Railfanning Around Hamilton Jct - Before and After GO Transit Capacity Expansion

A number of years ago, the Ontario government announced funding for a "capacity improvement" project for new track work near Hamilton, ON that would improve the flow of GO trains to and from the Hamilton GO Center. As with anything involving large-scale construction (or the government), it took a while to put the plan into action but eventually, in late 2019, work finally began on laying new rail at the CN timetable location of Hamilton Junction, a name probably only railfans would recognize. By the time the junction was reconfigured, the GO West Harbour station had been constructed (mostly) adjacent to the Hamilton waterfront at Bay street. A new track was laid to connect Hamilton Jct with a new plant called Dundurn, at the west (railroad east) end of West Harbour; as of this writing, however, it has not seen any use since the current pandemic situation has severely reduced GO service, including all trains to West Harbour having been cancelled. Future GO expansion plans call for the tracks to push through West Harbour station (currently they terminate at the station despite it having been "completed" for the 2015 Pan-Am games that were held in Hamilton) with future service extended to a new station at Confederation, in east Hamilton.

This video shows trains moving through and past the junction both before and after the track work was completed, along with a bit during the construction itself. Primarily featuring CN action, the parallel CP Hamilton subdivision also provides a bit of entertainment in this video along with a couple of GO trains. A new hillside was formed during the track work reconfiguration which allows for an impressive view of the city of Hamilton, although catching trains at the appropriate time (late in the afternoon) can be a bit of a trick. I'm not sure if it's luck or pandemic-induced scheduling chaos, but I've been fortunate to catch a number of late-running trains on the CN at the new location over the last few weeks.

Stay tuned for more to come in the next few weeks including more GMD-1 action and CP SD70ACu's!

00:38 CN M331 (ET44AC)
04:56 CN L551 (GMTX/CN)
06:38 CN M331 (SD75I's)
09:49 GO Niagara Falls Train/ CP 246
11:28 CN L551 (GMTX/CN)
15:00 CN A421/ CP 246
20:17 CN X318
22:40 CN A422 (SD75I's)
26:37 CN A422 (EMD/GE's)
28:52 CN L551 (GP38-2W's/GMD-1)
30:22 Hamilton GO Train on the New Track
31:31 CN L551 with 2 GMD-1's!
35:35 CN A421
40:00 CP 142
43:55 CP 247

As always, thank you for watching!