ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[ijmorlan]

Millhaven didn’t have a rail siding? Did they truck the vehicles a short distance and then transfer them to the flat car outside of the facility? This seems surprising!

That's exactly what they did, the vehicles were transferred from a truck onto the flatcar parked on a siding about 300 metres east of the plant on the corner of Taylor Kidd Blvd. and Jim Snow Rd.  Here's the pic I got of 504 on her loading day, unfortunately I didn't get there in time to observe the operation:



If you look on Google Maps' satellite view, you can see the empty bed for the track to Bombardier (above Direct Coil Inc.) that's being re-layed:

https://www.google.ca/maps/@44.2138012,-...!1e3?hl=en

Thanks! Interesting that it looks as if most of the former siding is still there and connected to test track for something that needs to be able to take tight corners - ICTS? Also a space where it appears another loop of track was removed near Direct Coil. I wonder when their rail connection was removed, and why? It seems weird to ship rail cars other than by rail, given that the site is right next to a siding and most customers will have rail service (I mean, they don’t build rail-based transit in tiny towns who lost their rail service decades ago). Maybe because it was mostly a testing and research facility rather than manufacturing?