Midweek Photos 9/2/2020

Intermodal Freight Rail • Canadian National Railway Terminal

Ferndale Michigan • Tuesday August 25th, 2020 • Part One, Westside

We will start this trip at the CN Main Office. The CN Railroad Police use this office center along with the crew that manages the intermodal traffic.

This is where incoming and out going trucks are checked in and out of the yard. At this point the CN Crew checks all the paper work for every container. When a container leaves the yard, it is called out gating. The CN Railroad Police and the United States Border Patrol also monitor all this truck and rail traffic.

Several container cranes are used to move the containers throughout the yard.

A crane operator is starting his shift in the westside of the yard.

This photo is from Google Earth, We are on the westside of the yard.  The yard is about a mile long in a north south orientation. I was not on the railroad property and the CN Police came by to remind me not to enter the yard.  I thanked him for the warning and gave him my business card, and we chatted some more.  It was a friendly exchange.  I stayed about 3 more hours and never saw him again. 

Hope you found these CN photos interesting and hope to see you out rail-fanning and posting your photos here.  Gary 🚂

No longer trackside, since college started again, but I still have a lot of photos from this summer to comb through.

SD40E 6348 leads SD60E 7001 on the westbound C07 local from Shire Oaks yard to Conway Yard.

The 6348 is ex-Conrail SD50 6724, while the 7001 started life as a CNW unit before going into lease-fleet service. Notice that 7001 still sports its NS-designed cooling system with enlarged intakes; about a third or so SD60Es have had their NS systems replaced with the original SD60 cooling systems from retired and sold units.

It's not very often that one sees a McKeesport Connecting car, so seeing several on this train was a treat. MTH made a version of these mill gons carrying a steel girder a few years ago.

The reason for the days adventure leads a Dash 9 on NS 25Z. 1073 is in pretty rough shape; aside from the paint, her K5LLA was badly out of tune (YouTube link).

A few days later, 1073 would be washed and sent west from Altoona with a short office-car train.

Norfolk Southern Track Geometry "Brick" crossing the O.C. Bridge in Pittsburgh, PA September 1, 2020

Tim, don't ever take those RS3s for granted.  I have many regrets over taking locomotives that were daily visitors for granted, and then, day by day, they disappeared.

You are a lucky guy to be able to watch and listen to RS3's whenever you go to trackside.

Dog Walker at the CN Yard  

Intermodal Freight Rail • Canadian National Railway Terminal

Ferndale Michigan • Tuesday August 25th, 2020 

Gary 

I'd say she's in the foul of the track, while she is trespassing, walking the dog.

It's still amazing how some people think railroad property is their personal short cut, or, to do whatever I need to do space.

Thanks for posting, Gary.

Rusty

Hi Rusty @ Diverging Clear: Thanks for checking out the “Dog Walking Photo at the CN Yard”

Here is some follow up information.

1.  This shows the south end of the CN Yard and the location. We are now about 300 yards from the entry point to the yard.  Since this is a Intermodal Freight Rail Yard and a USA Port of Entry. Most of this area is protected by a ten foot chain link fence. I usually have to shoot through the links or over the top of the fence. (Source Google Earth)

2.   This is a close up view of the dog walker and our location. We are both on railroad property. There is a foot path to the railroad bridge on both ends with no chain link fence. The track that is the closed to us is not a main line but a seldom used siding. The CN Railroad seems to look the other way because it is the only place where pedestrians can cross over a 6 lane highway, called “8 Mile”.  (Source Google Earth)

3.    Just some sidebar information. The movie “8 Mile” is about this region and parts of the movie were filmed at this location.

Hope this follow up information was helpful. Look forward to seeing you out rail-fanning and posting your photos here.

Gary 🚂