Throwback Thursday #3 - CN 7025 Switching at Rymal in May 1993

CN 7025 has come north from Caledonia for some switching at Rymal near the end of the line - literally and figuratively - in 1993. Norm Conway photo, author's collection.

Today’s Throwback Thursday is a little close to home – in fact, only a couple of miles from my house. Here is a shot of CN GP9Rm #7025 (one of my favourite geeps) switching the Rymal Spur at Rymal in July 1993. In addition to a passing track at the co-op north of Rymal road (Highway 53 to Hamiltonians), two spurs south of the highway served a lumber dealer and Shaw Pipe. The local here is switching either of the latter industries, although it is probable that it is Shaw Pipe, based on the number of cars in the view. Shaw pipe applied specialized coatings to pipe and shipped a lot of out by rail, until rail service ended on the spur. In addition to the Stelco Steel train, the line at one time hosted a through local based out of Hamilton, commonly operating with a set of SW1200RS’s. Shaw had only a single spur with capacity for only a few cars at a time, so during large contracts switching was handled twice a day, by both the local as well as another operating north from Caledonia.

I say spur, although the track was once the Hagersville subdivision on CN (the original one, though the present day Hagersville sub starts at Brantford, not Hamilton). A few run-ins between trucks and the bridge over Stone Church Road  sounded the death knell for the line as a through route. It's steep mountain climb, risky street running, light traffic base and it's existence as essentially duplicate trackage finally conspired against it. The final time damaged the bridge to the point it was condemned, and placed on the track next to where the overpass stood, about a mile south of the Rymal station sign. From this point on, the line existed briefly as the Rymal  spur originating in Caledonia and served on an as-needed basis by a local likely stationed at Caledonia or Brantford. Which brings us to our subject photo – a rare one at that; the line was seldom photographed once the Hamilton-Nanticoke Stelco Steel train was routed via the Dundas sub to Brantford and from there down the new Hagersville sub to its’ lakeside destination. Alas, a few carloads a week to Shaw Pipe and the odd car to the lumberyard proved insufficient to maintain the spur and it was abandoned in 1993 and the rails taken up not long after. 

Cheers,

Peter.