Hi-Rails

 The Canadian National Railway, known as CN, is carrying out road bed repairs in the Halifax area, that includes tie replacement and re-ballasting. They use a whole flotilla of specialized vehicles that travel only on rails, and some custom outfitted trucks that can travel on roads or on rails.

 

The road capable trucks, known as Hi-Rail or Hy-Rail (for HIghwaY - Rail) come in a variety of sizes and shapes. Some are owned by CN and some by hired contractors. 

CN owns this Navistar International WorkStar dump truck. The truck is used to spread ballast (see pile at right). Of note are the access ports in the side of the tilt hood. Due to the bumper and hi-rail configuration the hood probably does not tilt easily, so the ports are there to allow for oil check and minor adjustments. The other features of note are the low mount step on the fuel tank and the stowed ladder extension under the dump box. That dump box may rotate - I did not see the truck in action.

Rail Contractors Ltd operates an umatched pair of Western Star hi-rails with Rotobec cranes and stake side flat beds. They are used to handle creosote treated wood ties.

The first one I saw (above) had company markings on the door and a fleet number, and two equal sized tool boxes.
 

The second has no company name, unequal sized tool boxes and a cab guard. The cranes appear to be the same, but with some different paint colours. Rotobec is a Quebec based manufacturer of rotating cranes and grapples for logs, scrap and rail ties.

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Still more heavies

 Several more heavy and or oversize loads rolled out of the port area again today. I only caught a few of them.

Trucks from Transport D. Dumais are well known in Halifax, even though they hail from Dolbeau-Mistassini - way up north of Lac-St-Jean, Quebec. That is timber country, so it is no surprise that their Western Stars haul logging machinery, such as this Ponsse harvester, from Finland.

 Another familiar company is JNB Heavy Haul from Brodhagen, ON. I saw their Western Star with set-back front axle twice today, so it must have taken its first load to a staging area to await highway clearance. 

That load was a Sandvik TH545I, a 45 tonne capacity articulated mine dump truck.

Certainly an impressive load, and an unusual set-back axle truck. I saw it again as it came back to Pier 9C for another load - possibly another Sandvik.

JNB has it own pilot cars too, although I did not photo them. (As I have mentioned previously JRB calls the hamlet of Brodhagen home, but operates from the nerarby town of Mitchell. That is near to the home of some of my maternal ancestors.)

And not so heavy, but rugged...

 The European RVs continue to roll in too - I have missed most of them, but did happen to see one today. Its license plate indicates it is from Landshut, Bavaria, in southern Germany, not far from Munich. (They ought to go the the Brodhagen area - they might find some family connections there too.)

The Toyota Safari model 4x4 is likely to come with a guarantee of uncomfortablility, particularly in a high wind with that camper body! The Land Cruiser is no longer available in North America, bur may be making a comeback due to its reputation elsewhere in the world.

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Heavies again

 The machinery keeps rolling in to the Port of Halifax from Europe. After few days for clearance and paper work off it goes again by truck to inland destinations.

Today I was lucky enough to grab a photo of a Liebherr LH26 Industry unit on its way out behind a new looking Western Star.

The LH26 Industry is a multi-purpose unit built for recycling/ scrap or timber handling depending on the accessories. Operating weight is 24,200 to 24,500 kg.  It is also has an elevating control cab, as per company information and photos at this link

Total Transport and Rigging has departed from their customary all red trucks with this sharp looking red and black Star.

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They're Back - 2023

 The annual invasion of RVs from Europe is well underway. Dozens of the vehicles have been arriving on Atlantic Container Line ships over the past few weeks, at the PSA Fairview Cove terminal in north end Halifax. Once they clear Customs they may linger for a while in the parking lot as the owners get organized. But they are soon underway for destinations as far afield as Alaska.

One nice Mercedes / Doepfer from Switzerland that I saw on April 12 had a map painted on the back, ready to trace out its travels.

Most of the RVs are from Germany, and are built on a variety of European chassis. Fiat is one of the most popular. This one had a Carado mobil RV body. The miniature bull bar should be a great defence against mice on the road.

There are always a few heavy duty expedition type all terrain units. This MAN is perhaps a bit larger than some. it has an Action mobil RV package.

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More Big Loads

 Lots of port related traffic today - March 28.

A small herd of Deeres left the area behind an Evangeline Transport Freightliner.

Next up were a couple of wide body aircraft fuselages from Ireland behind a pair of Watson trucks - one Kenworth and one Peterbilt. Watson is now part of QSL, and the trucks do not get the custom paint schemes they used to have - too bad.

 

 Bellemaire trucks still have the unique orange / yellow paint scheme. I never did get a clear shot of this Kenworth hauling a Sandvik mine truck.

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Cats and Stars

 

I always like to see trucks from the Bellemaire Group. They are invariably clean, which shows off their distinctive orange and yellow colours. I spotted this one the other day with a Cat 962M wheel loader on a jeep and trailer combo, hauled by a Western Star. According to Caterpillar's product info the 960M has an operational weight of more than 44,590 lbs (that is with full fluids), so might be slightly less as seen, but enough to deploy the fourth axle on the trailer.

Bellemaire is based at Ste-Catherine, QC, south of Montreal on the mainland, and are oversize and heavy load specialists. They also apparently have a contract with Caterpillar, as I discovered previously.

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More crushing, more axles

 There seems to be a run on rock crushing machinery coming into the Port of Halifax lately. Today there were a pair of Terex Finlay units (I only got a photo of one) and Atlantic Tiltload Ltd was on the job with multi-axle trucks and trailers.

The Western Star with flat top sleeper was equipped with an air lift third axle and the red Trail King trailer had a two axle dolly. Unfortunately I could not see the whole rig. The Terex Finlay J-1160 is a "Primary Mobile Jaw Crusher" suitable for demolition, recycling and quarry work. A similar Terex Finlay was hauled away before I could get my camera out.

Another Atlantic Tiltload rig was also lead by a Western Star - this one with a high rise sleeper, third axle and a black multi-axle Trail King complete with three axle jeep dolly and three axle booster. I didn't see what load it was taking.

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