Wednesday, April 18, 2012

VIA Meets CEMR

I went out on Thursday (March 29) to shoot the Canadian, as I often do. I decided I had better hustle west on Wilkes because I was cutting it a bit close for time. As I turned west on Sterling Lyon at route 90, I saw a CEMR train heading west. Great!

I got ahead of them and grabbed this shot of CEMR 4000 and CCGX 5232 leading a short train.
CEMR 4000 in Winnipeg

I quickly zoomed west again to get them at Carman Junction. It was a cloudy day so I figured I could pick my side of the crossing and it wouldn't matter much for lighting. I parked just west of the crossing on the shoulder and waited for them to arrive. CEMR slowed.. and slowed.. and slowed. Behind them, I saw lights!

Then it was a race. Would CEMR turn first or would the Canadian get there first? The conductor lined the switch for the CEMR Carman subdivision just before the Canadian came along. I took several shots of VIA passing and this was the best of them.
CEMR 4000 and VIA 6426 meet at Carman Junction

After that I concentrated on shooting VIA 1 as the CEMR train slowly rolled onto the Carman subdivision. The VIA crew gave me a wave as they passed - thanks!
VIA 6426 and CEMR 4000 pass

Here's the last of the meet.
CEMR 4000 crosses Wilkes Avenue

After the CEMR train cleared the switch, the conductor relined it and walked after his train.

I hopped into my car and took off in pursuit of the Canadian. They didn't seem to be going very fast and I caught up with them by mile 10. I went to Hall Road and crossed the tracks well ahead of them to get this shot. As I said in a previous post, normally you can't shoot westbounds at Half Road but since the sun was blocked, a shot from the north worked fine.
VIA 6426 leads the Canadian out of Winnipeg

And that was that.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Once again...very good shots Steve.
I bring up one small correction to your blog post though......you mention Half Road ???
The only road out that way, just west of the Perimeter...is Hall Road. I think you mean H A L L Rd. ..yes ???

Keep up the good work......

Glen.
Sanford, Man.

Canadian Train Geek said...

Thanks Glen, my squinting at the Google Maps obviously didn't pick that up! I'll fix it right away.