Showing posts with label gwwd. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gwwd. Show all posts

Saturday, September 16, 2017

CN's Caboose Train

Five cabooses, one train - the CN Family Day train in Winnipeg
CN has a "Family Day" every year where they invite families of CN employees and CN retirees to a local yard for tours, games, food and fun. Often a train ride is involved and that's where my interest lies!

This year the organizers in Winnipeg did something different. In past years CN ran a few passenger cars with locomotives on each end (2016 had two cars, an E unit and two of CN's newest units; 2014's was pretty much the same but only one new CN unit). This year, the CN organizers gathered up five cabooses (cabeese?).

When did you last see five cabooses in a train?

September 9, that's when I did!

First Run


The train was scheduled to start running at 11 AM on the morning of September 9, 2017. I passed Symington Yard shortly before 11 and the train was there along with tents, bouncy castles, and a lot of automobiles going into the yard.

Like other years, the train was to head northwest up the St. Boniface spur to cross Archibald Street, then back into the yard again for the next run.

I had some "favourite spots" but I wanted to try one or two different ones this time. I drove around and decided on some locations. At Marion Street I ran into Taylor "the Cando Railfan", who was waiting there for the train. We chatted for a few minutes before I headed out.

Here are the locations that I photographed from:
My locations

Shot 1

One shot I knew I wanted was the overpass over Lagimodiere Boulevard just outside the yard. I had seen Jack Hykaway's photo from last year and I knew I wanted to get that shot. I parked on Dawson Road and hoofed it over to set up for the shot.

Right on time the train headed out at 11, with CN 2615 leading the five cabeese and CN 3089 on the rear.

Shot 2

After the train passed, I knew I wasn't going to be able to drive to another spot, so I hustled back to Dawson Road and waited by Star Building Materials on the broken asphalt of the former highway 59 road. Fellow Winnipeg railfan Tim Burridge showed up with his daughter to photograph the train.

CN 3089 looked nice and clean leading on the way back.
CN 3089 leading on the return trip

The Consist

Here's the train: CN 3089 / CCGX 200001 / CN 76665 / GWWD 1360 / BN 12580 / PCDR 109 / CN 2615

Freshly painted CCGX 200001 was looking nice. This is an ex CN caboose rebuilt from a boxcar by the Pointe-Saint-Charles (PSC) shops in 1976 as CN 79843.
CCGX 200001
Rumour has it that this caboose is going to be mounted on a section of track at the CEMR shops in north Transcona in Winnipeg.

Next was this rare transfer caboose, CN 76665, another PSC product.
CN 76665
I'm told this is one of only two active CN transfer cabeese.

Another ex CN PSC caboose... former CN 79519...
GWWD 1360
The Greater Winnipeg Water District contributed their sole caboose, GWWD 1360. I've never actually seen that caboose run!

The last two cabooses have no CN heritage. This one is Burlington Northern through and through.
BN 12580
BN 12580 is a familiar sight to Winnipeg railfans, as it runs pretty much every day on the BNSF Manitoba freight train. Another rumour - I hear it's going to be repainted soon.

Finally, an ex CP product from way back, built in 1912...
Prairie Dog Central #109
Prairie Dog Central #109 was easily the oldest caboose on the train... also the only one with friction bearings!

Both locomotive cabs were packed with happy riders!
Fun in CN 2615
After the train passed, I relocated to the Marion Street crossing.

Second Run

The Marion Street crossing is one of the two major crossings on this section of the St. Boniface spur.

Shot 3 was into the sun a bit, but I did the best I could.
Into the sun
The going away shot was much better... except for the wires. sigh

CN 3089 and 5 cabooses
I decided to stay at Marion Street and shoot them coming back. The sun would be nice coming back.

While I was waiting for them to return, I walked around to decide what composition I wanted. I saw this neat billboard and decided to include it in shot #4.
If it's made with Canadian milk...
This might be my favourite photo from the day.

Another going-away shot, showing two of the CN volunteers - Mark and Christopher - on the caboose steps.
One caboose, two cabooses, three cabooses... ah ah ah!

Third Run

I decided to head down to Archibald Street for the third run. I knew some railfans in past years shot the train on the Seine River bridge after they crossed Archibald. I couldn't find any path down to get the shot, so I elected to wait at the crossing.

