Passenger Power in Calgary

I'm finally finishing up my Calgary trip from last month. You may recall I looked at Alyth Yard on October 28. After that, I decided to see if anything was left in Ogden Yard. Ogden has been closed down after 100 years of operation.

There are a few engines still around, for example CP 1400 and CP 9000.


CP 1400 was retired in February 2012 and has been cannibalized for parts.

This is the first "red barn" (SD40-2F) that I have seen with the "dual flags" CP Rail logo on it.


After taking inventory of the few engines in Ogden, I noticed CP 8854 rolling past. You may recall it had just come off the Red Deer subdivision. I guess they ran right through Alyth Yard and were heading out on the Brooks subdivision. I barely got ahead of them and caught this "from the car" shot at a crossing.


I then headed up to CN's Sarcee yard. There I saw CN 1409, CN 7078 and GTW 5945 rolling past the gas station there. Note the operator riding the point of CN 1409. Love those GMD1s!


Here's GTW 5945. I'm told these are actually GTW units, not owned by Alstom, despite what it says on the engine.


That was certainly fun. I went back toward Alyth, but while passing Ogden Yard, I saw this.


CP 1601 was putting the heritage engines (CP 4107 / CP 1900 / CP 4106) away. Jeff Keddy and I saw them the previous day in Alyth, and I guess they were being moved.

After the crew uncoupled, CP 1601 (and CP 1527) rolled away and left the engines there.


Sweet heritage units.


CP 1539 was also around. Note the two cabooses and I think CP 8217 on the far right.


Here's CP 1527 going back onto the main line.


I was running out of time, but I ventured back to CN's Sarceee Yard just in time to see a train coming off the  CN Three Hills subdivision. I paused to capture CN 5677 and CN 8938 bringing the train in.


I would say it was a very productive morning of railfanning in Calgary!

Phoenix Sightings

I was in Phoenix, Arizona back in mid April, for work. I was staying downtown and I didn't have a rental car. On two evenings I took a walk to the nearby Union Pacific yard to try to get some shots with my old Fuji digital camera.

There are very few good locations to shoot the yard. Everywhere you look, you see these signs.

Of course, I respected the signs and did not go past them.

Here are a few shots I did manage to get. You can shoot the east end of the yard from an overpass, but if you shoot in the evening like I did, the sun is in your eyes.

That's the downtown in the background, with Chase Field, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks, to the left.

This is a view of the west end of the yard, on an overpass next to Chase Field.

In the background to the right, you can see a long line of stored locomotives. I estimated there were over 30 stored there.

That night, I wandered around a bit, and on my return I was surprised to see a westbound train leaving the yard. I grabbed this quick shot through the fence on the overpass.

UP 1527 and ex-Cotton Belt unit UP 7275 headed up the train.

I hope you enjoyed my brief glimpse of the Union Pacific yard in Phoenix, Arizona. Maybe next time I'm down there, I'll get a chance to take a few more photos!