The trains on the shortline are getting heavy these days. 10,000 ton oil trains are the norm now. Van Horne was right, although the international has its operating challenges it remains the short line between Montreal and New Brunswick. I think he would be proud to see the 80 car trains of crude oil rolling down the Boundary. .
Randy
Yup...very wintery weather there this year. Spent Christmas in Sherbrooke, and there was certainly no shortage of snow or cold. Thanks to the MM&A that line through Sherbrooke (Van Horne called it the best constructed part of the CPR) remains viable.
Its still cold there . Most of the tracks are gone , all the buildings are gone except for the Lake Megantic station . The station has been restored and serves as a tourist headquarters. A sport complex has been built roughly on the site of the roundhouse. The old QC tracks are still used out to Tafisa and the wye has been reconfigured.
Yesterday we had snow wind and ice on the International so our Eastbound train from Farnham to Brownville Jct. got pretty beat up with broken headlights, ditchlights, broken horn, bell radio antenneas etc. Its still a rough railroad over the Boundary.
Oh yeah, it's a great shot. You can almost smell the hot steam and oil and the coal smoke. You can't feel the cold, but I'm not sure that's such a bad thing. Truth to tell, I actually prefer cold weather to hot weather, but I've got my limits.
http://www.railroadheritage.org/index.php?P=FullRecord&ResourceId=2246
Here's a great David Plowden photo of steam in Quebec in its final hours. Gone too are the cold winters and the waist deep snow. I'm too young to remember steam, but I do remember the water and coaling towers...CP was slow to get rid of the infrastructure which lasted well into the 70s.
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