G22 // Lac-Mégantic, QC - a photo on Flickriver

G22 // Lac-Mégantic, QC

            Sporting a pair of CMQ GP38-3s, Sherbrooke-based local CP G22 eases onto the industrial in Lac-Mégantic, QC with two of three customers in town to serve on a beautiful late August day.
As many know, Lac-Mégantic was the site of a tragic derailment ten years ago, seeing an unmanned runaway loaded crude oil train slide down the grade into town, taking the curve at nearly 65 mph and sending tank cars everywhere, resulting in several explosions and a massive fire which took two days to extinguish. The death toll amounted to over 40 casualties, making it one of the deadliest incidents on record in the modern era of railroading. Montreal, Maine and Atlantic, the former operator of this line, ultimately filed for bankruptcy and the trackage was subsequently absorbed by then new operator Central Maine & Quebec, beginning operations in May of 2014. Alas CMQ only lasted a meager six years before being bought out by Canadian Pacific. Over two years later, I found myself in the province of Quebec on vacation for the first time, chasing down this pair of CMQ geeps which managed to retain their paint scheme, two years on since their transition into fallen-flag status. On the right side of the train, conductor and brakeman wait for their engineer to clear up onto the industrial before re-lining the switch for the main. Tagging along for the ride that day were six inbound cars for particle board manufacturer Tafisa, one of three customers populating the industrial park in town. Tafisa maintains their own small yard and moves their own cars with a trackmobile to spot inside the plant. I couldn't help but notice that as the crew crawled into town, people out and about walking that day stopped in their tracks and watched intently as the crew switched over from main to spur. Ten years later, the effects of the derailment still seem to lay heavy on the minds of Lac-Mégantic residents. Although Canadian Pacific has made numerous upgrades to the condition of the line since the days of MMA operation, there is still an air of weariness among the townsfolk as long as the railroad still traverses the town center. Supposedly plans are still in the works to circumvent the town and detour the mainline, but as of yet nothing regarding this has been completed. The town has been calling for this for years, even prior to the derailment. Apparently it still takes a tragedy to make a logical change worthwhile.
   

Taken on: August 30, 2022

Tags:

Canadian Pacific

Canadian Pacific Railway

CMQ

Lac-Mégantic

Sherbrooke

Quebec

Trains

Train Photography

Railroad

Railroad Photography

Train Crossing

Train Conductor

Brakeman

Curve Shot

Summertime

Industrial

City Streets

City View « less

Sets appears in: • Canadian Pacific Sherbrooke Sub Shenanigans

Groups appears in: • in explore

Camera: Panasonic DMC-G7, f/5.4, 1/1000 sec, 29mm, ISO 250 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Panasonic DMC-G7
Aperture:	f/5.4
Exposure Time:	0.001 sec (1/1000)
Focal Length:	29mm
ISO:	250
Exposure Bias:	+0.33 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Landscape
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Gain Control:	High gain up
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Ver.2.2
Show full info

Stats: 4,769 views / 9 comments

close tools panel

Badge creator

Use Flickriver Badge Creator to create a badge linking to your photos, your group or any other Flickriver view.

You can place your badge on your Flickr profile, Blog or Website.

Add to your iGoogle or Netvibes page

Flickriver widget for iGoogle or Netvibes can display almost any Flickriver view - most interesting today, by user, by group, by tag etc. Once added to your personalized homepage, just edit widget settings to select your desired view.

Clickr on one of the buttons below to install:

Embed on your Web site

To embed this view, Copy and Paste the following HTML code:

Black background (preview):

White background (preview):

Firefox and Chrome addons

Adds a 'Flickriver' button to your browser. While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on this button to open the same view on Flickriver.

Install in Firefox
Install in Chrome

Search plugin

Add 'Search on Flickriver' to your browser's search box. Works with Firefox and Internet Explorer. Install search plugin

"View on Flickriver" Greasemonkey script

A Greasemonkey script that adds Flickriver links to various Flickr photo pages - user photos, favorites, pools etc, allowing to quickly open the corresponding Flickriver view.

Also, allows quickly viewing any Flickr photo on black background in large size.

Install "View on Flickriver" script

Bookmarklet

While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on the bookmarklet to open the same view on Flickriver.

To install: drag and drop the following link to your Bookmarks toolbar.
IE users - add the link to your Favorites under the Links folder