Labour Day Trains

It had been quite a while since I had seen a Canadian, so I decided to head out on this sunny Labour Day to see one. I loaded the kids up and headed out the Perimeter Highway toward Wilkes Avenue.

As I approached Wilkes I saw a two unit train head west on the CN mainline. CN 803 had two engines and that was it - no cars. I tried to catch up to them but as I approached Diamond, I saw an eastbound coming and no sign of the westbound. The eastbound turned out to be CN 2555 and 5759 at the head of train 314 at 12:21.


Shortly after that, they met VIA 1 coming the other way. I set up and shot it as it approached Diamond at 12:29.

I needed to wait another second or two for the Canon S3 to focus before hitting record, it seems:

At least it found the focus before the train got too close!

We headed into town after that. I swung around by Fort Rouge and saw CN 2661 waiting at the east end of the yard, by the Co-Op gas station at CN Subway at 13:05. I think this might have been CN 532 but I'm not sure.

The cranes in the background are working on the Transitway Tunnel. This is part of the planned Southwest Rapid Transit Corridor. Originally this was going to be Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) but Mayor Katz has been pushing for Light Rail Transit (LRT). I don't know all the politics of it but LRT is said to be more attractive and only a "bit" more expensive.

After seeing CN 2661, I took the kids over to Robin's, and when I returned CN 114 rolled on by with Dash-9s CN 2565 and CN 2551. I didn't get any great pictures of those units because the train surprised me. There was a lot of head end "junk" before the containers.

Not a bad way to spend an hour or two! :)