Sarnia, ON: CN Railyard and Petrochemical & Refining Complex

Railyard East: (Satellite) A-Yard, the classification yard

Railyard West: (Satellite) C-Yard, the yard that supports the switching of the local industries.

Viral Media posted

CN Sarnia Yard

Sarnia is Canada’s the second largest chemicals cluster in Canada. The Sarnia-Lambton Petrochemical & Refining Complex has grown to include three refineries and more than 35 interconnected chemical facilities.

In 1959, CNR invested $5,000,000 into expanding the yard in anticipation of DuPont of Canada’s new plant for the manufacture of Sclair polyethylene resin.

The expansion facilitated the sorting of eastbound cars from the United States. This made it possible to make up trains bound at Sarnia instead of at a London or other classifying yards. The yard expansion included roadway overpasses.

Sarnia yard is the largest flat switching yard in the Great Lakes District. The Sarnia Yard is divided into 2 zones. The first zone is A-Yard which consists of approximately 47 tracks running from east to west. It is primarily used for assembling and disassembling trains and for classifying traffic. All movements within A-Yard, including those on the main track and at the entry and exit to the yard, are controlled by the yard. CN Sarnia Rail Yard has a car capacity of 1,600 cars and a normal daily working capacity of approximately 1,100 cars. The Sarnia yard is about 2 miles east of the east porthole of the Sarnia-Port Huron tunnel. 

The second zone in Sarnia Yard is C-Yard, which is a separate switching yard located west of A-Yard. Sarnia’s 2.2-mile long C Yard is the support yard for the city’s chemical manufacturers—it can store more than 1000 tank cars at a time, and over 7000 cars pass through the yard weekly. C-Yard consists of approximately 30 tracks also running from east to west. The C-Yard also assists with classification of freight traffic. This is also the landing point for the industrial spur lines.

Viral Media posted

CN Sarnia “C” Yard

Sarnia Yard is one of CN’s main processing yards in southwest Ontario. It is located at Mile 57.2 of the Strathroy Subdivision and is immediately east of CN’s Sarnia/Port Huron tunnel to the United States. Its main function is to support the major petrochemical industry in the Sarnia area. The commodities handled at this yard include petrochemicals, fertilizer, phosphate rock, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), condensate, sulphuric acid, sulphur dioxide and other DGs.

The yard is primarily divided into 2 zones. The first zone is A-Yard which consists of approximately 47 tracks running from east to west. It is primarily used for assembling and disassembling trains and for classifying traffic. All movements within A-Yard, including those on the main track and at the entry and exit to the yard, are controlled by the tower yard coordinator who is located in the main tower, in the center of the east end of A-Yard.

The second zone is C-Yard, which is a separate switching yard located west of A-Yard. C-Yard consists of approximately 30 tracks also running from east to west. It is used for significant industrial trackage. It functions as the primary hub for servicing the local industries and assisting with classification of freight traffic. When a roving yard coordinator (rover) is on duty, the rover governs all movements within C-Yard and the industrial spur lines.

The CN Strathroy Subdivision is the continuation of the CN Dundas Subdivision which moves several trains a day between the U.S. and Canada.

I had noticed that there were a lot of storage tanks on the south side of Sarnia.

Satellite

And there are even more chemical plants a little further south.

Satellite

This is the eastern portal of the St. Clair Tunnel mentioned in some of the comments above that is a little west of this yard.

Toronto Railway Historical Association posted via Dennis DeBruler

Viral Media posted

CN Point Edward Spur

In Sarnia, CN operates a massive rail yard and a couple local industrial spurs. The Point Edward Spur has 2.9 miles of track remaining in operation. Point Edward is a village at the mouth of Lake Huron and is surrounded by Sarnia. CN once ran as far as the Bluewater Bridge. In fact, the Point Edward Casino is an old CN freight shed.

Until the St. Clair Tunnel was replaced by the new Paul M Tellier Tunnel in 1994, autoracks and hi-cube boxcars were loaded onto the old CN ferry.  The CN Ferry moved oversized cars across the St. Clair River into to the Grand Trunk. The Point Edward Spur carried this traffic until the new tunnel was opened and the ferry ceased operation.

The Point Edward spur runs along the Sarnia waterfront, behind office buildings, through a park and then crosses Front Street where it then runs parallel to the street. The trackage ends up at the government wharf, where it services the massive Sarnia grain elevators, transferring grain from rail to Great Lakes freight ships.

Today, the spur is used by CN to serve Imperial Oil and the Grain Elevator on the wharf.