Rail Company in Negotiations for ACR Passenger Service

For those following the continuing saga of the Algoma Central “Tour of the Line”/regular passenger service between Sault Ste. Marie and Hearst, there was an press release published today in the Soo media outlets indicating that of three companies that had tendered qualified bids (a fourth had previously bid, but later withdrew) in the past year to operate the passenger service on the ACR, one has now been selected to move to final negotiations to take over operation of the passenger train from CN this spring.

While details of the company involved are still confidential at this point and not publicly released, the press release indicates that the company’s bid includes plans to “increase revenue and ridership by diversifying the types of tourism products and services available to passengers, as well as making the service self-sustaining within five years.”

For more details, click on the link below at SooToday.com:

Mystery rail firm enters negotiations to operate ACR

Searchmont and Bellevue Bridge Detail Photos

Conversing with Blair Smith – another ACR fan and modeller – recently, he sent me this link to an information page with a gallery including many high-quality detail shots of the truss bridge over the Goulais River at Searchmont. This crossing is located just to the south and in sight of Searchmont station, and alongside the main road into town.

Searchmont Railway Bridge

Plenty of excellent details for anyone interested in modelling the ACR at Searchmont.

A little bit of searching on the same site also brings up a page for the trestle bridge over the Bellevue valley just over 10 miles to the south of Searchmont, again with an excellent set of detail photos.

Bellevue Valley Railway Bridge

Freight Car Friday #17 – AC 238459

SAMSUNG DIGIMAX 360

AC 238459 at the Steelton yard RIP track on August 19, 2004. This is one of 70 cars from the 2401-2501 series rebuilt in 1998 by Wisconsin Central with side stakes for handling pulpwood. These cars were randomly rebuilt and renumbered in no particular ordering. The colours on this car indicate its British Columbia Railway heritage, so it was previously one of 50 cars numbered AC 2426-2475 which were acquired in 1980 from BCIT 818450-818519 series.

Edit: since this post, I’ve obtained detailed roster and renumbering information for these AC flatcars. This information reveals that this car’s former history is ex-AC 2496 (2495-2501 series), ex-NAFX 53293, ex-CNIS 603519 (603500-603746 series), ex-BCIT unk. (818200-818449 series)

The 2495-2501 series was acquired in late 1994, with 5 of the 7 cars being rebuilt in 1998 to AC 238458-238462.