Shortline/Regional Railnews
CANADIAN SHORTLINES GLENN COURTNEY
CBNS Sydney Sub Abandonment
The battle over Genesee & Wyoming’s (GWI) plan to abandon the Sydney Subdivision of its Cape Breton & Central Nova Scotia (CBNS) line continued as the planned abandonment date approached. In November 2014, the Nova Scotia provincial government reject- ed a GWI proposal wherein the provincial government would assume all the operating costs of the line for a year and pay additional amounts for the company’s opportunity costs because it could not abandon the line. Costs under this proposal were estimated at $6 mil- lion, which is double the $3 million annual subsidy offered by the provincial government to Genesee & Wyoming to continue operating the line.
The province’s Utility and Review Board
met on December 8 and 9, 2014, to consider the application to discontinue service on the Sydney Subdivision. A ruling on GWI’s ap- plication was expected sometime in January 2015. At the hearing, Genesee & Wyoming of- ficials made it clear that they did not intend to operate any trains on the Sydney Subdivision after December 31, 2014. They indicated that they will meet their obligations to provide ser- vice to the railroad’s remaining customers on the subdivision by alternative means. Meanwhile, a local group of investors, in- cluding shippers who are losing rail service, has said that it is interested in purchasing the Sydney Subdivision and possibly the en- tire CBNS. Genesee & Wyoming has stated that they are willing to sell the Sydney Subdi- vision for its scrap value which they estimate to be between $20 and $25 million.
J&L Locomotives
Wrecked and out-of-service Southern Railway of British Columbia SD38-2 383 has been sold to J&L Consulting. Ontario Southland Rail-
Brantford Spurs to Southern Ontario Ry.
Genesee & Wyoming’s Southern Ontario Railway (SOR) began operating a pair of spurs around Brantford, Ontario, on Jan- uary 1, 2015. Totaling 2.5 miles of track, local company Ingenia Polymers acquired the railway to maintain operations, and SOR was contracted to provide service. The fi rst run took place on January 7 (LEFT), bringing in ten loaded cars. Canadian Na- tional previously operated the lines one day a week, or as needed. This segment of track includes a bit of street-running along Clarence Street (ABOVE).
PHOTOS BY STEPHEN HOST
way has purchased former Canadian Pacific GP9u 1591 from J&L Consulting. It will be used on its former Guelph Junction Railway operation.
Southern Ontario
SOR received a pair of SD40-2 locomotives that were painted in Genesee & Wyoming corporate colors at National Railway Equip- ment’s facility in Paducah, Ky. RLHH 3403 was built as Canadian Pacific SD40 5516 and RLHH 3404 was built as Penn Central SD40 6260. RLHH is the reporting mark used by SOR. SOR also added RLHH 304, a GP40-2W built as Canadian National 9554, to its roster.
Ottawa Valley Railway
OVR also a received a pair of SD40-2s from National Railway Equipment’s facility in Pa- ducah, Ky. RLK 3409 was built as Baltimore & Ohio 7486 and RLK 3410 was built as Soo
Line 754. RLK is the reporting mark used by OVR.
Ontario Northland
On December 5, 2014, Resolute Forest Prod- ucts announced that it planned to close its Iroquois Falls, Ont., newsprint mill on De- cember 22. The mill, which employed 180 workers, had operated for 100 years and was the largest employer in Iroquois Falls. Its clo- sure will result in a loss of traffic for Ontario Northland.
DAKOTA, MINNESOTA & EASTERN IOWA, CHICAGO & EASTERN DAVE KROEGER
Operations
Starting January 1, 2015, Canadian Pacific will receive Columbia (near Portage, Wisc.) coal trains from the Union Pacific at Clinton,
12 MARCH 2015 •
RAILFAN.COM
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