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View Full Version : NS 9904 and UP 4783, and some St Thomas Ontario questions


JruDouglas
02-02-2005, 06:18 AM
on the 31st of January, in St Thomas Ontario, i saw NS 9904 and UP 4783 sitting at the former Grand Trunk (?) yard at the end of Hiawatha Street...

first question, is this now a CN yard, and what is it's official name

how old is NS 9904? I saw the pics of it in NC on the 24th, and somewhere else in December...it looks new, w/o the black paint job and all

where is UP 4783 usually located? is it mostly in Canada, or the US?

i used to live in the 2nd last on Hiawatha, from 84 to about 88, and i wish i had taken pictures of both the old station, and of all the NS, NW, CN, and other engines i saw...i was only 6 1/2 when i moved there in May of 84, and i think i was either 11 or very close to it when i left there...i moved back to the neighborhood in 1989, and unfortunately the yard wasn't as busy as it was back then, and i think the station was torn down shortly after i left St Thomas in 1993...

back before i left St Thomas, i used to always enjoy watching the trains on both that old former Grand Trunk(?) line, and the former Mich Central/Penn Central line (now used by CP i think) that runs paralell to Talbot and Centre streets...with the former Mich Central/Penn Central yard, i used to love seeing how busy it was back then...i now work across the tracks from the St Thomas Rail Museum (at the call centre above VanPelts on Talbot), and it saddens me to see how dead those tracks are...the winters of my childhood, there was no way all the tracks would be covered in snow for any length of time, there'd be some trains going through regularly...

i was a bit encouraged by seeing a crew de-icing the switch right behind my work the other day, it leads to a spur track where i regularly see grain(?) cars behind held over...and today there was a short consist parked a bit east of my work, on what i called the north-main line, with 8 or 9 grain cars, and i think one CP engine..

anyways...i was wondering if anyone else had any memories of St Thomas railroading in the mid 80's to early 90's to share? i'll post more later...i'm really disheartened with what has happened to "The Railway Capital of Canada"

cmherndon
02-02-2005, 07:51 AM
how old is NS 9904?

This is the only question I can answer for ya. 9904 is probably no more than a few months old. It was part of NS's last order of Dash 9's which they took delivery of last year.

dodi4200
02-02-2005, 11:55 AM
look man i canot answer any of yur question as im egyptian and donot know alot of information about the american lines but all i can say i hope u can get every thing u wanna in railfaning
mohamed :)

J
02-04-2005, 05:38 PM
UP 4783 (SD70M) is one of more than 1000 such units owned by Union Pacific and can probably be seen almost anywhere in North America. Railroads regularly share power as it is frequently more efficient for a train to run through to destination rather than change power at an interchange point.