{"id":413,"date":"2013-10-03T20:30:52","date_gmt":"2013-10-04T00:30:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vanderheide.ca\/blog\/?p=413"},"modified":"2018-08-07T13:22:01","modified_gmt":"2018-08-07T17:22:01","slug":"tour-of-the-line-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vanderheide.ca\/blog\/2013\/10\/03\/tour-of-the-line-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Tour of the Line – Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

So earlier this week I was in Sault Ste. Marie again with a friend of mine to ride the full Tour of the Line from Sault Ste. Marie to Hearst.<\/p>\n

First thing in the morning we went down to the station to pick up our reserved tickets and watched it depart and picked up our reserved tickets. My friend had booked a little earlier and was riding the Agawa Canyon Tour Train to Canyon and then getting on the Tour of the Line on a \u201cCanyon Combo\u201d package, allowing the tour of the line and also a short stopover at Canyon park. I booked a little later and the Canyon train was fully sold out, but ultimately this probably turned out for the best as shooting from the vestibules is not permitted on the Canyon train. The regular train to Hearst has a far more relaxed attitude. We definitely spent more time shooting out the vestibule window or the rear door of the coach than actually sitting in our seats.<\/p>\n

The Canyon train was absolutely running at full capacity, so I finally got to fill in the missing names on my roster of the ex-\u201cSki Train\u201d cars as every single one of them was in use on the train.<\/p>\n

CN 633 Full consist northbound on Sept. 30, 2013:<\/p>\n

CN 105 (F40PH)
\nCN 104 (F40PH)
\nAC 5700 “Achigan Lake”
\nAC 5701 “Montreal River”
\nAC 5710 “Agawa River”
\nAC 5705 “Spruce Lake”
\nAC 5702 “Lake Superior”
\nAC 5655
\nAC 5703 “Chippewa River”
\nAC 506 (Diner)
\nAC 5707 “Hubert Lake”
\nAC 5708 “Ogidaki Lake”
\nAC 5704 “Island Lake”
\nAC 5706 “Batchewana River”
\nAC 5709 “Mongoose Lake”
\nAC 5711 “Trout Lake”
\nAC 5712 “Goulais River”
\nAC 5713 “Rand Lake”
\nCN 106 (F40PH)<\/p>\n

(3 engines, 16 cars)<\/p>\n

After the Canyon train pulled out of town it was time to head over to the yard to catch my train. For the last couple of years now the regular train to Hearst has been boarding from the near the shops facilities rather than the passenger depot downtown. With all three of the F40PHs assigned to the Canyon train, the regular train to Hearst this week was powered by a CN GP38-2.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_7348\"<\/a><\/p>\n

CN 631:<\/p>\n

CN 4710 (GP38-2)
\nAC 78 (Power Car)
\nAC 312 (Baggage Car)
\nAC 5656 (Coach)<\/p>\n

We hit patches of thick morning mist around the Heyden to Searchmont area, but otherwise the weather was generally clear, and the temperature quite pleasant:<\/p>\n

\"IMG_7372\"<\/a><\/p>\n

At Northland, we pulled into the siding to allow the southbound freight to pass:<\/p>\n

\"IMG_7379\"<\/a><\/p>\n

CN 574:<\/p>\n

CN 2575 (C44-9W)
\nCN 2136 (C40-8W)
\n(25 cars – several coil steel cars and a bunch of empty gondolas)<\/p>\n

At Ogidaki we dropped off a group heading to their cabin for a few weeks; this was pretty much our only northbound stop before Canyon. Much of the south end of the line skirts along a multitude of lakes and rivers, and many of these lakes are dotted with small private camps and cabins, accessible only by rail (and additionally in many cases, by boat across the lake from the railway stop.)<\/p>\n

\"IMG_7408\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Of course a highlight of any trip on the ACR is crossing the famed trestle at Montreal Falls, made all the more spectacular by the peak fall colours:<\/p>\n

\"IMG_7431\"<\/a><\/p>\n

At Canyon we passed the tour train, dropped off a young honeymooning couple who were going to be staying at the Camp Car which was set out in the house track and picked up half a dozen passengers (including my friend) riding on the “Canyon Combo” package.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_7484\"<\/a><\/p>\n

After leaving the park at Canyon, it was a straight shot to Hawk Junction. As we pulled through Hawk, train 573, which had preceded the passenger trains out of Sault Ste. Marie (Steelton), was switching two full tracks of cars in the yard. Quite a bit more traffic than I saw in my July visit<\/a>. A lot of these cars would be noticed the next day in the interchange tracks at Oba. (Those three gondolas being pushed by the power were the only cars in Hawk Junction yard the next day.)<\/p>\n

\"IMG_7574\"<\/a><\/p>\n

CN 573:<\/p>\n

CN 2562 (C44-9W)
\nCN 5631 (SD75i)
\n(no accurate car count as this train was actively engaged in switching, and there were long strings of cars on at least two tracks)<\/p>\n

At Hawk Junction we boarded another small group and their supplies who travelled as far as Tatnall to a camp. That was our last stop northbound before Hearst. The CP and CN main lines at Franz and Oba were crossed without delay from cross traffic on the other lines. At Mosher, the old station and some signs of the abandoned pulpwood operations still remained:<\/p>\n

\"IMG_7648\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We arrived at Hearst just after 8 pm, which made it well after dark with the shortening fall days. Tired and hungry (but having enjoyed the ride) we sought out our hotel and some dinner before preparing to do the whole thing in reverse.<\/p>\n

I ended up taking at least 900 photos during the trip, so there\u2019s far too much material to share here in one blog posting (and a lot of the photos are somewhat similar, but serve as some future modeling reference for some areas. I\u2019m going to split the second day\u2019s southbound trip into a separate post, and I may have enough material to organize into some additional related posts over the next week or so. I\u2019ve tossed about about a dozen new header images into the random page header rotation.<\/p>\n

For now I\u2019ll pause to make some general observations from the trip:<\/p>\n