CN 7080, CN 4131, and VIA 6457 at Bayview Junction - Hamilton, ON

Back in July 2013, as some family and I made our way from Toronto to Niagara Falls for the day, we stopped off at Bayview Junction so I could try and get my fix of railfanning at this busy railroad junction. Unfortunately, for me, the morning turned out to be extremely slow at the junction. We hung out on the pedestrian bridge over the tracks on the eastern end of the junction for about two hours, and we wound up only seeing two trains. 

Bayview Junction

Bayview Junction is a busy railroad interchange located in Hamilton, Ontario. The junction's rail lines form a triangle that is situated among the Royal Botanical Gardens. It features Canadian National's (CN) Dundas and Oakville Subdivisions, plus Canadian Pacific's (CP) Hamilton Subdivision (not seen in any of this post's photographs). In addition to CN and CP freight trains, Amtrak, VIA, and GO Transit commuter trains pass through the junction. According to the current schedule, as of June 2021, there are eight GO trains that depart or arrive in Hamilton, and go through Bayview Junction. Most of the GO trains start or terminate at the Aldershot GO station to the east of Bayview Junction.

Dundas Subdivision and Oakville Subdivision

CN 7080 & CN 4131 in the distance at Bayview Jct.

The first train to show up was a light engine movement, made up of CN 7080 (a rebuilt GP9RM) and CN 4131 (a rebuilt EMDGP9RM), that came into Bayview Junction on CN's Oakville Subdivision. In the photograph above, the engines are stopped at the signals just west of where CN's Dundas Subdivision comes in on the right of the photograph and joins the Oakville Subdivision. The Dundas subdivision starts/ends at Bayview Junction and runs between Hamilton, ON. and London, ON.

CN 7080 & CN 4130 passing through Bayview Jct.

After waiting for clearance for a short time the light-engine movement proceeded east on the CN Oakville Subdivision. The bridge in the background, in the upper left of the photograph, is the McQuesten High Level Bridge, on York Boulevard. 

CN 4131 & CN 7080 head away from the camera at Bayview Jct.

Above, the engines have passed under the pedestrian bridge, and are continuing east on the Oakville Subdivision. They are approaching the Plains Road West overpass. The Oakville Subdivision runs between downtown Toronto, Ontario, and Hamilton, Ontario. It is heavily used by GO Transit commuter trains that run on the Lake Shore West Route. Between Hamilton and Burlington, ON, the line is also heavily used by CN freight trains. East of Bayview Junction, in Burlington, the majority of CN trains diverge onto CN's Halton Subdivision to bypass Toronto's core. 

VIA 6457 eastbound at Bayview Junction.

VIA 6457 leads a passenger train east on the Oakville Subdivision, after having just come off of the CN Dundas Subdivision, at Bayview Junction. The train will stay on the Oakville Subdivision, until it gets to downtown Toronto where it will use the Union Station Rail Corridor to gain access to Toronto Union Station.