I don't think the siding where GEXR's Elmira run drops them off can hold them both, my guess is that one will head up the spur tonight for offload tomorrow morning, and the second later in the week.
So Tuesday night's Elmira freight took both IONs plus two buffer flatcars up to the usual storage siding, and I'm happy to report that all four cars
do fit there. Myself and a friend biked alongside for most of the trip, the Spurline and Laurel trails are
wonderful for this.
This morning saw Waterloo Region's first double offload. All four cars (from the north end, buffer + ION + buffer + ION) were fetched from the siding and parked on the southbound track (mixed heavy and light rail) beside the OMSF. The Trackmobile + buffer at the north end disconnected and moved out of the way so the ramp could be connected to the ION + buffer + ION consist.
The first ION was offloaded by fishing it down the ramp with the Trackmobile + buffer car, similar to previous offloads. The Trackmobile + buffer retreated up the freight track, and the OMSF's battery powered shunter took the first ION into the yard. Once the ramp was disconnected and moved out of the way, the TrackMobile + buffer came back, reconnected, and shuffled the whole stack north so the second ION was parked where the first had been. (It must be the ideal spot for ramping.) Then Trackmobile + buffer + carrier + buffer headed back up to the siding to dump two of the cars, while the ramp was reconnected to the remaining carrier.
After a break for lunch the Trackmobile + buffer fished the second ION down the ramp. They retreated to the freight track while the shunter moved the second ION into the yard, while the ramp was disconnected and moved out of the way once again. The Trackmobile + buffer came back to fetch the final carrier, putting all four cars together again in the siding for the nightly freight to pick up tonight. It was all over by 1:30.
Unfortunately I had some work calls to make while all this went on, so I didn't get my usual footage of the first ION coming off. So much for my streak! I caught the second one though, and will hopefully get some video posted later on tonight.