2014 in Review

In this post I'm going to review 2014 using my blog posts as reference.

2014 started off on a very bad note with Jay Underwood's passing. He is missed.

There was a lot of uncertainty about the northern New Brunswick rail route. There was talk of detouring the Ocean but fortunately the provincial and federal governments came through and saved the route. VIA Rail ran a few extra (stainless!) trains over the Christmas holidays and there are rumours flying around about changes to come with the Ocean and possible new routes. We shall see.

I tracked the sale of the MMA and its rebirth as the Central Maine and Quebec Railway. The new railway has been pretty quiet.

You probably noticed that I wasn't blogging much in the first nine months or so of 2014. I find I have a finite amount of writing energy and for much of 2014 I spent that on Google+. In the fall I came back to the blog and began blogging more frequently.

I took a few trips in 2014 and documented them:

• Grand Forks, ND (most viewed post of 2014)
• Napa Valley, CA
• Prince George, BC
• Kamloops, BC
• Saint John, NB

There were a few derailments in 2014 that I reported on:

• CN, Plaster Rock, NB, January
• CN, St. Norbert, MB, April
• Hudson Bay Railway, June

Of course the biggest blogging topic for me was my Manitoba grain elevator project. I spent a lot of time driving around southern Manitoba photographing elevators.

I didn't get all of the elevators in 2014 but I have the majority of them, and I'll get the rest in 2015.

Here are some grain elevator posts to look for:

• Grain Elevators of the Letellier subdivision
• In Search of Grain Elevators part 1 and part 2
• A Wee Grain Elevator Trip
• A Grain Elevator Loop part 1 and part 2
• Grain Elevators of the Glenboro subdivision
• Elevators and Trains on the Bredenbury Sub
• Southwest Manitoba Elevator Trip (up to 7 parts so far!)

I was fortunate to be able to see both the CP Holiday Train (also the combined US-Canadian CP Holiday train) and the CN Christmas Train.

Oddly the CN Christmas Train video was my most-watched video of 2014, by far. I guess it was passed on to a few people.


I started www.ManitobaGrainElevators.ca and moved my model train blog to www.modeltraingeek.com and started blogging again there too. I sure hope I don't start a 4th blog...

What's in store for 2015? Well, more grain elevators, of course... a few business trips that might involve trains... and a summer vacation on the west coast. That's all I know so far! Thanks for being along for the ride, and I wish you all the best in 2015 and beyond.

A Long Journey For NBSR 2319

NBSR 2319, one of NB Southern's GP38-2 engines, has been spotted in several places in the USA. She's far away from home, destined for Michigan for engine block work.

Sam Sponseller spotted her in Willard, Ohio yesterday amongst a number of CSX engines.

Photo by Sam Sponseller, used with permission

Her journey started in November when Harry Gordon spotted her behind some Pan Am engines on the 15th of November near Northern Maine Junction (link).

On December 20th she was photographed in the CSX Selkirk Yard near Albany, NY (link).

She was recently spotted on a railfan web cam in Berea, OH (link).

Hopefully more photos will surface as she continues to Michigan!

NBSR 2319 in Saint John, November 2007

Discount on Calendars Now

Come Into The Light

I've discounted my train calendar and my grain elevator calendar for the remainder of the year. If Santa didn't bring you the calendar you wanted, why not order your own?

Quick Survey

Would you mind taking this quick one-question survey? I'd like to know where people go to see train photos. Thank you so much!

Thank you - the survey is now closed. The results are here.

Happy Holidays

Thanks for being here and reading and participating. It means a lot to me.

I'm not actually posting this today as I should be surrounded by friends and family and eating way too much good food. Hopefully Santa brought me a Canon 7D Mk II camera.. but I'm not holding my breath on that one. :)

Steve Hunter's PEI Photos

Noted Prince Edward Island rail expert Steve Hunter has posted a selection of his PEI rail photos from the 1970s to abandonment. I applaud his decision to share some of his photos and I encourage you to go have a look. If you have Alan Graham's Prince Edward Island Railway book, you'll probably recognize a few. Please keep in mind these photos are for personal use only - please read the notice at the top of the gallery.

Go have a look!

My PEI blog posts including my series on Diesels on Prince Edward Island.

Southwest Manitoba Elevator Trip, Part 7 - Tilston

Back in August 2014 I took two days (Aug 8-9) to photograph every grain elevator in southwest Manitoba. Here's part 1 and part 2 and part 3 and part 4 and part 5 and part 6.

