My First Trains of 2013

The first trains I saw in 2013 were on January 1, in the morning. I was returning from taking someone to the airport and stopped at the CN Rivers subdivision to see if anything was coming.

I went out to Diamond, and the west-facing lights were lit. TRAIN! I went out to the curve west of Diamond and it was not long before headlights were visible to the west. They turned out to be on CN 8920 leading an eastbound intermodal (with IC 2699 and CN 2242). I took a few shots on the curve and then hit the road.

Fortunately they had a LIMITED TO CLEAR signal to cross over to the north track, so that slowed them enough for me to get ahead of them after Diamond. I took a few shots from the side and then leap-frogged them again.

Note the heavy frost on these engines, on the nose and on the louvres.

Once more I got ahead of them and saw they were meeting a westbound. I tried to gauge the meet as best I could and hopped out to get the shot.

The westbound was another intermodal train, with CN 2336, CN 2537 and pusher CN 8811 on the rear. I processed this in black and white to show the frost.

I sped ahead of the westbound to get this shot right at mile 7. Nice wave from the conductor!


Again I was able to get ahead of the train, just before Diamond.


Much to my surprise I saw an eastbound freight west of Diamond. I "shot the meet".


The intermodal had CN 8811 on the rear. Check out what is written in the grime between the engine numbers on 8811.

Yes, I'm 12 for noticing that and posting it. ;)

The eastbound freight sat there west of Diamond for quite a while, waiting for their light. I think it might have been CN 198 but I don't know for sure. The second unit was BCOL 4641 (in CN colours). After maybe half an hour they started up and crossed over to the north track.


I gave chase as usual. I got the next shot under the transmission line towers. I had been meaning to get a train here, and since I had shot CN 2291 a couple of times already I figured I could "waste" a shot to frame this up.

Right after that I was again surprised by another meet. A westbound intermodal met them near the Perimeter. The westbound was probably CN 101 and had CN 2296 on the head end, CN 8876 in the middle and IC 2709 pushing on the rear. I grabbed a quick shot of CN 2296 but I was able to get a better shot of the middle unit CN 8876 near mile 10.


Finally, here's IC 2709 heading west (left) and CN 2291 heading east (right).


So many meets!

Wednesday and Thursday in Halifax

I didn't go out Tuesday night, so Wednesday was my next railfan evening. First I went to Rockingham to find CN 121. They were already at Millview, waiting for the conductor to be brought to the head end of the train. For a wonder, it wasn't raining!

Behind the engine is Bedford Basin, with the A. Murray MacKay bridge visible. Haligonians call this the "new" bridge, as it is the newer of Halifax's two bridges spanning the basin. It was opened in 1970, whereas the older Angus L. Macdonald bridge was opened in 1955. But I digress.

I drove out to Windsor Junction to shoot 121 there. I set my Canon T1i up on the tripod and waited. It didn't take too long for the train to blast through the Junction.

I heard they had a pickup at Milford but I had no interest in chasing them in the near dark. I turned around and headed to Dartmouth. I heard CN 513 getting ready to leave Wright's Cove, so I grabbed a sandwich at Subway and went to the switch at mile 10.1 where they rejoin the Dartmouth subdivision.

Two crew were riding the rear of the train as it backed out onto the main, and I received a nice friendly wave from one of them. Once the entire train was on the main, the engineer stopped the train and dismounted. He threw the switch to line it for the main, then boarded the train, gave me a wave, and opened the throttle wide open.

What a great display of smoke! The train had IC 2709 and CN 8015 for power, the same two engines I saw on Sunday.

From this point, the procedure seems to be that the engineer stops the train short of Wright Avenue to wait for the conductor to be taxied there. The conductor then boards and they head out to Milford to get the loaded cars for the return trip.

Thursday night was slide night, but before I met my good friend Bill Linley and his lovely wife for supper, I stopped by Fairview to see what engines were there. Four engines, SD70M-2 CN 8890, SD75I CN 5710, Dash-9 CN 2688 and SD75I CN 5605 were parked in the usual spot.

Monday in Halifax

Well, I saw a fair number of trains while I was in Halifax this past week. I mentioned that I caught a couple of Ocean trains. While I was passing through Moncton on May 8 I also saw some units at Gordon Yard - complete sightings here.

I spent a little time watching CN 121 Sunday night in Halifax. First they pulled forward.

Then they pushed back to couple onto DPU engine CN 2205.

I shot them leaving Millview but I screwed up the focus, so I won't inflict that video on you!

I mentioned that I saw some units in Moncton on May 8. One set I saw was IC 2709, CN 9541 and CN 8015. That turned out to be the power for the gypsum train (CN 513) in Dartmouth on Monday, May 9. They must have come down with CN 120 Monday morning.

As you can see, it was a bit rainy this past week.

The funny thing was that apparently the CN crew wasn't supposed to take CN 9541 as it needed new brake shoes. So they ended up shoving up into Burnside to drop 9541 off there before continuing on to Milford with the empty gypsum cars.

I didn't stick around for that as I was meeting my friend Chris M and his girlfriend to go look at CN 509. I've known Chris for a while online but we had never met before. We stood around and chatted in the light drizzle before finally deciding that 509 was in the yard in Dartmouth. We went and looked, and sure enough CN 4787 and another GP38 were parked there. No worries!


That was a busy Monday night. I saw all the trains there were to see in Halifax - CN 121, CN 513 and CN 509.