Busy Times at St. James Junction

I went out on Thursday, February 9, to shoot the Canadian at St. James Junction. There was another vehicle there already, with two railfans in it, brothers I have met before. We had a brief chat but it was interrupted by two trains arriving at once - BNSF 2968 returning from Fort Rouge and a CP local train heading north on the La Riviere subdivision. I chose to focus on the CP train and saw old friend CP 8251 leading.


It is challenging to shoot a northbound CP train here as the sun is over the engineer's shoulder. Of course I also got the shadow of the signal protecting the diamond on the engine... sigh.

Here's the video of the same train.


I chatted for a bit in the cold and finally saw headlights coming from the east. There was the Canadian, maybe 10 minutes late.


As the train passed, I shot each car to record the consist in my database. I quite liked my shot of the Skyline car, VIA 8504, and turned it into a black-and-white shot.




VIA 1 quickly receded into the distance and I hit the road.