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Metrolinx: Bombardier Flexity Freedom & Alstom Citadis Spirit LRVs

It came down from Thunder Bay. I can't read the ML number, but it is chalked on the side under the driver's window.

- Paul
Got to thinking after I posted was this an westbound train or an eastbound? Your posting would say this is an eastbound train that will go back to Lambton to go to ML.

A great view to do train photographing.
 
could be being switched onto a train Lampton Yard is about 1 km or so to the west of there, as is the CP North Toronto Sub - MacTier Sub - Galt Sub junction.
Why would it be put on an eastbound train when the Lambton local would delivery it to ML on the MacTier Sub??
 
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I spotted two in-transit Flexity Freedoms this past weekend on CP (one Saturday and one Sunday). Curiously, they were both on a Toronto-Winnipeg train that doesn’t stop at Lambton Yard in West Toronto. I take it this means they're in transit to Thunder Bay.
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^The pace of unfinished Flexities being hauled from Kingston to Thunder Bay has picked up this past month. Haven’t seen many coming back finished, but there certainly isn’t a concern that we won’t have vehicles when the line is ready for full testing. It appears that they are interchanged from CN at Lambton and then transfer to Agincourt for marshalling into westboundvtrains headed for the Lakehead.

By the way, if anyone happens to see one of those shipments with your bare eyes, the eventual 62xx operating number of each car is chalked in white on the nose of the car, in the black paint under the operator’s side window. Some of the shots seen online do show this clearly, but if you see one yourself, don’t be afraid to let us inquiring minds know.

- Paul
 
I spotted two in-transit Flexity Freedoms this past weekend on CP (one Saturday and one Sunday). Curiously, they were both on a Toronto-Winnipeg train that doesn’t stop at Lambton Yard in West Toronto. I take it this means they're in transit to Thunder Bay.View attachment 278330View attachment 278331

Great photos!

Is there somewhere on-line where you track CP freight trains in real time? I would love to get a pic similar to yours above but at the bridge over Eglinton just east of Leslie. On a sunny day, looking from Leslie St. to the bridge (the sun would be behind camera in the aft.) I believe it would make a great pic.

The main reason I'd like to capture this location is that I think it would be quite cool to get a shot of an Eglinton Crosstown vehicle passing over the actual Crosstown line (and future Sunnybrook Park stop). Judging by the above pics and others I've seen on here, the Flexity Freedom cars must be travelling over this bridge regularly en route from Millhaven to Thunder Bay. I keep an eye when I'm near there and see a freight train but so far I haven't caught a Flexity being transported.

Did you just luck out catching these shots last weekend or did you know when the train would be passing (and even more did you know the Flexity Freedom would be on it?)
 
By the way, if anyone happens to see one of those shipments with your bare eyes, the eventual 62xx operating number of each car is chalked in white on the nose of the car, in the black paint under the operator’s side window. Some of the shots seen online do show this clearly, but if you see one yourself, don’t be afraid to let us inquiring minds know.

Thanks for the info-I had wondered what those numbers were. I can tell you that the number of the car in the first picture is 53. The number for the second car wasn't visible in any of my shots.

Is there somewhere on-line where you track CP freight trains in real time? I would love to get a pic similar to yours above but at the bridge over Eglinton just east of Leslie. On a sunny day, looking from Leslie St. to the bridge (the sun would be behind camera in the aft.) I believe it would make a great pic.

There aren't any tracking apps like the ones that you might use for transit vehicles or airplanes. The most useful tools I've found are the train sighting groups on Facebook, but they don't always provide real-time information (and I've rarely been tipped off about a streetcar or LRV-seeing one is generally just a matter of luck). What I can tell you is that that the Flexities appear to be traveling to Thunder Bay on train 421 (which usually departs Agincourt Yard between 2 and 3:30 PM). The return train (420) normally doesn't arrive in Toronto during daylight hours, and the local jobs that transfer streetcar deliveries between Lambton and Agincourt yards have no set schedule.
 
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... It appears that they are interchanged from CN at Lambton and then transfer to Agincourt for marshalling into westboundvtrains headed for the Lakehead. ...

- Paul

So they take the CN Kingston sub to where? (in order to get to Lambton and transfer to CP?) I'm interested in the rail subs they take on their journey from Millhaven to Toronto to Thunder Bay and then finally back to the EMSF.
Thanks for all your informative responses.
 

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