Containers on the Sprague

I was out yesterday on the holiday Monday doing a few errands, and of course I swung by CN's Symington Yard to see what was happening. I saw a couple of locomotives heading for the diesel shop, but what caught my eye was a container train heading out on the Sprague subdivision. I gave chase!

The Sprague subdivision parallels the Trans-Canada Highway (#1) for several km before peeling off around Dufresne. I easily beat the train to the Floodway, but since my kids were in the car with me, I didn't want to park and go running off into the bush. We kept going down the highway, looking for a crossing. There is one right at Deacon's Corner just south of the Floodway, but I was looking for a more open shot, so I drove on.

The problem is that the province is resurfacing the highway here, and at present the highway is down to two lanes and 80 km/hr. Many of the rural crossings are temporarily closed, so I had to drive all the way to highway 206, about 15 km down the highway. We parked and waited for the train to arrive. I parked on the sun (west) side, and positioned myself just inside the telegraph pole line for an unobstructed view. Here's the result:

The squeaking you here is the sound of the rails moving up and down as the trucks roll over them. At about 2:09 into the video I shifted the view to try to show the rails moving.

CN 5610 and 5636 were the matched power for this train.