Some Recent Trains

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. :)

DPU 101

I went up to CN Waverley Tuesday (Jan 19) at about 12:30. I saw a westbound container train was parked on the south track near Fort Rouge, and a dim headlight was visible to the west. I learned the container train was CN 101 and it was about to start up. The other train turned out to be an eastbound local, and it paused west of Waverley Street.

CN 101 rumbled by with CN 2296 and CN 5274 on the head end. The conductor gave me a nice wave on the way by. I wish I could have waved back but my hands were busy with the cameras. I watched 101 roll by, and then I saw CN 2268 was the distributed power (DPU) about 1/3 of the way back in the train.

Once 101 finished rolling by, the local rolled through Waverley Street, with CN 7238, slug CN 238, and two boxcars. They seem to have timed it so they would cross while 101 was still holding the crossing gates down.


I was expecting the Hudson Bay to come along, but I heard it was just leaving the station at 12:50 and that was too late for me.