I wanted to share a few trains I saw recently. I parked near Diamond with my laptop at noon time on the 23rd, hopping out to shoot trains as they went by. Not a bad way to spend a noon hour.
First up was CN 103, which showed up just as I arrived near Diamond. CN 2296 was the lead engine.
CN 8837 was mid-train. Note the "new tire" on the rear of the truck.
CN 8012 was pushing on the rear.
About an hour later, the Canadian came rolling along.
This was still a summer consist with 20 cars... not bad.
About 15 minutes later, CN 104 came rolling in with two SD70s for power. CN 5619 was on the head end...
... and Illinois Central 1039 was behind her. I miss the black IC engines but this doesn't look too bad.
I didn't realize they were meeting CN 199 until I noticed that CN 5619 had her headlights dimmed. I wasn't quite in the right place to catch the actual meet.
Nice to see those BC Rail units still kicking around.
That was the end of trainspotting for me for that day. It was nice to get out and exercise my new lens. I'll have to write about the lens soon. :)
As I said previously, baggage car VIA 8615 had displays showing the history of (Canadian) football and equipment. The next car was provided by Canadian Pacific, CP 103, and contained displays about the Grey Cup game itself, including an extensive set of Grey Cup rings. This is Henry Burris' ring from the Calgary Stampeders' 2008 victory over Montreal.
Nearby was a ring from the Saskatchewan Roughriders from their 2007 victory over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Photographing these was challenging because they were behind plexiglass, which is becoming quite scratched. This is Kent Austin's ring, who won the Grey Cup twice as a quarterback (SK, BC) and once as the head coach (SK).
There is a spot in the car for the Grey Cup to sit in, but as I said before, it was not on the train at this time.
The next car was another Canadian Pacific car, CP 104.
This car had displays for all of the current CFL teams. I tried to explain to this guy that he and his nephew were wearing jerseys for the wrong sport but he was having none of it.
Our Roughrider family had to pose at the Saskatchewan display.
At the end of the car, we faced this obstacle. No entry into the diner for us!
Here is the exterior of VIA 8412 / KENT. This is as far as we were permitted to go to photograph, so I did not get any photos of VIA 8502 or VIA 8208 / CHATEAU DOLLIER.
They did do a nice job decorating the cars.
Back outside the station, there was still a long line waiting to see the train. Note the Canadian Human Rights Museum in the background, still under construction.
We wandered around the displays for a while. Telus had a Fan Cup there, and there were hot dogs for sale, a football toss, a tackling area, and of course the Grey Cup.
We joined the line for the Cup and after about 15 minutes, we had our turn.
Thanks to the CFL, to VIA Rail, to Rona, and all the other sponsors for supporting this great train and display as it travels across Canada. Look out Halifax, the train is coming to see you next!
"I've got my groove on and I'm ready to go
Check out my right girl, but don't touch my radio
Don't you know, pump it up, You got to pump it up,
Don't you know, pump it up, You got to pump it up…"
"Pump It Up", Danzel
I took my daughter up to a birthday party off Inkster Boulevard on Sunday afternoon, and after I dropped her off, my son and I went in search of trains. Since I mostly shoot CN, I thought I might try to find some CP trains just west of Winnipeg in the Rosser area. We headed out Inkster and found a set of headlights by the elevator at Makwa.
I have to be careful about the location here. The elevator at Makwa says "ROSSER" on it but CP calls it Makwa, so that is what I shall do. Rosser is a regional municipality and the actual "town" of Rosser is a few kilometres west of Makwa, with the CP control point called Rosser just west of that.
ANYway, it turns out that CP #210 / CP 8652 East was sitting on the main line by the elevator with an intermodal train behind it. They had just set off these units: CP 6602, 5420, and 5949.
At first, they were waiting for a light to take their train into Winnipeg. After a testy exchange with the RTC, they got their light, but they were unable to move because they couldn't get the air in the train up to an acceptable pressure.
If you know anything about train brakes, you know that the air line connecting all the cars together gets a bit leaky in cold weather. I'm sure with four units they had no trouble compressing enough air to keep the pressure up, but with a single unit they were having great difficulty maintaining pressure. Without adequate pressure they can't move, because they can't guarantee they can stop the train if they need to.
The problem is that the CP Carberry subdivision is now single track and there were two eastbound trains stuck behind them, one at Rosser and one near Meadows. I'll bet the RTC was wishing he had two tracks at that point! I could see the headlights of the train at Rosser from Makwa.
There were three other railfans at Makwa taking photos, and I introduced myself before we all took off to shoot the train at Rosser. That turned out to be CP 104, with CP 9781 on point.
You can just see the headlights of the NEXT train at Meadows on the left side of the photo.
We all headed off to Meadows next. I found the train a little east of the actual town of Meadows, a short train with CP 9150 as the sole power.
I took a few shots, and then heard its crew call the RTC and ask if their now-green light was legit. They were cleared to proceed on signal indication, so I took that to mean that the air was finally pumped up and things were moving. I rolled on through Rosser and passed CP 104, before pulling over to shoot them rolling up to Makwa.
I was in a bit of a rush and I made the mistake of not wearing my gloves. The temperature was about -28C and my hands were REALLY aching by the time the video was done. Stupid railfan trick #27.
I jumped back in the car and put my gloves on for the next train! Soon enough CP 9150 rolled along. I changed position to include the elevator and the set-off units in the shot.
It was time for supper after that, so off we went.
