Railroad Forums 

  • St. Lawrence & Atlantic Railroad (SLR/SLQ)

  • For discussion of the various Class II and III Lines of the Genesee & Wyoming Inc. Railroad Holding Co. short-lines which do not have their own forums as noted:

    Their website is here: GWRR.com
    A list of their holdings is here: Wikipedia List
For discussion of the various Class II and III Lines of the Genesee & Wyoming Inc. Railroad Holding Co. short-lines which do not have their own forums as noted:

Their website is here: GWRR.com
A list of their holdings is here: Wikipedia List
 #1522600  by mkittredge
 
Here is a belated report from last Friday the 11th. 394 crept through Lennoxville at 17:57 powered by 3007, 3804 and 805. They were pulling a whopping 20 cars! I can’t be as informative about the consist as Fritz, but who can? However, there were 6 loads of lumber, and several boxes and tanks.
Also saw 510 leaving Lennoxville with 3035, 3105 and 3014 and 1 box car. Does anybody know why 3 units are necessary? Thanks.

Mike
 #1522601  by mkittredge
 
mkittredge wrote: Tue Oct 15, 2019 5:33 pm Here is a belated report from last Friday the 11th. 394 crept through Lennoxville at 17:57 powered by 3007, 3804 and 805. They were pulling a whopping 20 cars! I can’t be as informative about the consist as Fritz, but who can? However, there were 6 loads of lumber, and several boxes and tanks.
Also saw 510 leaving Lennoxville with 3035, 3105 and 3014 and 1 box car. Does anybody know why 3 units are necessary? Thanks.

Mike
 #1522613  by Fritz
 
Mike,
I don't know for sure, but I wonder if 510 had already dropped their cars for Windsor (Domtar and B&B), Brompton (Kruger), and Sherbrooke (CMQ) and ran south to pull a load from Kruger in Lennoxville. Then returning north, they would put together their "inbound" cars from the same locations. Again, this is just a guess, as I rarely get that far north, so thanks for the report!
Best,
Fritz
 #1522675  by trainiac
 
Saw 393 passing through Lennoxville this morning around 11:00 AM with 805, 3804, 3007 and about 67 cars. Perhaps 40% were LPG tank cars. There were quite a few empty centerbeam flats and several bulkhead flats with stakes. The rest was a mix of boxcars, hoppers and a few various tank cars.

Regarding the short length of 510, there seems to have been a lot of interchange with the CMQ in the last couple of years, so the explanation that those cars were left in Sherbrooke for later pickup sounds plausible. I caught what I believe was 510 leaving Richmond at the end of September (I had passed 394 near Sherbrooke two hours earlier) and it had 35 cars. Whenever I've seen the CMQ heading to or from the yard (which is much more often than seeing the SLR since I'm often there in the early afternoon) they're often switching cuts of over 30 cars. Between switching, the SLR Sherbrooke yard often has 2 tracks full of cars.
 #1523175  by Fritz
 
Hello,
Today's SLQ westbound 393 departed Island Pond at 0800 with a short train:

RM-1 803
GP40-3 3803
QG GP40-2W 3014
13 centerbeam flats
1 hi-cube boxcar
5 boxcars
3 tank cars
8 covered hoppers
9 propane cars

That's 39 cars total, including 3 loads and 36 empties.

Apparently, the rail work is now complete on the Sherbrooke Sub.
Have a great day,
Fritz
 #1523272  by Fritz
 
Hello,
Today's late-running SLR westbound 393 did not arrive back into Island Pond until 0820:

QG GP40 3105
RM-1 804
GP40-3 3805
3 centerbeam flats
6 hi-cube boxcars
3 boxcars
10 propane cars
6 tank cars

That's 28 cars total, including 2 loads and 26 empties. They also had 4 empties to pull from RCP in Island Pond.

