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Bye-bye Canadian military

I don't normally post here about my trainspotting exploits, but CN extra train 351 went through Southern Ontario today with sufficiently interesting cargo that it's worth noting. 351 had around 80 flatcars of Canadian military equipment heading for the US and is the second such train to pass in the past week.

The military equipment is every conceivable piece of machinery the military has that runs on tires, or so it appears. What it is up to, I really don't know, but I am very curious. Perhaps Canada is invading the US? Not likely, of course, but you never know with the US military being so thinly spread around the planet...

For my photos of this curious train taken this afternoon in Ingersoll, Ontario, see this page.

Anyone have any idea what these hundreds of army trucks are actually up to?

Posted at 16:27 on January 16, 2007

This entry has been archived. Comments can no longer be posted.

Happy new year, and stuff | military | My submission to the Ontario Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform

Rob writes at Tue Jan 16 19:58:01 2007...

Perhaps this is our secret deplyment to Iraq... you know, as part of the American "surge."

The Mound of Sound writes at Wed Jan 17 02:10:56 2007...

These vehicles could be headed to the US for shipment to our forces in Afghanistan. A Taliban offensive is due in a couple of months and Canada doesn't have the capability to transport this many vehicles to our forces in any timely fashion.

Nathan writes at Wed Jan 17 14:31:45 2007...

It is all because of that damn George Bush. I sure glad I never voted for that son of a bitch! He is stupid as hell I don't know what. I would never support war.

Nathan writes at Wed Jan 17 14:41:20 2007...

Bush claims he is mad because of the handling of the Saddam hanging. I'm like, what the use. Bush wanted Saddam dead. Saddam possibly thought, "Are watching die Mr. President Bush".

Dave writes at Wed Jan 17 18:58:04 2007...

Are you sure they were CF trucks?

I believe GM Canada makes the trucks for the American military

cdlu writes at Thu Jan 18 08:29:12 2007...

I believe the equipment is going to Texas for large scale training exercises with the US military. If it was going to Afghanistan, they'd be in desert camouflage, not temperate, and would be airlifted or sealifted from Canada without the extra expense of shipping it to the south coast of the US.

Nathan, how insightful.

Dave, yes, they were definitely Canadian. EMD and General Dynamics, where military equipment is made, is west of where this westbound train was photographed. This one may have originated at the armour base at Valcartier.

Nathan writes at Thu Jan 18 11:10:37 2007...

Ok, so that wasn't very good. I could have said it better. But no I don't support war as a way for a country to get what they want. Violence to me doesn't solve a problem it makes it worse. The way Bush is handling it is wasn't the best way. I just think he is stupid because the actions he took. There are other ways to handle terrorists, war just isn't the right way. As for Saddam he knew his time was up. The way Bush thought is that it was a way for Iraqis to have revenge over Saddam so he wasn't happy as to how it end with Saddam. To me it is like Bush wanted him dead anyway. It was just crazy that Mr. Bush wasn't happy that Saddam was dead. Again, I never support Bush in the first place.

By the way, was the trucks made in Oshawa?

Kris Roenigk (www.snowmobileworld.com) writes at Thu Nov 1 23:34:11 EDT 2007...

I'm currently working in GM's Oshawa Truck plant and have worked there since 1997. I was also there from 1985 to 1988. During the gap I was working in the Car Assembly Plant. At no time between 1985 and the present has GM built any military pickups in Oshawa. I believe the last pickups built in Oshawa were built during the 1981 to 1984 model years.

After that GM referred to their military pickups as CUCV trucks and were built in the US. Any of the GMT800 based extended cab pickups that the Canadian Armed Forces are using were built in the US too.

Don writes at Mon Mar 17 14:01:49 EDT 2008...

As a former canadian soldier, I recently came into contact with an old army chum I served with. The train was simply shipping equipment to Texas for a major Canadian exercise in preparation for deployment of the next rotation to Afghanistan. This is very normal as Canadian Forces routinely train within the U.S. and the American Forces train at Canadian bases.

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