Thursday, November 17, 2011

Much Better

After complaining about "blah" shots, I am going to follow up with a few much nicer shots. Monday noon, I went looking for the Canadian up on Wilkes Avenue. I decided to shoot from near the top of the overpass to get a little height and a change in angle. What do you think?
VIA 6411 in Winnipeg

The Canadian was a few minutes late, but had a bonus of two cars dead heading behind VIA 6411 and VIA 6408... diner Imperial and Assiniboine Park.
Assiniboine Park in Winnipeg

I spun around for the "going away" shot and framed the Canadian under the overpass.
VIA's Canadian in Winnipeg

I turned around and there were headlights approaching on the south track. It turned out to be CN 101, led by single engine CN 2254.
CN 2254 and train 101

One more engine was about 1/3 of the way back in the train, CN 2256.
CN 2256 and train 101

That was all very exciting, but where are the good shots?

I headed toward home, and as I crossed the CP La Riviere subdivision on the Perimeter Highway, I saw a string of grain cars headed south. I took the exit and chased the train. It was easy to catch up to it, as I believe the speed limit is a mere 15 MPH here and the limit on the highway parallel to the tracks is 100 km/hr. I saw SD90 CP 9109 and SD40-2 CP 5764 were hauling just over a hundred grain cars.

I set up just south of the grain elevator in La Salle and waited for the train. The benefit of such a slow train is that you get to take a lot of shots as the train passes the elevator! This was my favourite.
CP 9109 and Grain Elevator in La Salle, MB

Once the head end passed, I jumped into the car and got ahead of them for one more series of shots outside the town. The sun was dancing in and out of view but I was lucky to get a few with some sun on the engine.
CP 9109 leaving La Salle Manitoba

I was very pleased with my CP shots. It was well worth the 15 minutes it took to chase and shoot the train!

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