New Year's Eve in the Don Valley

GO's Richmond Hill train makes it's way northward on an early departure from Union Station to get New Year's Eve revellers home in time to get ready for the evening.

I positioned myself in the trails above Crother's Woods in the Don Valley with a wide view of this section of the Bala sub that runs just north of Pottery Road.  The signals at a pedestrian trail crossing are marked as 4.92 on the crossbucks.  Just really trying out this new camera in twilight conditions (Sony CX250), this being shot at 4:42PM on Dec. 31, 2012.

Happy New Year everyone!

Now in HD, with a CP pull/push consist as my first HD catch.

Upgrading to HD for my videos as Santa put a Sony CX250 under the tree with my name on it.  After poking around with it in the house for a couple of days, I took it along with me on the trails, after a decent little 8 inches of snow came down late on Boxing Day.  The trails are nicely runable with good packing snow down.  With shorts on I did get a couple of "Aren't you cold?" questions coming my way with -6C temps.  The cool air feels nice on the legs when your pushing through the snow as it burns calories a whole lot quicker than flat dry stuff.  I managed all of last year with shorts although it really didn't have any of the really nasty cold days we can get up here.

Bala was quiet but the CP rail lines that comprise the Belleville and North Toronto subdivisions as well as Leaside Yard are always active.  After making my way through the snowy trails to the Bayview Avenue I waited near the CP rail bridge over Bayview to see what might come my way.  It never takes long and from the west came a consist of 115 tankers, two auxiliary cars and a pair of ES44ACs (8737 and 8784) leading .  This one was unusual with an AC400CW unit 9585 pushing from behind for assistive power.  The sound of the AC4400CW is quite distinct from it's ES44AC cousin, you hear it coming through near the end of the video.

Some Leaside Yard action

Since I haven't had much opportunity to be catching anything new I figured I'd upload some clips I gathered of a lengthy CP consist doing some shunting in Leaside yard.  I was passing through an open area in Crother's Woods just off the Bala line and heard some action high above in Leaside.  With the trees bare you can see quite a bit of the western portion of the yard from the valley.

It started with 6 assorted CP power units coming into view, given away by the sheer noise of these units even this far down the valley.  It stops to wait as a shorter CP unit speeds by westbound on the southern track, then proceeds down the North Toronto Subdivision in prep to drop off a set of hoppers in the yard.  The consist was pretty mixed with some covered vehicle carriers, assorted tankers, the hoppers, some engineering and MOW units, and at the very back a GO unit probably used as a makeshift caboose for housing maintenance crews.

JayJr2007 grabbed some footage of a GO unit at the end of a CP freight consist in Parry Sound on November 29, likely the same unit, and again it appears in Lambton Yard on December 2 in my clip of the CP Holiday Train.

Lots of noise in this one as the cars rattle about while being positioned in Leaside.  I wasn't going to get any power unit numbers unless I was carrying binoculars with me but it looked like an interesting assortment.

After seeing the initial action from the valley,I scooted up to the crossing at Bayview to get a little closer and better sound.  After about 20 minutes or so it was getting fairly chilly standing on the hill in shorts and a couple of shirts so it was time to get moving again.  Back in the trails of Crother's Woods I caught the end of the consist with the GO unit heading west and the hoppers left behind in Leaside.

Canadian Pacific Holiday Train at Lambton Yard, Toronto

Some shots of the Canadian Pacific Holiday Train as it makes it's December 1, 2012 stop in Toronto at the CP Lambton Yards off Runnymede Avenue.  Lots of people on hand for the visit, many of them casuals who just happened to see either the crowd or the train and wandered up.  Also a chance to get decently close to some action in the yard as work went on in the background.

Prior to arrival, a group of engines sit idling to the west.  The Holiday Train will arrive on a track to the right of these units.  Yes, that's a GO train car.  I saw it yesteday attached to a consist being shunted in Leaside Yard and headed off west, I guess to here.

 After arrival, the train backs up to the near tracks.

 

 

Lights, lights and more lights:

 

 

 

 

The band entertains the crowd:

 



Some inventive aligning of the yard work light over the tree adorning 9815:

 

 

The show comes to a close. Lights on and the 2012 Canadian Pacific Holiday Train...backs out of Lambdon Yard:

 

Work goes on as a pair of power units are shunting stock in the yard: