On the evening of July 12 2018, I thought I should try my luck and see if I could catch GEXR 584 running North on the Waterloo Spur before sundown being that occasionally at this time of year they did so.
Well I got lucky! They went up shortly after 8pm that night and I’d say I had a successful chase northbound!
For those of you who want to know what’s so rare about this video and why it is history now here’s why
The CN (formerly GEXR) Waterloo Spur Line is a 11 mile spur line that branches off of the Guelph Sub near Kitchener VIA Rail and runs northbound to Elmira to service a pair of chemical facilities.
Resonantly, Waterloo has added a light rail route to their region and 3 miles of the route is shared with CN as it travels up the Waterloo Spur from Uptown to Northfeild dr.
That being said, these Light Rail Tracks were built to be able to accommodate both the street cars and freight traffic. Isn’t that a unike scene? Seeing a Freight on Light Rail Tracks?
However as of right now (December 2018), the Light Rail Transit System is said to be in its more serious stages of testing and the region hopes to have it open spring 2019 therefore, all freight trains traveling down the Waterloo Spur now follow very strict restrictions of running north between 23:00 and 24:00 and south between 03:00 and 04:00.
That being said, now the changes of catching a freight on the Waterloo Spur in any form of daylight is next to impossible so I am glad I got these shots (at this time the local that ran this line still occasionally ran north at dusk as the Light Rail was still in its less intense stages of testing).
For those of you who wanted to see the unike shots of the freight on light rail tracks, the second and third clips in this video show it.
Down below I’ll give a brief description of all the shots I got
Locations in Order
1. Louisa st, Kitchener- GEXR 584 has just switched on to the Waterloo Spur moments ago and is leaving Kitchener
2. Waterloo Public Square- Train is passing through the parking lot of Town Square Mall in uptown Waterloo. This is almost Street Running.
The track on the right is a light rail track and right behind me is where the Light Rail Route joins the Waterloo Spur for 3 Miles and therefore, as the tail end of the train clears the freight is now on the Light Rail Tracks
3. Northfield Dr, Waterloo- 3 miles north of the previous location, this is where the Light Rail Route branches off and curves east following Northfeild and the Waterloo Spur turns back into a regular spur line north of the crossing. As the train approaches the crossing, it is still on Light Rail Tracks but after the crossing its back to a Regular Spur line
4. King st, North Waterloo- Train is passing by the St Jacobs Market
5. Hawsville Road, St Jacobs Village- passing through the Village of St Jacobs, 584 crosses the rural crossing and is nearing its destination in Elmira.