The train passed by and crossed the bridge entirely. After a quick pause, the reverser was thrown and the train started rolling back.

As the train started rolling, someone on a bicycle came along and stopped to the side, clearly waiting for the train to pass before he could walk across the bridge.

The engineer gave him a couple of toots but he was undeterred.

Some people.

Not safe.

Look. Listen. Live.

Anyway, here's the shot of CN 3089 leading the train back along the St. Boniface spur:
CN 3089 about to cross Archibald Street
So that was the train!

Big thanks to the many CN volunteers for the many hours they put in to organize this and staff it so the extended CN family could have a great day. A special thank you to Mark and Derrick for taking CN 4797 around Winnipeg to gather up all of the Winnipeg cabooses for the train!

A CN volunteer and two happy riders

Lots of waves from the cupolas!

See Also

Monday, September 19, 2016

The CN Family Day Train

This post is dedicated to David Othen.

The CN Family Day train
On September 10 CN hosted a Family Day in Symington Yard in Winnipeg. CN brought in a ferris wheel and hosted shop tours and other activities for employees and their families. As part of the activities, CN ran a short excursion train along the CN Terminals Cutoff track several times during the day. This track is sometimes known as the St. Boniface spur because it goes through the St. Boniface neighbourhood of Winnipeg, but it's not really a spur at all since it connects to Symington Yard at one end and the CN Redditt subdivision at the other.

The train started just inside Symington Yard, in front of the shops, and headed down the ruler-straight spur over Marion Street and Archibald Street. It stopped on the bridge over the Seine River then back to Symington for the next group of passengers.
CN "Sandford Fleming" car
The train's route
I looked at the line on Google Maps and it was obvious that the light was going to be a... challenge. Basically the light would be behind the train at the start, and as the afternoon wore on it would shift to the front, but in all cases it would be high in the sky.

The train was scheduled to run from 11 AM to 4 PM and I was only able to be there for the first few runs, so... high noon sun. Oh well, work with what you have!

I elected to go to Dawson Road to shoot it shortly after it came out of the yard and crossed over Lagimodiere Boulevard. I parked by the side of the road, and a railfan on the other side of the tracks waved at me and told me the light was much better on his side. I had time so I drove around to Speers Road and parked behind him.

It turned out to be Jim Burnside, a local railfan whose photos appear often on RailsMBSK. We had never met so it was nice to finally put a face to the name.

We chatted for a bit and I agreed the light was better on this side. As it happened we were standing on what used to be route 59, so there is broken and overgrown pavement visible in a few of these shots.
CN 102 in Winnipeg
The train was scheduled to start at 11 and we heard a few toots from the yard but nothing came. I assume they were loading at 11 so it took a bit of time for them to get underway. During this time, another local railfan, Tim Burridge, showed up. We had met before but it had been a few years!

The train finally got underway and was upon us at 11:24. The sequence of shots around this text is the first run.

CN 3105 on the Family Day train
I swapped lenses to get the long shot on 3105 with the sun in its face. I was a little slow deciding to do this, so I had to crop in pretty far.
CN 3105, going away
I said my goodbyes to Jim and Tim and tried to beat them to Archibald Street. Unfortunately I had not planned my route, so I took a right turn leaving Speers Road and got stuck in a subdivision with no exit. Sheepishly, I drove back around and down Dawson Road to see the train coming back up the spur.

I took a moment to photograph the line of GWWD maintenance cars sitting outside their yard - a couple of flatcars, a ballast hopper and five Hart cars.
GWWD maintenance cars

Run 2

I returned to Dawson Road and waited by the side of the road for the second train. I knew the light would be terrible but I wanted to be ready to beat them to Archibald Street.

Yep, the light was terrible
11:51 for the second train.

The going-away shot was OK, though.
CN 3105 going away
I hopped in my car and drove down Dawson Road to try to beat them to Archibald. The lights and traffic were in my favour and I arrived beside the crossing a good 30 seconds before they crossed at 11:56.

Backlit CN 3090
The going-away shot looked pretty fine.
CN 3105 going away.. again
In retrospect I should have stepped across the intersection once they had passed, to get at least a bit of sun on the side, but A) I wasn't sure how far they were going and how much time I had to cross over, and B) it honestly never occurred to me.
Sun and shadow
They did not spend any time on the bridge; they pulled onto the bridge, stopped, then started back up the spur. I decided to shoot video with my iPhone, since I had all the stills I needed from the last minute!

