Railfanning Prince George, Part 2

This is part 2 of my trip to Prince George, British Columbia in June 2014 - see part 1 here.

A visit to the CN yard in downtown Prince George on the evening of June 24 revealed a few engines. CN 2585 was sitting by itself at one end.

CN 2585 in Prince George, BC

At the other end, the set of CN 7276 (GP9), CN 262 (slug) and CN 1440 (GMD1) were working the yard. Everyone loves a GMD1, amiright?

CN 1440 in Prince George, BC

Are those brake shoes on the pole to the left?

I spotted a beat-up old Chattahoochee Industrial Railroad car in the yard too. Note the old scanner tag on this car.

Chattahoochee Industrial Railroad car in Prince George

I decided to head out of town and see what I could find. I followed one track out of town to the north; it ended up being the Nechako Subdivision. This is part of the original Grand Trunk Pacific line to Prince Rupert.

I followed it for several miles out of town. The line is signaled and I took note of a signal at a siding ("Miworth", I guess) that was green, indicating a train could be approaching. I stopped at the crossing hosting the sticker to the right and heard a faraway horn.

A few minutes of waiting produced an interesting train, a single engine CN 5794 leading a "unit" train of lumber loads.

CN 5794 outside Prince George

I hopped into my car and headed to the next crossing. I was working against the setting sun (it was a bit after 7 PM) but I managed to get this shot lit well enough. It was kicking up a lot of dust!

CN 5794 passing Miworth siding outside Prince George

I tried to get to the next crossing but they were clearly going to get there first, and of course you don't race a train to a crossing! I watched the 30-odd cars roll by and then placidly returned to Prince George.

There was an interesting industry near that crossing. I think it is Tilbury Cement, and it would make a good model railroad industry... very compact.

The same long spur hosted a little tank farm, clearly a former Shell facility.

That was it for June 24. The next day held a visit to the Prince George Railway and Forestry Museum as well as the two VIA Rail Skeena trains! See part 3.