I was out shooting trains on the morning of July 12.
First I saw the tail end of CN 304 heading toward St. James Junction. It had CN 2276 on the head end but I never actually saw it.
After a bit of waiting, CN 111 came rolling past Carman Junction on its way out of Winnipeg. I was shooting into the sun but I did my best. When cropping this photo of CN 2325, I noticed the deer on the left side of the photo!
I hope the deer made it away safely.
After about 20 minutes, CN 840 came rolling the other way. Since it was eastbound, the sun was nicely on the nose.
Early in the morning I was parked west of Diamond (itself west of Winnipeg), just past the bend in the track (map) around mile 16.9. I had my laptop out, doing some editing, with an ear to the scanner for traffic. After a while I heard CN 111 calling the signals as they approached Diamond from the east. I hopped out of the car, crossed the tracks, and set up the video camera and waited for them. As I waited, I heard CN 304 call a clear signal approaching Diamond!
Soon CN 111 came around the bend.
Looking westward, CN 304 was visible hurtling toward the meet on the south track.
Closer... closer... I wasn't sure which would reach me first but I was hoping it was CN 304 on the south track, so 111 wouldn't obscure the head end.
With a series of honks, CN 304 hurtled by me and met 111 just to my left / east.
CN 111 blew by me going west, and I watched the trains zoom past each other in front of me.
After a bit, DPU CN 8015 roared by on CN 111.
Soon CN 304 was receding in the distance while CN 111's containers were still rattling by. Within a few minutes, 111 was also fading into the distance.
Here's the video of the meet.
I hope you enjoyed my little narrative. I really enjoyed photographing and taping this meet!
I was trackside a couple of times on July 7 and had a lot of luck catching trains. There were no really unique engines but there were a lot of trains.
I was just east of Diamond at 8 AM and soon enough CN 111 rolled out of the sun with CN 2285 leading and CN 8906 trailing, and CN 2334 in the middle of the train, on the south track.
I was shooting directly into the sun here, so I had to do some significant editing to get a usable photo.
Pardon the incorrect caption at the beginning of the video.
I played with panning shots as the containers rolled by. The trick is to set a shutter speed slow enough to show motion but not too slow that it blurs the target. Here I used 1/10 second.
Here are some good tips on panning shots.
Soon after they passed, I heard them talking to CN 304 so I swung the cameras around to get the eastbound 304. It was led by SD75I CN 5607 and ES44DC CN 2241, on the north track.
The morning sun is much nicer on eastbounds! This train had quite a few CN 197xxx hopper cars, often used to carry gypsum out east.
Soon after that, CN 347 rolled past on the south track with CN 5683 and CN 5763.
Again, sorry for the caption mixup.
So that was three trains within an hour. I left trackside for a while, but I was back by the Rivers subdivision at noon to catch the Canadian... and more...
I certainly had a mixed day Sunday when visiting Portage.
I set out from Winnipeg around 7:30 AM and headed west on the Trans-Canada Highway. CN was quiet and there was nothing to hear or see on the way. I reached Portage and went in to see the downtown. The signal lights were all showing red, indicating no traffic on CN nor CP, so I took some photographs for my model train layout. I was particularly interested in the West Tower area where the CP Carberry, CN Rivers, and CN Gladstone subdivisions meet. I was amused to see that some pigeons were warming themselves on the switch heaters on the CN Rivers sub.
Finally I heard some discussions on the CN RTC channel that seemed to indicate that a train was switching at Bloom, west of Portage. I headed out of Portage that way, only to encounter CN train 304 heading east into Portage. Drat! I knew I wasn't able to catch up to it inside Portage, so I drove around the city intending to catch it on the other side as it left East Tower. However, there is no place to exit the highway on that side, so I kept on driving.. and driving.. until I reached Newton. CN calls this Nattress, mile 50.4. I set up at the crossing of highway 331, and I didn't have to wait long until CN 304 blew through.
CN 8922 was leading and ex-UP unit CN 2100 was trailing.
I should have turned the video camera a bit to the left.
After they passed, I drove back into Portage. I decided to go shoot the grain elevator at CP Tucker just east of Portage. While there, I heard CP 8877 West tell the RTC that they set off the WILD* and had to set off a car. Since I could hear them, they were nearby... but where? My handy dandy Trackside Guide told me that the WILD is at mile 44.8, east of Portage, so they were coming my way! I set up and waited only a few minutes before their headlight came in view.
I figured I could easily beat them to the other side of Portage, so I drove around Portage (again) and turned south on highway 305 to the CP crossing. They soon came into view.
They pulled up to the switch, and the conductor dismounted to get things ready to set off the bad order car. As there were already cars in the siding, they had to get them ready to move so they could shove them back. Of course, the derail and the switch had to be taken care of too.
The train pulled ahead over the crossing.
I believe the bad car was about the 65th car, so they would have had to pull until that car was next to the conductor. He would then cut off the rest of the train and leave it there, then the train would pull ahead until they were clear of the switch. The conductor would line the switch for the siding (having taken care of the derail already and released the handbrakes on the cars already in the siding), then the train would shove into the siding until the bad car was fully in the siding. Then, cut off the bad car, pull ahead, reline the switch, and join the train back together again.
That solved the mystery of what was just west of Simplot - a siding.
Anyway, I didn't stick around for that operation. I went across the highway to CN Bloom and took some photos there, while CN 314 was still switching. I noticed that the tail end of 314's consist had this car.
Then I headed north on highway 16 to see the elevator near Macdonald. I took a quick peek in the town of Macdonald itself, and found a little MOW** train there. It had a gondola, CP caboose 420991, and some kind of MOW contraption that looked like it would be used to help lay welded rail.
Time was running short for me, so I zipped up to the elevator north of Macdonald. It's a Pioneer elevator at "Dundonald". The leased GP15 was there and I snapped a bunch of pictures.