Tilston

The town of Tilston has two grain elevators. One is an ex Lake of the Woods elevator which became a Manitoba Pool elevator, and the other is an original Manitoba Pool elevator. Both have a lot of character!

Let's look at the Pool elevator first.

As you can see it still has its Pool logo, a rarity. This was the "A" elevator, indicating that there was more than one Pool elevator in the town at one time.

The elevator has no annex, but instead a low warehouse attached to it. To me this indicates it is pretty old, and the fact that it isn't clad in metal also indicates its age. Speaking of age...

This building has seen better days.

Like many older Pool elevators, this elevator proudly announces its affiliation.

"TILSTON / Co-Operative Elevator Association / POOL NO. 61 / Service At Cost"

What a lovely old elevator.

I should point out that whenever I was walking between the two elevators, I was being harassed by an angry bird. I assume I was walking near its nest. The bird was constantly yakking at me and swooping near my head, which was a little unnerving. I tried not to linger in the area!

Now let's talk about the Five Roses Flour / Lake of the Woods elevator.

As you can see it has FIVE ROSES FLOUR on its side, indicating that it was initially owned by Lake of the Woods. You can still buy Five Roses flour, although it's made by Smuckers now.

Notice the lettering above the FIVE.

My twelve-year-old self can't help but notice "P O O" but of course it was for the Manitoba Pool. The Lake of the Woods company built it in 1949 and sold it to the Pool in 1959 when it became the Pool B elevator.

Note the cell phone antenna on top of the elevator.

Here's a track side view.. if there were still tracks here. The CP Alida subdivision used to serve this town but it was abandoned in 1978.

Does anyone know what would have been attached to the annex here? I've seen these attachment points on other elevators but I don't know what they were for. See comments below - they were to reinforce the annex to prevent/counteract sagging.

I had a look through the window into the office of this elevator. It looks pretty well preserved.

The door to the driveway had the ubiquitous "NO SMOKING" sign on it. It looks like I wasn't the only one to shoot this sign.

I spent almost an hour wandering around the elevators and around town. It's such a lovely place. Here are a few scenes from the main street.

 Note the friendly dog! She followed me around and was quite happy to have her tummy rubbed.

 Lots of stuff on the community bulletin board!

A typical Prairie town.

 Many Prairie towns have old homecoming signs still up.

On my way out of town, I noticed this old house.. a bit of a "fixer upper".

I hope you've enjoyed this Tilston tour. Here's a great article on the Tilston elevators.

In part 8 we will jump back into the timeline and continue on to Hartney, Hathaway and beyond, and see a couple of old pieces of rolling stock and solve the mystery of the missing grain elevator. Read on!

Southwest Manitoba Elevator Trip, Part 6 - Starting the Second Day

This post has been moved to https://www.traingeek.ca/wp/starting-the-second-day/

Southwest Manitoba Elevator Trip, Part 5 - The Bottom Left Corner

This post has been moved to https://www.traingeek.ca/wp/the-bottom-left-corner/

Southwest Manitoba Elevator Trip, Part 4 - Able Was I Ere I Saw Elva

Back in August 2014 I took two days (Aug 8-9) to photograph every grain elevator in southwest Manitoba. Here's part 1 and part 2 and part 3.

In part 3 I followed the former CP Lyleton subdivision to photograph grain elevators at Deloraine, Waskada, Dalny and Coulter. Since I was ahead of schedule, I deviated from my trip plan to visit Elva... home of probably the oldest grain elevator in Manitoba.

On my way there, I saw the modern Cargill grain elevator outside of Elva. This monstrosity can hold 24,500 tonnes of grain. It was built by Agricore in 2000 and purchased by Cargill in 2007 and recently expanded to its present capacity.

I hope you noticed the locomotive there!

CRGX 573 is an SD38-3, originally a Louisville and Nashville SD40 built in 1971. It's a sharp looking engine!

Elva received rail service in 1892 and was initially served by a portable train station until a permanent station was built in the early 1920s. Apparently it was closed in 1950 and moved to Melita, where it is a private residence today.

Elva initially had a water tank and coal dock but the local water was unsuitable. It had a stock yard until it was demolished in 1962, and the loading platform and passing track were removed in 1964. Today Elva can watch the CP trains roll by on the CP Estevan subdivision but there is no siding in town.