I don't know why they were running so late, but the SLQ westbound 393 didn't arrive in Richmond until 1600 this afternoon.
Best,
Fritz
 #1523477  by Fritz
 
Hello,
Today's SLQ westbound 393 departed Island Pond rather late at 0917 with the following:

GP40-2 3008
GP40 3004
GP40-2 3007
15 centerbeam flats
1 bulkhead flat
1 covered hopper
3 boxcars
8 hi-cube boxcars
6 tank cars
21 propane cars
1 hi-sided gondola

That's 56 cars total, including 2 loads and 54 empties.

Casey, this may be related: Apparently, last night's 394 stalled three times due to wet, slippery leaves and had to be pushed to Norton by the 510 crew. I know that tonnage is being limited on other New England railroads as well due to the wet, slippery leaves.
Best,
Fritz
 #1524216  by trainiac
 
Saw 394 by chance tonight as I was driving through Lennoxville, QC around 6:10 PM. Had 3007-3805-804 and 38 cars - a mix of a bit of everything, all loaded (or almost). First surprise: The horn on 3007, which I hadn't heard before - and which sounded like a Nathan M3H. 3007 was not running.

I caught up to it again on Nichol Road and got out of my car to watch. Second surprise: A "horn concert" and wave just like the ones I used to get 15 years ago as a teenager when I lived next to the SLR - probably from the same engineer too. Major nostalgia trip! 3805 (and by extension 804) was still the only unit running, and after passing the crossing slowly it was notched to full and accelerated the train to about 15-20 mph.

I then went to Courval road to watch it again, and it took longer than I expected to arrive considering it's only 2 miles up the track. When it did, I discovered the reason: between the crossings, 3007 was restarted - prior to the train tackling the Waterville grade. By the time the train had passed it was managing probably close to 30 mph at the foot of the grade. A 38-car train may be rather shorter than 10 years ago, but when the cars are loaded it's at the limit of what a single slug set can handle on the grade.
 #1524220  by gokeefe
 
Is it common operating practice to shutdown a unit and restart it enroute? Never heard of that before but makes perfect sense and the fuel savings are probably enormous.
 #1525014  by Fritz
 
Hello,
On this wintry morning, the SLQ westbound 393 departed Island Pond at 0815 with the following:

QG SD40U 6904
RM-1 804
GP40-3 3805
GP40-2 3007 (the "faded pumpkin")
4 centerbeam flats
3 boxcars
2 hi-cube boxcars
5 propane cars
6 tank cars

That's 20 cars total, including 5 loads and 15 empties.

I don't know if the short train was due to this past Monday's holiday (Veterans/Remembrance Day) or the flooding and storms that happened week before last, when they had to empty the yard and sandbag the buildings in Richmond (and knocked down a lot of trees along the railroad).
Have a great day,
Fritz
 #1525219  by Fritz
 
Hello,
Today's SLQ westbound 393 didn't depart Island Pond until 0955 with the following:

GP40-2 3047
GP40-3 3803
RM-1 803
7 centerbeam flats
5 covered hoppers
12 tank cars
32 propane cars
16 hi-cube boxcars

That's 72 cars total, including 2 loads and 70 empties!
Have a great weekend,
Fritz
 #1525275  by Fritz
 
Hello,
On this cold morning (-3oF), the SLQ westbound 393 departed Island Pond at 0753 with the following:

QG GP40 3105
GP40-2 3035
GP40-3 3804
6 centerbeam flats
2 hi-cube boxcars
12 propane cars
3 tank cars
5 covered hoppers

That's 28 cars total, all empties.

By the way, there are currently 9 AIMX hi-sided gondolas and the SLR MOW flat (#20) parked at the east end of the yard in Island Pond.
Have a great weekend,
Fritz
 #1525541  by Fritz
 
Hello,
Today's SLQ westbound 393 departed Island Pond around 0753 with the following:

GP40-2 3047
GP40 3004
GP40-2 3008
8 centerbeam flats
8 covered hoppers
25 tank cars
18 propane cars
1 hi-sided gondola

That's 60 cars total, including 3 loads and 57 empties.

By the way, with the ongoing strike of CN conductors, I have heard that SLQ will not be running trains to Southwark Yard outside Montreal.
Best,
Fritz
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