I liked the little guy in the cab of CN 3090!

The conductor waving from the vestibule is Mark Perry, noted photographer and one of the many CN volunteers giving up their Saturdays for the train and the festivities. Many thanks to Mark for the intel on the train and thanks to all of the volunteers for their time and effort.

Round 3

I thought I could maybe squeeze one more train in before I had to leave. I went to Marion Street, midway along the route, and waited near the crossing there for the train to come along.

Unfortunately CN had to pay the bills so they ran a freight train on the "X track" which blocked the Family Day train from leaving. When I saw that, I decided it was time to leave. I headed out on Dawson but as I passed the location where I first shot the train, I saw the Family Day train was en route.

I pulled off the road and jumped out to take video of the train passing by. Jim was right - the light was much better on the other side.

That was it for me.

About the Train

The train was:
  • CN 3090
  • "SANDFORD FLEMING" / IC 800653
  • "TAWAW" / CN 1059
  • CN 102
  • CN 3105

CN 3090 and CN 3105 are shiny new GE ET44AC locomotives, the latest in CN's fleet.

CN 102 was shiny but not at all new, being an E9 unit built in January 1950 as Chicago, Burlington and Quincy #9940A. It was acquired by Illinois Central in 1996 and may still be an IC unit for all I know. You may have noticed that some locomotives labelled as CN are actually IC units, with a little "IC" under the side numbers. I don't see that here but that might not mean much... I'm just a railfan reporting what I see or don't see.

CN 102 was just along for the ride... it wasn't running. In 2014 it was "leading" on the Family Day train, which was better for railfans!
2014 Family Day Train with CN 102
SANDFORD FLEMING is an observation car, lettered for the Illinois Central. It's too bad that it was in the middle of the consist so passengers couldn't see anything out of the end picture window besides the end of TAWAW. I last saw SANDFORD FLEMING in January 2016.

TAWAW is an ex CN car, ex "CAPE CHIGNECTO". It has been extensively rebuilt and is quite nice inside, based on the photos I've seen.

Other Coverage

Many other area railfans were out to shoot the train, and I'll link to a couple:

See Other "business train" blog entries

Sunday, June 05, 2016

The Greater Winnipeg Railfanning Adventure (Guest Post)

Local railfan Taylor Woolston provided this narrative of a recent railfan adventure he had in the greater Winnipeg area... via bicycle!


Railfanning can sometimes be boring, with a lack of good or interesting power, and sometimes a lack of trains in general. Hoping that my luck might change for the better, I went railfanning on Monday, May 30th 2016. OH BOY. In my opinion, this was one of my best railfanning days ever from an overall point of view (Not just because of 1 train). Let's start from the beginning.

Every second school day, I switch between half days and full days. Today was a half day and I hadn't railfanned for awhile, so I decided to bring my railfanning equipment to school and go out right after school at lunch. I decided to head northeast, into the St Boniface area of Winnipeg.

I checked out the Greater Winnipeg Water District (GWWD) rail yard along Dawson Road, and noticed that the gate for the road into the yard by Messier Street was open. With that, I thought there might be a possibility of seeing the GWWD operating. They have 2 MLW RS23's, and seeing them operate is always a treat, but they aren't easy to catch.

After checking out the yard, I continued on and ended up going to an area where the GWWD crosses CN's "X Tracks", which takes trains in and out of CN's big and busy Symington Yard with 3 tracks to work with. The GWWD crossing creates a triple diamond across CN's tracks. There is a hill that parallels CN's tracks, which is where I set up.

After waiting for a while, CN 347 showed up and crawled out of the yard on track X3 and stopped short of the diamonds. Their power was CN 8921 (SD70M-2) and 2408 (C40-8M).


Shortly after, a GP38-Slug-Slug-GP38 set pulled across the diamond with a string of cars and stopped, then pushed hard back into Symington and disappeared.


After waiting for a while, a CN van (no, not like a caboose) came up to the head end and dropped off the conductor. Shortly after, CN 347 took off heading west.

