A Subway Sandwich

On Saturday, December 3, I was driving around Winnipeg just after noon, looking for trains. I first drove around CP's yard downtown, finding a few engines here and there but nothing too interesting. The most interesting unit was CP 5911, an SD40-2 bearing a full height multimark.


Stifling a yawn, I drove down to Main Street... and spied a Park car sticking out of the VIA Rail station. This surprised me, because it was 12:40 and the Canadian should have left at noon. I decided to head over to CN Subway quickly to catch the Canadian.

Subway is at the north end of the CN Fort Rouge yard, and is accessible to railfans from the Co-Op gas station parking lot on Osborne Street just south of the CN overpass over Osborne.

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I waited for the Canadian, but the first piece of "bread" in this Subway "sandwich" was CN 190, with Dash-9 engines CN 2638 and IC 2713. They rolled by at 12:55.


I waited... and waited... and finally the "meat" of the sandwich was delivered. VIA 6417 and VIA 6432 lead the Canadian past the under-construction BRT station over Osborne at 13:15, on the north track.


I shot the Canadian, and as I was getting into my car to leave, I heard the hum of approaching engines. The other piece of "bread" was CN 199, pursuing the Canadian but on the south track. Dash-9s IC 2719 and CN 2680 were the engines on the head end at 13:19.


By that time I had my "fill" of trains, so I headed out... until the evening's CP Holiday Train at least!

PS - I suppose I could have titled this post YAD9 for "Yet Another Dash 9" but it wasn't very clever.

Winnipeg Railfanning, Part 1

Head on view of CP 1597

I hope everyone had a good holiday! For those who celebrate Christmas, I hope Santa was generous. I found a model train car under the tree to help build my fleet.

On Boxing Day I set out to do a few hours of railfanning around the Winnipeg area. I took my mother and sister to the airport then went to the CP yards downtown to see what power was around. At the CP Weston shops at 08:50 I saw the following units: 5707, 3117, 9153, 5998, 5940, 8778, 8815, 5988, 3119, 6055, 9760, 8521 and CEFX 117. There was a container train shunting in front of the yard so I couldn't get any decent pictures.

I went to the Arlington Street bridge and took some shots from there. CP 1597, 1506 were shunting, as were CP 6065 and 1622.


At the fuel stands I saw CP 1562, 1532, 6616, 6609 and several other units. It was a little cold standing on that bridge!

I went to the east end of the yard and found CEFX 1041 and CP 9511 shut down at the end of a train at 09:35. CP 8726 was heading up another train there.

CEFX 1041 and CP 9511

From there I took a quick look at the Greater Winnipeg Water District (GWWD) railway yard and saw GWWD 201 shut down, with the hulks of CP 8016 and 8018 nearby.

On to CN's Symington hump yard, where I found hump set CN 7511, 501, 504, 7528 (two GP38s with two slugs in the middle) and another set working the hump at 10:15.

Two Geeps, two slugs

There were two sets of power at the intermodal terminal, one led by CN 2531 and 5360, and the other by weathered CN 5367.

I noticed a few odd cars at the foot of the hump. One was GO Transit car 2647, and the other was a Loram unit LMIX 601. There were also a few pressure vessels on flatcars behind the Loram unit. I guess they were on the "do not hump" line.

GO Transit 2647 in Winnipeg

LMIX 601 in Winnipeg

I heard CN train 840 get permission to leave the yard, and I quickly deduced they were heading east toward the Perimeter Highway, so I went down by CN Navin and parked by the Tinkertown amusement park. Great place to take the kids, by the way. As is typical on the Prairies, I saw the train long before it was close enough to take pictures.

CN 840 arriving in Winnipeg

CN 2531 and 5360 rolled by at 10:39 with a long grain train.



From there, I moved to the CN main line along Wilkes Avenue, but that will wait until my next post.

UPDATE: Someone asked on the CanPassRail mailing list why GO 2647 was in Winnipeg. The answer: "A friend of mine from the CN has come up w/ the answer, & even more. Go Transit is receiving new Bi Levels from Bombardier in Thunder Bay. They are being taken to Winnipeg Symington Yard. 2647, & 2648 are going out on Train #302 tonight (Symington-MacMillian Yard). 2646 Is Currently at Mac yard, 2645 Arr. Mac Yard Dec 23, 2644 arr. Mac Yard Dec 14, Arr Mimico Dec 17, 2642, 2643 Not on the CN System as of yet. I'm sure in the next few weeks prob more GO Coaches will be arriving at Symington Yard."

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