I Say It's All Right

Here comes the sun (doo doo doo doo doo)
Here comes the sun, and I say
It's all right - George Harrison

Last night, my wife and I returned from a trip to Italy. I'll write about that later. Given the 7 hour time difference between there and Manitoba, our biological clocks were and are a little "off". I woke up at about 4 AM this morning and couldn't get back to sleep. After messing around on the computer for a bit, I realized that the sun was going to come up so I might as well go take some sunrise photos.

I decided to head for the CN Rivers subdivision for the best chance to catch a train before I had to return to get the kids ready for school. As I drove around the Perimeter Highway I saw a beautiful golden sky as sunrise approached.

CN Delivers the Goods

I reached the CN tracks and headed west to get into the wide open spaces. I spotted headlights in the distance immediately, so I parked and walked across the tracks at a private crossing to get on the sun side of the train.

CN 5473 East at first light

I had to fiddle with my camera settings to get a decently lit photo, given the low light available. The above was at 1/80s, f/5.6, ISO 200.

I think I like the "going away" shot better, to be honest.

CN 2550 and 5473 at first light

With a shutter speed of 1/80s a little blur is inevitable, so they aren't as sharp as I would like, but I can't complain.

After the power passed, I took a number of photos of the mixed freight train. I like these photos better than the locomotives! What do you think?

Sunrise train

There were a substantial number of these hoppers (many SCYX reporting marks but also some PMRX, TILX and CEFX) on the rear of the train. I imagine they are for frac sand but I could be wrong.

Hoppers by morning light

After the comparatively short Italian freight trains I saw last week, this was a return to my normal railfanning!

The end of the train

Once the train passed, I took a few more photos of the sunrise then headed west to see if another train was in the offing.

Sunrise through the weeds

Alas, there were no more trains imminent, but I did take the time to photograph the old searchlight signals at mile 17.9.

These signals are on borrowed time as no doubt they will be replaced by LEDs at some point.

With the advent of Positive Train Control, many signals are being replaced. I was reading recently that the last semaphores in main line service were due to be removed, and I know much if not all of the CN Redditt subdivision has LED signals now.

There are good reasons to replace these signals, but if you are interested in railway history at all, get out and photograph what's there now before it's gone.

CEMR Surprise

On my way back home, I noticed that the Central Manitoba Railway (CEMR) had a train parked just south of Oak Bluff, so I went to photograph that.

CEMR 5396 and 4000 near Oak Bluff

They were not running, so perhaps they had done some work on the Carman subdivision and were parked there overnight to resume work in the morning.

I've photographed 5396 many times but I couldn't miss the opportunity to photograph her with that sweet morning light.

CEMR 5396 and derail

Note the portable derail, set to protect against runaways. A good safety practice!

That was it for my sunrise railfanning. I went home, got the kids to school, then went back to bed. I took today off to recover so it's been nice to spend time at home on a Friday with my wife. Even after being together on our trip for almost two weeks, we aren't sick of each other! That's a good sign.

See Also

• Dugald at Sunrise
• Negotiations and Love Songs
• Low Light Photography