Rail

 Canadian National Railway has a constant demand for new steel rail. There is always a need to replace worn or damaged rail or to upgrade to heavier material. Most mainline rail is now welded to form continuous ribbons, eliminating the "clickety clack" of jointed rail for smoother and more durable track, which also reduces wear on rolling stock.

CN imports new rail from Poland, which is unloaded at Pier 28 in Halifax and either loaded directly to specialized flat cars or stockpiled on the pier. The rail is sent to Winnipeg to be prepared for installation.

The rail usually arrives in Halifax on ships from Onego Shipping & Chartering BV. The Dutch company manages a fleet of multi-purpose bulkers for investment syndicate owners. The ships are  "open hatch" types, where the hatches are the full width of the holds and are equipped with portable pontoon type tween decks.

On March 21 the Onego Glomma arrived from Szczecin, Poland (with a stop in Argentia, NL en route). As usual its berth at Pier 27 is difficult to see, so only partial pictures are possible.

 The Onego Glomma was built in 2004, partially by Yichang Shipyard in China and completed by Damen Hoogezand in Foxhol, Netherlands. It is a 7767 gt, 10,649 dwt ship with a pair of 60 tonne SWL cranes. Although it rarely carries containers, it would have a capacity of 675 TEU.

As is often the case with this type of ship it has had several names. It was initially called Serena and in 2015 it was  renamed Marmolokai, then in 2017 Thorco Cygnus before reverting to Marmolokai again in 2018, then was renamed Unicloud for a short time in the same year before becoming Marmolokai again. In 2019 it was renamed Nova and became Onego Glomma in 2024. 

Glomma is Norway's longest river at 621 km. It discharges into the North Sea at Oslo. 

The ship is German owned and flagged in Antigua and Barbuda, at that country's primary port of St.John's.

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