Elva never had more than about 150 people. By the 1960s it was in decline and in 1974 the school was closed, usually the death-knell of Prairie towns. The general store and post office closed in 1980. In 1982 the population of Elva was 43 and I dare say it is less today. Thanks to Our First Century - Town of Melita and Municipality of Arthur for most of this information.

Elva currently has two grain elevators, a Lake of the Woods elevator and a United Grain Growers elevator. I love that Lake of the Woods elevator.

This is an elevator with a lot of character! It is thought to be the oldest grain elevator in Canada, having been built sometime between 1892 and 1899.

Note the distant Cargill elevator.

The UGG elevator looks .. not bad on this side.

However, a look at the far side reveals a different story.

The gaping holes in the elevator don't bode well for this old sentinel.

One last look at the Lake of the Woods elevator before moving on..

In part 5 we finish our tour of the former CP Lyleton subdivison by visiting Cameron and Lyleton, and also visit Pierson before tying up in Melita for the night. Read the next post.

See also: Elva grain elevators on Manitoba Grain Elevators

An NB Southern Chase

I was staying in Saint John NB Thursday evening. I awoke Friday morning (Dec 12) at 8 am and checked my email / Google+ / Facebook and found a post in the RailsNB Facebook group from Brian Barchard reporting an NBSR eastbound freight train through Harvey at 07:25. I did some mental calculations and figured they couldn't cover the 40+ miles to Welsford until 08:30 at the earliest. I grabbed a quick breakfast at the hotel and headed out. My intention was to follow the NB Southern line all the way until I stumbled across the train. On my way out of Saint John I saw these two units at Island Yard..

I passed the Ponderosa Yard at Dever Road in Saint John but nothing was going on. Onwards!

I passed through foggy Grand Bay-Westfield without any sign of trains. As I approached Welsford I heard the EOT squawk* on my scanner just as I came to Aikins Lane/Sand Hopper Road and saw white tank cars going east. Time to turn around!

I decided to get them at Brittain Road first. I got there about 2 minutes ahead of the train. Looking at the bright(er) overcast sky and the dark ground, I set the exposure compensation on my camera to -2/3 of a stop. I do that in these situations to prevent the sky from blowing out when the camera meters the ground. I also had the shutter speed at 1/250s because of the low light. Normally I'd prefer 1/400 or faster but it wasn't possible given the available light. It turned out OK.

The consist was NBSR 6315, HLCX 6304, NBSR 6318, GMTX 2226 and GMTX 2233.

Next I was determined to get the overhead shot at Westfield Beach. I parked at the mailboxes and ran like heck up the bridge to get into position. Seconds later the headlights were visible as the train came around the bend.

Detail roof shot, anyone?

I knew I would be playing catch up so I drove through Westfield-Grand Bay. I wanted the curve shot at Milligan Road and arrived just in time. Part of railfanning is choosing your opportunities!

You can see there was some fog...

I grabbed a quick side-of-road shot as the train passed through Grand Bay.

Since I had an overhead shot I felt no need to get the overhead shot by the Co-Op, and the train was there first anyway. I had no real idea of what I wanted next except that I wanted the bridge shot just before Gault Road. I stopped to take this photo at Ketepec Road. The engineer really loved that horn and 6315 has a very loud horn!

Here's the bridge shot I wanted.

As you can see it was raining by this time, but whatever... The nice thing about a heavily overcast day like this is that you can shoot from any direction and the light is pretty much the same! I had to do some serious editing to lighten the pond and engines enough to be seen, yet not blow out the bright sky.

I went to the overpass to shoot them coming into the yard. "Huff and Puff" were working the west end.

These are NB Southern's two SW1200 locomotives.

The eastbound freight stopped for a while. I am not sure why but there was some chatter about a freight car.

Eventually they got started again.. very slowly. I imagine the rails were quite slippery with the rain and it was hard to get started up the grade into the yard. The engines sounded great and the sanders were doing their thing.

It's been a very long time since I chased an NB Southern train! Thanks to Brian for the heads up and the rest of the RailsNB group for all the information they provide.

The Claus Conspiracy

There's a rumour afoot that Santa Claus, that benevolent supplier of presents to children worldwide, doesn't just use his reindeer-powered sled to deliver presents. One man - Craig Waarheid - is convinced the jolly old elf gets help from a huge, diesel-powered entity.

None other than...

CSX is declining to comment, via this Facebook post.

Post by CSX.

