PART 3 of 3 ~ CN/CPKC/VIA at Newtonville, Ontario on the Kingston/Belleville Subs - May 16, 2024

I made it back "East of Toronto" in mid may and spent the better part of a day catching all the trains on the CN Kingston Subdivision (which hosts several VIA Rail Canada "corridor" trains) and the CPKC Belleville Subdivision. I arrived just as CN's Z120, bound for Halifax was passing through. Traffic was steady overnight with quite a few CN trains and a pair on CPKC. Once daylight broke I moved a bit further east to CPKC Spicer (west of CN Grafton) to catch a few more before the annoying crossing chimes sent me westward.
CN's Kingston Subdivision is the jewel of the railway operating between Montreal, Quebec and Toronto, Ontario over 300 track miles connect Canada's two largest cities. Double tracked from end to end this line features several sections with a third main track such as here between Grafton and Cobourg. VIA Rail Canada operates several trains a day over the Kingston Sub linking up to the nations capital leaving the Kingston Sub at Coteau, Quebec and then onto Ottawa. Once complete at Ottawa trains head through Smiths Falls and back onto the Kingston Sub at Brockville, Ontario before continuing west. The Kingston Sub handles a variety of traffic and trains from intermodal (Z/Q), manifest (L, M), automotive (E), grain (G), potash (B), oil (U). Freight trains from the United States, Western Canada, and Toronto's MacMillan and Brampton Intermodal head east connecting with Quebec, New England, the Maritimes, and several ports for containers, grain, and potash.
CPKC Railway's (Canadian Pacific) Belleville Subdivision links East to West running from Smiths Falls to Toronto Yard. Once much busier than today the Belleville Sub hosts about 10 trains a day but will often get much busier when extra intermodal, manifest, vehicle, and bulk (grain and ethanol) show up. Most trains operate between 8000 and 12000 feet in length with a few long sidings spread out for planned meets. Since the merger of CP & KCS you can expect to see just about any foreign line locomotive on these trains either operating conventional or distributed power and sometimes leading!
After spending the morning in the Cobourg & Port Hope area I head towards Newtonville to catch the rest of the action for the day. After catching one at "CN Newtonville" proper I settle in at Newtonville Road for the first part of the afternoon. With nothing nearby after 306 I decide to call it a day and make my way west.
May 16, 2024
~CN Newtonville - MP 278.3 Kingston Subdivision (Newtonville, ON)~
0:00 1214 CN P6432116 [VIA 643; Montreal, PQ - Toronto Union Station, ON]
VIA 2209, VIA 2308
~MP 280.6 CN Kingston Subdivision / MP 152.0 CPKC Belleville Subdivision (Newtonville, ON)~
0:15 1235 CN P06431 16 [VIA 64; Toronto Union Station, ON - Montreal, PQ]
VIA 904
0:43 1301 CN P04231 16 [VIA 42; Toronto Union Station, ON - Ottawa, ON]
VIA 917
1:00 1304 CPKC 118-12 [Intermodal; Edmonton IMS, AB - Montreal Hochelaga, PQ]
CP 9822, KCSM 4754, KCSM 4741
-
1304 CN P06321 16 [VIA 63; Montreal, PQ - Toronto Union Station, ON
VIA 914, VIA 6438
4:23 1342 CN Z14921 16 [Intermodal; Montreal Wharf, PQ - Chicago Intermodal, IL]
CN 2931, CN 3985
7:53 1355 CN Q18651 09 [Intermodal; Prince Rupert Fairview, BC - Montreal Taschereau, PQ]
CN 2876, CN 2956
11:19 1403 CN E27121 16 [Automotive; Montreal Taschereau, PQ - Battle Creek, MI]
CN 8847, CN 5626
13:53 1412 (1420) CN P04521 16 [VIA 45; Montreal, PQ - Toronto Union Station, ON]
VIA 2305, VIA 2206
16:13 1433 CN M30631 16 [Manifest; Toronto MacMillan, ON - Moncton, NB]
CN 8917, CN 8947
Cheers!
#cn #cpkc #via #newtonville #kingstonsub

[@KevsRailfanning]

Thanks for the great video. M30631 16 looked quite a bit different when I finally saw it on May 17 in Lac Baker NB. 8947 was moved up to join 8917 on the headend and 8950 was added for a third unit for a now 110 car train. As a note, when it arrived un Edmundston, the UNPX covered hopper that was at the end of 26 autoracks on the head end was set off.

[@foamer88]

Neat to see how the trains change as they head across picking up and dropping off traffic