 mile train of cn cars and 1 mile train of NS can be seen in these yards that used to be empty and withou any rail except for 1 line and now there is 7 forgot cp rail used 115 lbs rail last year for 1 mile still heavy guage bought in the usa that is what the rail said
Click to expand...
And in 2008 all the ballast from Canfeild Junction was scooped up with Heavy Machines and spread between Hagersville and St Thomas on the CASO and all I know is railways use ballast the whole right of way has been levelled from Canfeild to St Thomas all I know is trucks briges right s of way the Musem was all purchased from cn and the cheapest yard I see for property is St Thomas yard for 100,000 for the scrap rail so I say whoever bought the line will have too use it to make back the $$$$$$$$$$$ paid out.Fort Erie on the Canadian side which is the Caso.
 
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