Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Catching Up

CN 8812 in Winnipeg
Here are a few "catch up" photos of individual trains I've seen over the past couple of months. The above is CN 8812 leading IC 2700 into Winnipeg on April 18. The early morning sunlight is bright on the nose of 8812 and its waving crew.
CN crew waves to photographer

Later that same day, I caught another Illinois Central unit, IC 2714, leading train 198 into Winnipeg ahead of CN 2513.
IC 2714 in Winnipeg

Fast-forwarding a bit, I had a bit of luck and caught CN 532 on June 14. I was driving over the tracks at the Perimeter when I spied a headlight to the north. A quick exit brought me to the nearest crossing (mile 5.30) where I shot faded CN 2414 leading a very long train.
CN 2414 leads train 532 out of Winnipeg

It's amazing how one little engine can pull so many cars. The Letellier subdivision that CN 532 runs on is very straight and flat.

There were several interesting flatcars on the train. They were all bearing the COER reporting mark, belonging to the impressively-named shortline the Crab Orchard and Egyptian Railroad. Any idea what these cars were used for?
Crab Orchard and Egyptian (COER) flatcar

Two days afterward, I caught a large CN freight near Carman Junction. The train had CN 8927 leading CN 2440 and CN 8862.
CN 8927 in Winnipeg

They had a clear signal on the south track.
Clear signal at Carman Junction

As I watched the train roll by, I was surprised to see a DPU engine, CN 8007, midway through the train. Not many of CN's general freight trains have DPU engines.

5 comments:

roldac said...

The craddle cars are for carrying the tower pieces of windmills. I caught a CP train heading into Winnipeg on June 24, 2012. Check out my Youtube channel to see a video. Rolpolold

roldac said...

Also, EasternOntarioTracks has a few great videos on Youtube with these cars loaded. Quite impressive.

Canadian Train Geek said...

Thanks, those are indeed the same cars that you taped and EasternOntarioTracks taped too.

Eric said...

The answer is blowing in the wind. Interestingly, the CO&E operated a large fleet of TOFC trailers while rostering a steam locomotive at the same time.

Thanks for sharing, Steve. (Noticed the blurbs in CRM - my copy just arrived.)

Eric

Canadian Train Geek said...

Hi Eric, glad you saw the blurbs.

Yeah, I was reading up on the CO&E and it was/is quite a shortline.