After they passed, I waited for a while with nothing going on. Suddenly, I got word that the Central Manitoba Railway (CEMR) wanted to enter Symington. I decided, with almost no chance of seeing the GWWD, to ride up to Dugald Road, where an overpass crosses over the CN X tracks, to make absolutely sure that no other trains block my view of CEMR, and to get a different perspective.

I packed up, rode up to the nearby street, Lagimodiere Blvd, and went towards the overpass. However as I crossed the GWWD, I saw something that made me slam on the brakes..... TRAIN! A GWWD train returning from the Deacon Water Treatment Plant!

I turned around and went back to the triple diamond and set up faster than a cheetah on steroids! (are there railfan cheetahs? - Ed)


Unsurprisingly, they had to stop before crossing over CN. I decided to go back onto the hill and set up there.

As I was doing so, I heard something - the unmistakable sound of a GP9RM working hard. At first I thought it was the CEMR train, but it turns out it was a CN local bringing some cars into Symington. CN 281 (Yard Slug) and 7214 (GP9RM) led the freight into the yard.


Just a few minutes after the local cleared, the GWWD got their signal crawled across the diamond towards their yard with 3 tanks in tow. The unit they were using today was #202.


The last time I saw this operation, I learned that they drop off the tanks from Deacon onto their interchange track with CN, and pick up ones that CN has left for them. Knowing this, and the fact that they don't exactly go very fast through here, I decided to wait a few minutes for CEMR to hopefully arrive.

Sure enough, a few minutes later the CEMR train rolled into Symington with CEMR 4002 and 4000 (a pair of GP9RM's) in charge.


After the CEMR roared past, I started what should have been an easy chase of the GWWD, but my rear tire picked the perfect time to burst on me, meaning I was now stuck on foot, rolling my bike around. I zigzagged through a couple of side streets before getting to where the GWWD crosses Dugald Road, with a couple minutes to spare.

After having dropped off the tanks from Deacon and picking up the tanks from CN, they now had 5 tanks with them, and brought them towards the yard. In order to get the tanks into the yard correctly, they have to stop short of the yard, and use a siding to run the locomotive to the other side of the cars.


Without even fully retracting the tripod, I ran with the bike as quickly as possible to where the GWWD crosses Dawson Road and Messier Street. The Dawson Road crossing is incredibly shallow, with the rails being in the road for almost 54 metres (176.5'). Compare that to the Messier Street crossing, where the rails are in the road for only 15 metres (50').

By the time I got to the crossings, covered in sweat as it was a hot day, they had coupled the locomotive to the other side, and the conductor was walking up towards the road to manually activate the crossing, protect it and ride the tanks into the yard.


As the conductor rode across, he asked me how I was doing, and I gave him a big thumbs up! Once they dropped the tanks in the yard, the conductor deactivated the crossing, and they ran the unit back to the engine house, ending another hard day of work.


Once I was done worrying about the GWWD, I now had to worry about getting home. I was around 5 km (3.1 miles) away from home, and was on foot with a bike in bad order, and that's just the direct distance. I have a cellphone, so I could have called my dad to get the car bike rack out and give me a lift, but I decided to brave it out and go home on foot.

As I crossed the nearby CP Emerson Subdivision, I saw a northbound freight coming, and it was not far away at all! I had just a minute or two for setting up a shot. It wasn't very good, but oh well.

It was a fairly standard freight with nothing special on it.... until the end that is. On the end, there was a HERZOG tie train attached. The head-end of it was HZGX 187.


Once it very slowly crawled past, I made my way home after a great day of railfanning, even with the epic tire failure.


Thanks for the great guest post, Taylor! He also recorded video of many of these trains:


I encourage you visit Taylor's YouTube channel and subscribe!

Saturday, March 12, 2016

Winnipeg Area Railway Scanner Frequencies

Here are useful frequencies for a radio scanner to monitor railway operations in the Winnipeg, Manitoba area.

Please remember that use of a radio scanner in a vehicle is illegal in Manitoba. Also be careful what you share with others!

CN Frequencies

Train Standby Channel

161.415

This is used for train-to-train and train-to-ground communication for road trains, on all subdivisions. Hotbox detectors also broadcast on this channel. Highly recommended.

RTC Channels

These are used by the Rail Traffic Controller to talk to train crews and maintenance crews. Often they can give useful information about approaching trains or trains entering CTC territory.

