CP NATO Land Forces Tribute Unit Leads an Eastbound Mixed Manifest in Cobourg + Fallen Flags Bonus!

The last freight of my trip to Northumberland County was an unexpected bonus. I had no idea this train was coming until the crossing gates started going down just south of the station. As you can see from the video, I had a bit of an obscured view down the line; so you can imagine my surprise when CP 7020 came into view. It's a Canadian Pacific Tribute Unit, painted in the colours of NATO's land vehicles. I hadn't seen one of these units for months. I was equally surprised by the loads that followed: old gondola cars carrying scrap railway ties. At first I thought that CPKC was using one of these distinctive locomotives for a work train; but it turned out to be a mixed manifest, including a string of containers and a bonus AC44CW end-DPU.

CP (CPKC) doesn't do heritage units the way that NS or CSX do, painting their locomotives in the colours of fallen flags (and we know which of the two most prefer..); but the two strings of old gondola cars was a parade of fallen flags from CP's operations. Apart from the old CP gondolas, I caught SOO, DM&E and even a couple of IC&E marked gondolas. There was also a TFM thrown in for good measure. Not a bad little bonus on this train...

One more note: As the train passes, the crossing bells sound a little off. That's because you could hear the bell on the other side of the tracks and only picked up half tones whenever there was a gap between the freight cars and cans moving past.

Train details:
CPKC ???
October 31, 2024, at 15:06
MP 135.0, CPKC Belleville Subdivision
CP 7020 - EMD SD70ACU - nee: CP 9113 - SD9043MAC
CP 9721 - end-DPU - GE AC44CW


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