October 16

I was out and about in Winnipeg on Sunday, October 16. I think the kids were with me because my wife was working. I had tried to catch VIA 693 but we left our house too late to get it. We ended up doing a few things together and I ended up near the CP yard. I saw an interesting consist at the east end of the yard and had to take a few photos of it. It's not often you see an AC4400, a blocked off SD40-2, and a "red barn" SD40-2F together. Old friend CP 6078 with the blocked-out windows was second, and "red barn" SD40-2F CP 9023 was on the end, a new engine to me.CP 1530 and CP 8205 were in the yard, switching.

We drove around a bit then headed home on the Perimeter. I knew CN 532 was heading out and I figured I could get a shot of them south of the city. I exited at Pembina and headed south on highway 75 through St. Norbert. I easily got ahead of them and waited just south of the community in the first wide open space. I arranged things so we were parked on a service road paralleling the highway, figuring there might be a chance to take some stills then jump in the car and leapfrog ahead to get another shot.

I should mention it was very windy. The radio said it was 50-60 km/h gusting to 70-80.

Here's the first shot, with CN 5528 on the point.

After taking a few more as the train approached, I sprinted for the car and peeled out. I figure the train was only going 25 MPH so it was easy to get ahead of them, as I had a few kilometres of side road. I parked at the end and took video as the train passed. Pardon the wind noise!