CN Sprague Subdivision: 160.935
CN Letellier Subdivision: 161.025
CN Lilyfield Spur: 161.025
CN Rivers Subdivision: Miles 0-14: 161.025; miles 14-206: 161.205
CN Redditt Subdivision: Miles 20.7-239: 160.665; miles 239-252.1: 160.025

CP Frequencies

Train Standby Channels

CP Carberry Subdivision: Miles 0-5: 161.115; miles 5-133: 161.535
CP Emerson Subdivision161.325
CP Glenboro Subdivision: Miles 0-4: 161.115; miles 4-128: 161.325
CP La Riviere Subdivision161.325
CP Arborg SubdivisionMiles 0-3: 161.115; miles 3-end: 161.325
These is used for train-to-train and train-to-ground communication for road trains. Hotbox detectors also broadcast on these channels. Highly recommended.

RTC Channels

This is used by the Rail Traffic Controller to talk to train crews and maintenance crews. For CP the train crews use the RTC channel to call in to the RTC but they then switch to the train standby channel, so monitoring these channels is not as important as for CN.

160.425


CEMR Frequencies

Train Standby Channel

160.985

This is used for CEMR's train-to-train and train-to-ground communication for road trains. Highly recommended. This is used for the Central Manitoba Railway's Carman and Pine Falls subdivisions.

When CEMR is running over CN trackage it uses the CN frequencies.


GWWD Frequencies

The Greater Winnipeg Water District Railway uses two frequencies:

  • Miles 5-20 and miles 48-82: 167.700 / 169.620
  • Miles 20-48 and 48-82: 167.670 / 169.590


Prairie Dog Central Railway Frequencies

Train Standby Channel

160.050

When the PDC is running through CP or CN, it uses their frequencies.


VIA Rail Frequencies

VIA Rail uses CN frequencies in the Winnipeg area as they are running on CN trackage.

Related posts:


Saturday, June 02, 2012

Don't Try This At Home

I won't do this (I like my camera too much) but it is a cool video, by Jeff Keddy. Plus... Alco!

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Winnipeg 360 (Part 2)

This is a continuation of my tour of the railway lines around the perimeter of Winnipeg (part 1).

Imagine you're returning from your western trip, and you approach Winnipeg on the Trans-Canada Highway. You might choose to go around Winnipeg on highway 101 (the "Perimeter") to the north.

1. The first rail line you would encounter north of the Perimeter is the CP Glenboro subdivision. This lightly-used subdivision comes out of the CP yards downtown, crosses the highway here, then crosses the CN Rivers subdivision at Diamond before meandering southwest.

2. A few kilometers north of that, an overpass marks the crossing of the CP Carberry subdivision, CPR's main line to the west.

3. Almost within sight of that, there is a level crossing with the Prairie Dog Central. This is the former CN Oak Point subdivision that heads northwest to Warren, MB.

4. The 101 heads straight east now, and a level crossing marks the intersection of the highway with the CP Arborg subdivision here.

5. The next crossing is the CP Winnipeg Beach branchline heading to Gimli, MB. This is another level crossing (here).

6. Getting tired yet? The CEMR Pine Falls subdivision crosses the 101 here at grade. A truck hit a CEMR train here on September 15, 2009.

7. CP's main line heads east out of Winnipeg here as the CP Keewatin subdivision. The highway crosses the tracks via an overpass.
CP 8872 on the CP Keewatin subdivision

8. Not to be outdone, CN's main line (the CN Redditt subdivision) crosses the 101 at grade (!) here. Construction is underway for a rerouting of the single-lane 101 here and I expect an overpass will eventually be built.

9. Last but not least, the Greater Winnipeg Water District Railway (GWWD) crosses the 101 at grade here.

Recap: part 1 described the CN Sprague, CP Emerson, CN Letellier, CP La Riviere, CEMR Carman, and CN Rivers subdivisions. This post described the CP Glenboro, CP Carberry, Prairie Dog Central, CP Arborg, CP Winnipeg Beach, CEMR Pine Falls, CP Keewatin, CN Rivers, and GWWD subdivisions.

Only fifteen railway lines!

Further Reading


Sunday, November 01, 2009

GWWD 200

GWWD 200
I was running errands on Thursday (Oct 29) and I heard that the Greater Winnipeg Water District Railway (GWWD) might be out and about. I found GWWD 200 switching tank cars outside their yard on Dawson Road in the rain.

