Chasing Canadian Pacific in Cohoes

When I commute to work in downtown Albany in the morning, I frequently see a northbound "Canadian" train (lots of paper boxcars, lumber flatcars, etc) heading out of Kenwood Yard and going through Menands around 8AM. I didn't see it everyday, but certainly enough that there does seem to be a scheduled train that departs in the morning. So, yesterday I thought I would try and get some pictures of it before work. I first drove directly to Kenwood Yard and to my dismay arrived just as a southbound train was finished pulling in. I caught the last two cars over the road. Grrr.

Thinking this meant that no northbound train would be leaving soon, I parked nearby and sulked. But, within 15 minutes I saw a conductor walking around a freight train and soon enough four shiny red CP engines pulled forward and backed onto the train. Within about 10 minutes it pulled out. Today was a rarity in that I knew when a train was going to be somewhere so I drove to Cohoes to plan some nice pictures of the train on the bridge over the Mohawk River. The problem is there isn't much parking by the bridge and so I found a spot nearby that was a 3 minute walk to the bridge. I assumed I would hear the train blow for the many crossings in Cohoes and have plenty of time to get to the center of the road bridge. But the train never showed up.

The last two engines are still on the bridge.

I had determined that by 9:15 I would leave Cohoes and go home to start remote working, and I was pretty upset because I hadn't seen the train yet. Where could it go? Did it perhaps not leave Kenwood after all? It was sort of like Indiana Jones and the Phantom Train of Doom.  At 9:13 I was packing up when I heard the train blow for the road between me and the bridge. It was already on the bridge, and I had no way to photograph it! Grrr. I forgot Cohoes has "quiet zones" with no horns required. So, I barely got one shot from next to my car as the train exited the bridge. All my hard work and patience of waiting for a train to arrive and it was all for naught!

But, as my wife reminded me later, at least I know it takes about an hour for a train to leave Kenwood and get to the bridge. And I will try again in the future to shoot it crossing the river.