Glad to see that the mill reopened. They had a labor dispute some years back and shut it down. Amongst other specialty paperboard products they produce, they're a newsprint maker and that's a tough market. Many dozens of North American paper mills have been closed and razed in the last few decades.
The Montreal passenger station is right down stairs at the hotel where we are staying. Can't get down to the trains without a ticket but the main waiting room is still cool. I may have to take a quick turn back to Quebec just to ride the train. Two hours each way.
Central Station! In that case you're staying at the Queen Elizabeth hotel? That's a former CN hotel. As for a quick trip to Québec, that's worth your while. You'd probably be arriving at the Gare Du Palais, which looks like a palace, in the same style as the Chateau Frontenac hotel. If the route is along the south shore of the St Lawrence, you'd be crossing both the Victoria Bridge (piers date back to 1859, current superstructure about 1900) and the Quebec Bridge, which was built by the National Transcontinental before it was incorporated into CN in 1919. If it's along the north shore, there's the St-Ursule bridge, built by the Grand Trunk in 1910, over the former valley of the Maskinongé river (a few photos I've posted were from there), and the spectacular one at Cap Rouge, just before arriving at Québec.
That's likely on the Alexandria sub. A lot of farmland in that part of Ontario. Much like what I see on highway 417 when I drive to Ottawa for train shows and stuff. Beautiful countryside. F40PH-2! Cool bug deflector on the end of the short hood. Looks like they did an extension on the rear with a HEP package. Interesting. Takes a big load off the prime mover. Every time I've seen a VIA train, it was behind one or two of those GE boxes with one pointy end.
It sure had a lot of pep when accelerating. My phone app said we were doing over 80 MPH at times. Don't know how accurate that is. Maybe they allow it to go 130 kilometers per hour. Nice round number.
80 mph is about right. For the acceleration, that should be the difference between 2300 and 3000 hp. Separate HEP makes a huge difference (in noise too). The F59PHs and PHIs on EXO (formerly AMT) have 3000 hp available for traction and can really pull out of a station and back up to speed pretty quickly. I had my portable GPS along once and it read about 90 kph or 55 mph at times. Not bad for a commuter run from within 25 km of Montreal.
Caught this one train on our way across ND to the Fargo show yesterday, at Eldridge. I saw the head end and DPU power seperated from the train at the west end, and it had a CP, BNSF and FNM unit! Would have been a neat photo, but coiuldn't get to that end. But in the hunt, the elevator has this! Note the A/C, there's both the window unit and the exhaust for a portable unit!! And a short video.. At Valley City, the caboose is still there and the depot is nicely kept up and in use by the city. Planning on stopping in on Monday.....
Yesterday's 15R in Blythewood, SC at track speed. Trees are just beginning to change. Fall is on the way.
Railroaders are always known for they're ingenuity! Can just picture the "Costco" style a/c unit in there, just the one in my house, lol!