Sublime Sprague Subdivision Sunset Sightings

My youngest son and I went out railfanning on the evening of May 26, 2018 along the CN Sprague subdivision.

I live in southeast Winnipeg, so when I head out to see some main line action, I have two choices - head east to see the CN Sprague subdivision or the CN Redditt subdivision, or head west to see the CN Rivers subdivision or the CP Carberry subdivision. On that day, I chose to head east to the Sprague.

CN 5791 West

I found a westbound freight between Deacon's Corner and Dufresne, and I took the shot at a rural crossing. Westbounds in the evening are nice because you get that sweet nose light.

CN 5791 West

That second unit... another "warbonnet" leaser!

PRLX 250 on CN

The train had a lot of general freight on the head end, then a long string of tank cars.

Tank cars as far as the eye can see

That was nice. I took video with my older Canon T1i on a tripod, with a 50mm lens. I like the sound of the tank cars whooshing by.

We carried on to Dufresne to the grain elevator there. I was hoping for another westbound to get them with the nice sunset light on the elevator.

I set up just west of the elevator and waited... and waited...

I've written about how I am not a patient person. At least this time, I was with my son, so we could chat about Super Smash Brothers or Pokemon or whatever while we waited.

After about 50 minutes of waiting, a train did come along. It was a westbound!

CN 2242 West

CN 2242 by the Dufresne grain elevator

I can't decide which photo I like best - the one above or the one below. What do you think? Leave a comment!

CN 2242, a grain elevator, and the moon

"Death star" IC 1000 was the second unit, and there was a CAT backhoe on a flatcar two cars back.

Here's the video. I should have had the camera a bit farther back, I think.

So that was nice.

I waited twenty more minutes to see if another westbound was following, but nothing came along. I packed everything up and we headed back toward Winnipeg.

In the distance, I saw a headlight...

CN 3086 East

Sweet, sweet sunset light

This was unexpected, but this shot was my favourite of the evening. I just love that gorgeous sunset light.

It's funny how the light can change so much just by the angle you shoot it at. Contrast the photo above with the one below, taken seconds later as the train passed by us.

CN 3086

It's like it was a totally different day.

I didn't have time to set up for video for this one.

This train was a solid intermodal (container) train. I know a lot of people don't like the container trains, as they are basically just a wall of containers, but I like the symmetry... and they look nice at sunset.

Containers at sunset

Summary

It was a lovely evening for railfanning. I'm not sure my son would agree :) but I enjoyed it.

As a little extra, here's a freight car I saw earlier in the day when I was in downtown Winnipeg. These Reading and Northern cars show up now and then on CN.

Reading and Northern RBMN 8173

Thanks for reading!

Coming up... the next evening, May 27, when PRLX 250 makes another appearance...