Monday, October 10, 2011

Clusterf... pack?

I went out at Thursday noon to try to shoot the Canadian near my favourite spot, Diamond. Just after noon I saw my first train, an eastbound intermodal with CN 2679 and CN 2436.

CN 2679 in Winnipeg

I headed west to set up near Diamond, only to find a container train parked there. It was CN 199, stopped at a red signal on the south track just east of Diamond. The train had CN 8023 and CN 8956 and was completely blocking highway 334 / Hogue Road.

CN 8023 in Winnipeg

I was a little concerned about seeing the Canadian with the freight in the way, so I waited at the head end for VIA... and waited.  After a bit, the conductor cut the train at the crossing and the head end pulled forward a bit  to clear the crossing. They completed that... and then they got the green light. I'm sure that was frustrating for them. They stuck the train together and took off.

I headed back east, hoping to see the Canadian even though I had not heard anything about it on the scanner. Instead I stumbled across CN 803 heading toward Diamond. They had CN 2236 as the sole power on this train.

CN 2236 in Winnipeg

I understood they were going to meet CN 112 so I tried to get the meet as close as I could.

CN 2236 meets CN 8915 in Winnipeg

CN 112 had CN 8915 and CN 2449. They weren't going very fast so I jumped in the car and got ahead of them before the Perimeter, then shot them there.

CN 8915 in Winnipeg

By then I was tired of waiting for the Canadian, so I resolved to head out. On my way east on Wilkes I saw one more train, so I took the shot. I don't know the train number but it had CN 2623 and BCOL 4609 on it. I guess I missed that meet with CN 112.

CN 2623 in Winnipeg

All of these trains were sighted in 40 minutes. I never did see the Canadian. I heard it left about an hour late, without a Park car on the tail end. Obviously they had some kind of issue with it and had to set it off.

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