Northern Spirit Cars Gone

Gary Klouda reported that the five ex-VIA Northern Spirit cars are finally en route to Mexico. They were spotted in Minnesota on the CPR Paynesville subdivision Thursday afternoon on CP train 490 (Winnipeg-St. Paul).

You may remember I shot all of those cars when they were still in storage at VIA's Winnipeg Maintenance Centre. They have been sold to an outfit in Mexico (Ferromex) and have been at the WMC for quite some time waiting to leave.

VIA Rail's Winnipeg Maintenance Centre Part 6

This is the conclusion of my report on VIA Rail's Winnipeg Maintenance Centre. See part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, and part 5.

VIA Rail has five cars stored at the Winnipeg Maintenance Centre. These are all labeled "Northern Spirit" and were acquired from Amtrak for use on the Hudson Bay between Winnipeg and Churchill. The cars are all sleepers. They were put into service on the Hudson Bay in 2000 (ref VIA Rail annual report) and were withdrawn from service.... in 2006, I believe. The cars were leased from Amtrak in 2000 and purchased by VIA in 2004. They have been stored at the WMC for some time and are for sale. They are moved every six months to ensure the wheels are still functional.

Each is decorated with a different northern animal.

Car	Decoration	History	Built
VIA 2448	polar bear	ex Amtrak 2448 (Oak Grove), ex Amtrak 2684, ex SP 9004	1950
VIA 2449	snowy owl	ex Amtrak 2449 (Maple Grove), ex Amtrak 2686, ex SP 9006	1950
VIA 2455	caribou	ex Amtrak 2455 (Elm Grove), ex Amtrak 2680, ex SP 9000	1950
VIA 2462	beluga whale	ex Amtrak 2462 (Silver Chasm), ex Amtrak 2657, ex CB&Q 430	1952
VIA 2463	peregrine falcon	ex Amtrak 2463 (Silver Dale), ex Amtrak 2658, ex CB&Q 431	1952

Let's look at each one in numerical order.

Here's 2448, with 2462 in the middle and 2449 at the far end.


VIA 2448 has a nice polar bear on it.


VIA 2448 was leased to Canadian Pacific for a while and was located in the West Coast Express yard in Vancouver for use by WCE crews to sleep in. Apparently their regular rooms in the CPR Vancouver station were closed for a construction project. Here's a Flickr photo showing the car in Vancouver in late 2007.

Here's VIA 2449 with what looks like a snowy owl on it. There are a number of condemned wheel sets rusting away next to the Northern Spirit cars.


This is VIA 2455 with a moose? elk? caribou on it.


Strangely I did not shoot 2462 directly. This photo shows it has a beluga whale some kind of sea creature on it.

Here's VIA 2463.

I noticed that 2463's Burlington heritage is showing through - note the B U R L I N G T O N showing through the paint. Any idea what type of bird this is? EDIT: It's an osprey. EDIT2: It's a peregrine falcon.


There's some discussion of these cars here.

That concluded my tour of the Winnipeg Maintenance Centre.

I want to thank VIA Rail for permission to roam through their facility and photograph whatever I pleased, the shop foreman for answering my questions, and especially engineer Tommy Bozyk for arranging this and being my tour guide. His knowledge of the equipment and facility is first-rate and I appreciate the time he spent arranging it and showing me around.

Thanks for reading.

EDIT: Thanks for the help identifying the various animals!

One Night in Phoenix

On my latest trip to Phoenix, Arizona I went out on Wednesday September 22 to find some trains. I found a couple of trains waiting at the western end of Union Pacific's yard near downtown Phoenix. UP 2449 was at the head of one and patched ex-Southern Pacific unit UP 1485 headed up the other one. 1485 looked ready to head out, so I took a few quick snaps.

Sure enough, UP 1485 throttled up and headed out right after I changed the long lens out for the wide angle one. Good timing! I shot this through the fence under 7th Street.

Satisfied with that, I headed north. I decided to parallel the BNSF line for a while. I didn't see anything moving, but I did spy an old red caboose conveniently parked next to Grand Avenue. I shot ATSF 999813.

This caboose really fits the nickname "crummy". Look at the crushed cupola, for example!