Sunday, September 30, 2012

The End of the Northlander

The Northlander made its last run on Friday, September 28. The Ontario Northland Transport Commission terminated the train, ending 110 years of history.

I won't get into the politics of the decision, given that I am not very familiar with them. Instead I will share a few photos and video that railfans took of this event.

The last Northlander had engines 1809 and 1800 leading power car 202, coaches 604, 615, 612, 606, 600 and 702 through Bracebridge, Ontario and apparently dropped a couple of coaches before arriving at Union Station in Toronto.

There were articles by the CBC and The Star covering the event. Stephen Gardiner posted a few photos on Flickr.

Here are some videos on YouTube. First, from TEHTRAKS111.


Next, this long video from RPS19 of the train in Bracebridge.


Here is the northbound #697 in Thornhill, the last northbound train.


EDIT: Corrected caption for the last video.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Steve,

Thanks for spreading this around. I'm working on a few posts on my last encounters with the Northlander - but its hard to say goodbye to a friend, so they're taking me longer than I'd like

The third video was the last revenue service northbound Northlander (ON 697). Generally they didn't change the consist around in Toronto or in-between there and North Bay.

Adam
http://walkerweb.ca

Canadian Train Geek said...

Thanks Adam, I look forward to seeing your posts. I've enjoyed seeing the ONR in your blog and I'm sure it's hard to see these go.