Running Light

Just a quickie for tonight. In the morning of July 20 I caught these two units running light west on the CN Rivers subdivision. These two were heading out to Elie to pick up their train. I have no idea why it was out there. My guess is that an eastbound train needed some power and they were given the engines off this train. I believe these two engines were operating as train 853.

The lead engine was one of the now-ubiquitous SD70M-2 engines, CN 8870. The trailing engine was one of my current favourites, Dash-8 CN 2418.


I've seen CN 2418 twice before, at a meet at St. James Junction in November 2009, and in Saint John in January 2002. I just saw CN 8870 last month.

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.