CN on Wednesday

I headed home from work Wednesday afternoon, taking the long way along Wilkes to see if I could catch a CN train on the way. As it happens I saw lights in the distance just as I was about to take the Perimeter Highway. It was CN 112 on its way into Winnipeg, with GE ES44DC engine CN 2307 on the point.


The train was all containers, with this CN platform full of wheels.


Surprisingly the only two engines on this long container train were 2307 on the head end and CN 8849 pushing hard on the rear.


Little did I know that VIA 2 was coming. I did hear something about "VIA 2" on the scanner but I thought I misheard it as "CN 1 1 2". In any case I didn't have time to wait around.

Later that day, I went to the Winnipeg slide night. I enjoyed all the presentations, and delivered my own presentation on NB Southern. On my way back home, I noted lights to the east when I crossed the tracks on Shaftesbury Boulevard. I drove west a bit to find a quiet crossing and waited for the train to come. I wanted to try my 50mm lens in the dark. It is quite sensitive to light so I figured it would perform better than the wide angle lens.

As I tweeted, the train (CN 115) had CN 8811 leading, and was 10,702 feet with 156 cars.

The video is shaky, due to the lens' lack of image stabilization, my hand-holding and my shivering! Still, I think the lens is good for night shooting. Next time I'll stand back a bit and put the camera on the tripod.