The company did email me to say that "CSX can confirm that Craig previously worked at CSX but is no longer employed by our company. At this time, we are releasing as much information as possible via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram regarding Craig’s suspicions about CSX working with Santa Claus."

But wait! Now there's a trailer that promises to reveal more about this long-running, horsepower-enriched holiday conspiracy.

Visit The Claus Conspiracy to learn more.

Southwest Manitoba Elevator Trip, Part 3 - All Manitoba Pool All The Time

This post has been moved to https://www.traingeek.ca/wp/all-manitoba-pool-all-the-time/

Holiday Gifts for the Railfan Photographer

If you're like me, your significant other has come to you and asked what s/he can get you for Christmas. Here's a list of suggestions I made to my wife as well as a few other items that I already have. (disclosure: the Amazon links are affiliate links, meaning I will earn 4% on any purchases you make by following the link, at no additional cost for you)

Camera Strap

Are you still using the strap that came with your camera? The one that screams CANON or NIKON and hangs around your neck? Why not ask for something that is more convenient, keeps your camera at the ready and saves your neck and shoulders from a lot of pain?

That's me, "bad-ass"

I use the Carry Speed CS-PRO Mark II sling strap*. It is super comfortable and very secure. The strap is wide so it doesn't dig into your shoulder, and the camera hangs at your hip for easy access. A supplied plate screws into the tripod socket in the bottom of your camera and provides a knob that the strap screws into. You can release it from the strap in about 20 seconds and there's no way it's coming off by accident. There are holes in the plate so you should still be able to use a tripod with the plate on. The only problem with the plate is that it blocks access to the battery compartment on my Canon T1i, so I have to have a coin with me to remove the plate to change batteries. Tip: don't buy the Mark 1 version, apparently it sucked. The plate on the Mark II version doesn't look anything like the one pictured in that review. Price: about $100

* I should say I used to use that strap. I lost it somewhere, probably near a grain elevator. I'm hoping for a replacement for Christmas.

Tripod

I have to confess that I hardly ever use a tripod when taking photos. The exceptions are for low light and night photography.

However you really should use a tripod when shooting video. Don't make your viewers ill with your Blair Witch-Train Project video.

I use a Veibon CX-586 tripod, a reasonably priced tripod that is no longer available. Mine is a bit broken in that it won't lock horizontally so a strong wind will cause the shot to pivot. Someday I'll replace it but it's low on my priority list.

You have a lot of choice in tripods (tripods on Amazon) but the main decision points are:

• Screw or latch for securing the legs? (I like latches)
• Center post or no center post? (I don't really care)
• Aluminum or carbon fiber? (carbon fiber is more expensive)
• Ball head or no ball head? (ball heads are better but more expensive)

Make sure you get a tripod that you can use while standing up straight. Nobody wants to keep crouching over a tripod that can only extend to 4'.

Check out this Improve Photography link for more information on tripods.

Price: $25 and up but I recommend you spend at least $60

Spare Battery

You already have one, don't you? Right? If you don't, ask Santa for a spare battery. For my camera it's the Canon LP-E5. Many people use third-party batteries for their camera without any issues.

Price: Varies, about $50

Triggertrap

This is such a neat application. It's a free app for your iPhone/iPod/iPad/Android device that has a lot of cool features including an intervalometer (take photos every X seconds), trigger on sound, trigger on vibration, star trail mode, and many more. It works with the camera in your device, but the real power is that it can control your camera. You need a dongle (cable) to connect your device to your camera.

I've used the intervalometer a lot when taking selfies - just let it fire away every 4 or 5 seconds and take your time getting into position!

You can buy it direct from Triggertrap or through camera stores like Henry's - right now it looks cheaper to buy direct. Price: ~$40

Rogue FlashBender

I've asked Santa for a Rogue FlashBender. This is basically a positionable sheet you mount on your flash to reflect / shape the light from the flash. I want to have it in my camera bag for a quick way to modify / soften a flash when I'm out and about and need to take a quick photo. Price; $50-$100 (depends on size)

Portable Hard Drive

How about a hard drive for backing up your photos? If you have that, how about another for off-site backup? Check your local flyers - they are often on sale. Price: $65-$200 (depends on size)

Adobe Lightroom

I've already given 5 reasons why you need Lightroom. Photo editing is where you're really going to polish your photo and Lightroom provides great editing and fantastic photo organization all in one package. Price: $130 (lower student rate) or $10/month


There's a few suggestions - leave a comment if you have any more!