Action at St. James Junction

I went up to St. James Junction in the bitter cold to see the Hudson Bay today. On my way there I noticed a northbound CP train waiting to cross the diamond. There were a couple of railfans camped out there, as well as a stopped train on the north track. It turns out the train was CN 314, stopped just short of Waverley Street. Shortly a set of headlights could be seen on the south track and the Hudson Bay was upon us with five-eyed VIA 6438 leading the way.

You can find the Complete consist here


CN 314 cleared the junction soon after the Hudson Bay went by, and then the CP northbound came through, with CP 3028 and 1128 pulling a relatively short train of about 15 cars. It had one unusual car, a depressed center QTTX car.

Soon enough CN 115 showed up, rolling by with CN 8885, CN 5675 and CN 5727 pulling a whopping 156 cars. 114/115 have junk cars at the head end before the containers, much like the former CN 148/149 did in the Maritimes.


Within 10 minutes another train rolled by. This was CN 198, fresh from Prince Rupert with a solid container train. I just stayed long enough to shoot the head end, CN 2542 and ex-BC Rail 4650.


By this time, both my video camera and still camera were complaining of low batteries (due to the cold). Time to leave!