Once they put their tank cars away, they ran up to a switch to get ready to head to the yard.


Then they crossed Dawson Road to enter the GWWD yard in St. Boniface.


Despite the rain, I was pleased to see a GWWD unit moving!

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Greater Winnipeg Water District Railway


When I'm in Winnipeg, I often visit the Greater Winnipeg Water District Railway (GWWD) to see what's going on there. The GWWD maintains the aqueduct that supplies the majority of Winnipeg's fresh water. It has done so for many years, and since there is no road in the area of the aqueduct, it is likely to continue doing so for some time.

Their yard is just off Archibald Street (Route 30) on Plinguet and is easy to see from the road. The people are pretty friendly and I haven't found problems taking pictures, as long as I stay out of the way, of course.

They have a motley assortment of rolling stock, some custom-modified and some hand-me-downs from the bigger railways. They have a few ex-CP ex-BC Rail RS-23s that they use for motive power, and at one time they had operating railbuses. It's an interesting operation.


Here's where you can find my GWWD photos.

This is a (silent) video of GWWD 202 bringing a flatcar up for loading.

The crew loaded a couple of small buildings onto the flatcar with a crane.

Monday, December 31, 2007

Winnipeg Railfanning, Part 1

Head on view of CP 1597
I hope everyone had a good holiday! For those who celebrate Christmas, I hope Santa was generous. I found a model train car under the tree to help build my fleet.

On Boxing Day I set out to do a few hours of railfanning around the Winnipeg area. I took my mother and sister to the airport then went to the CP yards downtown to see what power was around. At the CP Weston shops at 08:50 I saw the following units: 5707, 3117, 9153, 5998, 5940, 8778, 8815, 5988, 3119, 6055, 9760, 8521 and CEFX 117. There was a container train shunting in front of the yard so I couldn't get any decent pictures.

I went to the Arlington Street bridge and took some shots from there. CP 1597, 1506 were shunting, as were CP 6065 and 1622.


At the fuel stands I saw CP 1562, 1532, 6616, 6609 and several other units. It was a little cold standing on that bridge!

I went to the east end of the yard and found CEFX 1041 and CP 9511 shut down at the end of a train at 09:35. CP 8726 was heading up another train there.
CEFX 1041 and CP 9511
From there I took a quick look at the Greater Winnipeg Water District (GWWD) railway yard and saw GWWD 201 shut down, with the hulks of CP 8016 and 8018 nearby.

On to CN's Symington hump yard, where I found hump set CN 7511, 501, 504, 7528 (two GP38s with two slugs in the middle) and another set working the hump at 10:15.
Two Geeps, two slugs

There were two sets of power at the intermodal terminal, one led by CN 2531 and 5360, and the other by weathered CN 5367.

I noticed a few odd cars at the foot of the hump. One was GO Transit car 2647, and the other was a Loram unit LMIX 601. There were also a few pressure vessels on flatcars behind the Loram unit. I guess they were on the "do not hump" line.


GO Transit 2647 in Winnipeg
LMIX 601 in Winnipeg
I heard CN train 840 get permission to leave the yard, and I quickly deduced they were heading east toward the Perimeter Highway, so I went down by CN Navin and parked by the Tinkertown amusement park. Great place to take the kids, by the way. As is typical on the Prairies, I saw the train long before it was close enough to take pictures.

CN 840 arriving in Winnipeg
CN 2531 and 5360 rolled by at 10:39 with a long grain train.



From there, I moved to the CN main line along Wilkes Avenue, but that will wait until my next post.

UPDATE: Someone asked on the CanPassRail mailing list why GO 2647 was in Winnipeg. The answer: "A friend of mine from the CN has come up w/ the answer, & even more. Go Transit is receiving new Bi Levels from Bombardier in Thunder Bay. They are being taken to Winnipeg Symington Yard. 2647, & 2648 are going out on Train #302 tonight (Symington-MacMillian Yard). 2646 Is Currently at Mac yard, 2645 Arr. Mac Yard Dec 23, 2644 arr. Mac Yard Dec 14, Arr Mimico Dec 17, 2642, 2643 Not on the CN System as of yet. I'm sure in the next few weeks prob more GO Coaches will be arriving at Symington Yard."

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