Catching Up

Here are a few "catch up" photos of individual trains I've seen over the past couple of months. The above is CN 8812 leading IC 2700 into Winnipeg on April 18. The early morning sunlight is bright on the nose of 8812 and its waving crew.


Later that same day, I caught another Illinois Central unit, IC 2714, leading train 198 into Winnipeg ahead of CN 2513.


Fast-forwarding a bit, I had a bit of luck and caught CN 532 on June 14. I was driving over the tracks at the Perimeter when I spied a headlight to the north. A quick exit brought me to the nearest crossing (mile 5.30) where I shot faded CN 2414 leading a very long train.


It's amazing how one little engine can pull so many cars. The Letellier subdivision that CN 532 runs on is very straight and flat.

There were several interesting flatcars on the train. They were all bearing the COER reporting mark, belonging to the impressively-named shortline the Crab Orchard and Egyptian Railroad. Any idea what these cars were used for?


Two days afterward, I caught a large CN freight near Carman Junction. The train had CN 8927 leading CN 2440 and CN 8862.


They had a clear signal on the south track.


As I watched the train roll by, I was surprised to see a DPU engine, CN 8007, midway through the train. Not many of CN's general freight trains have DPU engines.

Busy Day, Part Two

I mentioned that on July 7 I saw three trains in the morning, and more at noon. Now is the time to talk about the noon trains!

I mentioned the Canadian I saw with VIA 4121 already. That was 12:10.

I waited around a bit next to Kenaston Boulevard and was rewarded with CN 314 at 12:24, with engines CN 2242 and CN 2636.


It was not too long before the next train came along, CN 198 with CN 8899 and CN 8844.


That was great, but it was time to move. I had a notion that CN 532 should be ready to head south on the Letellier, so I drove down Chevrier Boulevard to see where they were. As I approached the crossing, the flashing lights came on, so I stopped right there and jumped out to take this shot of the train as it headed south. CN 532 had the single unit CN 2432 on her.


All told, I saw seven trains on the 7th. Not bad!

Recent Trains

After all the excitement of the Coors Light Silver Bullet Express, yesterday and today featured more mundane trains.

On Tuesday I forgot my laptop's power cord at home, so I had to do the Drive of Shame to go get it. Fortunately, I saw trains on the way. Outbound I saw CN 198 from a distance. They were passing the former Winnipeg Intermodal Terminal, soon to be a shopping plaza near the future IKEA.

The train had CN 2507 and 5672.

About an hour later, I was back and saw CN 111 near the same location. CN 8813 and 2659 were on the head end, and CN 8943 was a bit over halfway back in the train.


The train had 154 platforms... pretty normal for that train.


Today (Wednesday the 13th) I saw CN 2651 at the beginning of the Letellier subdivision, ready to head south to flood-threatened Morris and Emerson. With a few horn blasts, they were on their way.


It was easy to jump ahead of them on Pembina to get this video behind the Rexall at McGillivray.


Not as exciting as a wrapped VIA unit, but the trains keep on rolling.

Another Late Canadian

I was considering going to shoot the Canadian on Saturday when a message from a friend out east confirmed it for me. His friend was traveling coach on the Canadian and he wondered if I was going to shoot it... sounds like a good reason to me! I bundled the kids in the car and off we went to Wilkes Avenue.

I went east on Wilkes from the Perimeter, then started back toward Diamond when I saw headlights to the west. It turned out to be CN 314 on its way into Winnipeg, with CN 2556 and 5743.



We carried on to Diamond. I decided to shoot just west of Diamond, to include the west-facing signals in the shot behind the Canadian. We waited.. and waited.. and waited.. I don't know what it is about VIA these days, but Saturday's Canadian was the second late VIA 1 in a row leaving Winnipeg. VIA 1 finally showed up at 13:25, a good hour late leaving Winnipeg.

As a bonus, it had 3 engines.




By this time, the kids were starving so it was time to leave. As I was driving east, I heard CN 198 call the signals at Diamond, so I knew they were right behind me. In less than 5 minutes CN 8866 and 5673 arrived. I did not stay to shoot the whole train but I got the head end with the long lens.

I am going to try to shoot VIA 1 on Monday to complete the set of Canadians.

Action at St. James Junction

I went up to St. James Junction in the bitter cold to see the Hudson Bay today. On my way there I noticed a northbound CP train waiting to cross the diamond. There were a couple of railfans camped out there, as well as a stopped train on the north track. It turns out the train was CN 314, stopped just short of Waverley Street. Shortly a set of headlights could be seen on the south track and the Hudson Bay was upon us with five-eyed VIA 6438 leading the way.

You can find the Complete consist here


CN 314 cleared the junction soon after the Hudson Bay went by, and then the CP northbound came through, with CP 3028 and 1128 pulling a relatively short train of about 15 cars. It had one unusual car, a depressed center QTTX car.

Soon enough CN 115 showed up, rolling by with CN 8885, CN 5675 and CN 5727 pulling a whopping 156 cars. 114/115 have junk cars at the head end before the containers, much like the former CN 148/149 did in the Maritimes.


Within 10 minutes another train rolled by. This was CN 198, fresh from Prince Rupert with a solid container train. I just stayed long enough to shoot the head end, CN 2542 and ex-BC Rail 4650.


By this time, both my video camera and still camera were complaining of low batteries (due to the cold). Time to leave!

A CN Meet

On Tuesday I went up to Wilkes Avenue to see if I could catch the Hudson Bay. I was a little late, and VIA was not, so I missed it. However, I did see a CN freight slowly approaching from the east. Apparently there was a signal problem just east of St. James Junction, and the train was required to proceed at cautionary speed. CN 5705 and old warhorse CN 2418 eventually rolled by with a long stack train.

I'm not sure why I call CN 2418 an old warhorse. It was built in 1990, for Pete's sake.

After about half of the train was past, I noticed headlights to the west. CN 198 was approaching on the south track with another stack train. Train 198 is a hotshot train from Prince Rupert, BC. CN 5748 and CN 2580 were the power. You can see it banging over the CN-CP diamond.

The head end of 198 passed the last container in the westbound freight just west of the diamond. If only 198 had been 15 seconds earlier... oh well.

Saturday on CN

I was out and about on Saturday afternoon with my son, and I decided to wander over to CN's Symington Yard to see what was going on. As I rolled east across the top of the yard, I saw a container train heading east parallel to me. I figured I could get ahead of it, and I did. I set up just east of the Perimeter Highway to watch it come across the Red River Floodway. In good time CN train 114 with CN 2230 and 5735 rolled over the bridge with a lot of container cars behind them at 16:15.

That was my first railfanning on the Reddit Subdivision, CN's mainline to the east of Winnipeg.

I went down the east side of Symington Yard and saw another container train ready to depart south on the Sprague subdivision. I went down to CN Navin and waited. A CN maintainer showed up to give the train a runby inspection, and soon enough CN 198 rolled slowly by at 16:45 with CN 2649 and 2650 for power. Funny to see two consecutive engine numbers.

That was it for Saturday for me!