CN Meets VIA

This past Thursday I went out to shoot the Canadian, something I haven't done for what seems like a month! I parked at St. James Junction and waited. I set up my Canon S3 on the tripod to shoot video, only to find that its batteries were dead. sigh


While I was waiting, I heard the detector at mile 10 go off, so I knew something was coming from that direction. After a bit longer, I saw headlights to the west. It turned out to be CN 2525 and CN 2602 leading a shortish general freight train on the south track. Right after that, I saw VIA 1's lights come around the corner at Portage Junction to the east. I was quite concerned that I would get skunked by the freight train.

First things first, shoot the freight.


As VIA approached, it looked like they were slowing down. I was hoping they would have to stop short of the junction to change tracks after the freight went by. Here's the two trains approaching the meet.


My hopes of a VIA stop were unfounded. The Canadian rolled right on by, shielded from my view by the freight train. This was basically my view of VIA 1 passing.


I did take a couple of long-range shots of the Canadian going away, after the freight train got out of the way.


I knew there was no point in trying to chase the Canadian as it was very unlikely I would catch up to it. Oh well, you can't win them all.