CN and VIA Today

I went up to St. James Junction to shoot the Canadian today, and as often happens, I got a bonus train.

When I arrived at the Junction, I saw BNSF was waiting to leave their yard. The caboose was on the head end of a series of cars, and the power was somewhere at the other end. They were close enough to Taylor Avenue to trigger the crossing bells, so their ringing provided a background to my train watching.

A CN westbound freight rolled by at 12:15 on the south track. CN 2256 and 5648 headed up a set of empty centerbeam flats, followed by a long string of container cars.


I see a lot of ES44DC units in Winnipeg, but 2256 rang a bell for some reason. Looking in my railway sightings database, I see I saw that unit back on October 23, 2009 on another westbound freight. I've seen CN 5648 before too, back on August 21, 2009.

Anyway, enough nostalgia. The Canadian came along at 12:26, close to 15 minutes late.

The complete consist: five-eyed VIA 6418, VIA 6404, VIA 8605, VIA 8117, VIA 8502, VIA 8414 Palliser, VIA 8326 Franklin Manor, VIA 8338 Rogers Manor, VIA 8336 Monck Manor, VIA 8219 Chateau Montcalm, VIA 8710 Prince Albert Park.

After the Canadian passed, BNSF did not seem like they were going to head out anytime soon, so that was the end of train watching for me.