I ride my bicycle a lot. Often it’s for errands – grocery store, Tim Hortons, library – but every week or so, I go for a longer ride. One destination is CN’s Symington Yard, the south/east end of which is about 10 km away from my house. Here are photos from a few visits to the overpass over the “throat” of the yard (here).
The lead photo shows a three-locomotive set pushing the last few autoracks over the hump. Just behind and to the left of the locomotives, you can see a pair of autoracks rolling down the hump.
Two crew are on the ground on the left. They use controllers – are they still called belt packs? – to remotely control the locomotives. One person’s job is to uncouple the cars at the right spot as they crest the hump, so they can roll away from the rest of the train on their own.
Below, you can see another three unit set – CN 5296, 5287 and 6016. They were pushing a long string of grain cars over the hump.
The overpass has a walkway on the south/east side but not on the other side of the 4-lane highway. I do not recommend standing on the other side, as there is less than a metre of space to stand in, and cars are whipping by at 90 km/hr or more. It’s not safe.
Below is another three unit set – IC 6204 in “Operation Lifesaver” colours, zebra striped CN 5336 and “CN North America” GTW 5946. If you compare this consist to what sets were in the yard back in 2021, you’ll see the same locomotives but grouped differently.
You might also notice the lack of slugs. It was common to see those at Symington but they have disappeared in the last several months. I think it was a combination of too many getting banged up in “fender benders” and a lack of “mother” locomotives that can power them.
Pulling Back
Hump operations start with the aptly-named “pull back”. Locomotives pull a long string of cars back until they are all “behind” the hump, then they slowly push them forward up the hill and over.
This is a view looking east from the overpass, with a long string of grain cars. Little did I know that there was an ex Saskatchewan Wheat Pool car in that string!
As I watched, a train came in off the Sprague subdivision and rolled past. I think this is called the “Z” track. It goes around the hump on the west side of the yard.
Training
Every railway needs to train new employees. Here a trainee (on the left, in the green safety vest) is supervised as they move a set of locomotives around. Note the writing on the pilot of the locomotive. I think it says “YARD OR TRAINING” on one side.
General Yard Stuff
CN’s intermodal yard was moved to Symington Yard more than a decade ago. It used to be here; now there is an outlet mall and multiple condo buildings in that location.
Above you can see CN 5720 on the point of an intermodal train on June 1. It wasn’t clear to me whether they had just come in from the Redditt subdivision, or if they were getting ready to head out on the Sprague.
Same view, different day, below: CN 2327 on a tank train, and CN 324x with some autoracks, on June 15.
There’s always something going on at Symington!