On my way back down highway 16, I saw CN 302 was passing 314 at Bloom, so I set up for video and took some more shots.
I was out of time, so I wasn't able to shoot the Simplot facility. Next time.
I headed toward Winnipeg, gradually getting ahead of CN 302 as they had to stop at Nattress for CN 115 to go by. I saw 302 a bit behind me as I approached Elie, and suddenly I noticed VIA's Hudson Bay coming the other way. A track speed meet! I pulled over to the side of the road and took a series of photos as they passed each other. Fantastic.
As I crossed over the CN mainline at Wilkes Avenue, I saw the lights of CN 302 in the far distance.
But...
You'll notice I haven't included any pictures of the elevator, the GP15, CN 302, or the meet at Elie. Unfortunately, sometime at Macdonald, I bumped the selector wheel on my camera and changed it from Tv (Shutter speed priority) to Av (aperture priority). This meant that all my photos were tremendously overexposed and ended up pure white. Imagine my disappointment when I looked at them at home!
Moral of the story: LOOK at the photos you've just taken. I reallly dislike chimping, but I guess there has to be a happy medium between looking at every shot and doing what I did. Sigh.
Enjoy the shots I did get! :)
* WILD = Wheel Impact Load Detector. It measures the force that the wheels put on the rails, and is basically looking for flat or damaged wheels.
** MOW = Maintenance Of Way.
I went up to Wilkes Avenue in Winnipeg to shoot the Hudson Bay on Tuesday. I did that, but first I saw a few CN trains... coincidentally with a preponderance of GE ES44DC engines.
First up was CN 304, shot just about at mile 10 on the CN Rivers subdivision. GE ES44DC CN 2221 led ex-BC Rail unit BCOL 4647 and a mixed bag of mostly paper products on the north track.
They passed CN 105, coming west on the south track. 105 was going slow because of track congestion further west. Of course 105 had an ES44DC on the point, CN 2275, but it had an ex-UP Dash 8 trailing, CN 2106.
I drove off before all 11,036 feet of train 105 rolled by. I drove around a bit looking for a nice spot to shoot VIA, and I was surprised to see eastbound headlights when I neared Carman Junction. This was a bit of a grab shot with no time to set the video camera up.
Naturally the leader of this train (CN 112) was a GE ES44DC, CN 2280, and the trailing unit was also a GE, CN 2307, running elephant-style.
After that, I did shoot the Hudson Bay and then headed out. That was enough GE for one day!
EDIT: Corrected second unit on train 304... it was not 4643, it was 4647.
Thanks to a tip about VIA 692 having a refurbished unit trailing, I decided to head out Saturday afternoon (Nov. 20) to shoot it. As I was getting ready, I heard the RTC say that there would be FOUR eastbounds in a row shortly after 3 PM. I tossed the kids in the car and headed to Wilkes Avenue. Couldn't miss that!
When I arrived, an eastbound was rolling past on the north track. I tried to get ahead of it to shoot the 2 units, only to find a westbound coming on the south track. I turned around and chased that toward Diamond but couldn't catch it. It was CN #837 with CN 2637 and 2511? trailing.
As CN 837 approached Diamond, I saw an eastbound train on the other side of the diamond coming on the north track. I stopped to wait for 837 to pass so I could shoot the eastbound... CN #302 with IC 2716 and CN 5563.
After that madness, things settled down for a few minutes. I heard 837 get a rollby from another train, so another eastbound was coming. It turned out to be CN #304 on the north track. I saw the multitude of ditch lights on the lead unit and couldn't figure out what it was, until it came closer and I saw it was BCOL 4607 with CN 2450 trailing. Four ditch lights!?
Soon enough, the next eastbound came along. They slowed as they approached Diamond because they had a Clear to Stop indication, which turned Clear soon enough. I guess things were starting to back up farther east. This was CN #114 with CN 2504 and BCOL 4603 on the south track.
Almost on the heels of 114 came VIA 692 on the north track. They stopped at Diamond, then stopped again at Carman Junction, so I shot them in both places. 692 had VIA 6438 and 6437 with the usual five cars.
After those six trains, the kids and I had had enough and we left. Not a bad afternoon! List of sightings and times
Not 300 the movie... this is about two trains numbered in the three hundreds. Specifically, 301 and 304.
On the evening of June 10th, I was standing on 156th Street NW in Edmonton just north of the Yellowhead Trail. This is the east end of CN's Bissel yard, on the CN Edson subdivision.
I saw train 304 was waiting to head east across Edmonton, with CN 5761 and CN 5703 at the head of a train consisting mostly of paper products.
After a while, they got their light... yellow over yellow, meaning "Clear to Slow" - proceed, approaching next signal at slow speed. They slowly pulled out of the yard and went under me.
As they did that, CN 301 came around the corner east of me, and passed under me on their way west. This train had CN 2304 and IC 1027 on the head end.
CN 301 had engine 2238 mid-train... nice to see!
Once those two had passed, I went back to my car and headed east. I saw CN 304 threading its way past Calder Yard. I went to East Junction, where the CN Vegreville subdivision meets the main line, and where I railfanned back in 2004. I waited by a baseball field and soon enough 304 came along.
It was getting dark, so I decided to head back to the hotel. On my way, I noticed that CN 304 had stopped on the high bridge over the North Saskatchewan river. I went to the wye just east of the river and waited. After a few minutes, they started up again and I took this shot of the "Canadian National Railways - Courtesy and Service" logo with the train in the background.
It was getting pretty dark by then!
I shared a little of the frustration of drivers everywhere, when a train blocks their passage. In my case it just blocked my view, but it was still a bit frustrating.
I went up to Wilkes Avenue at lunch to see the Hudson Bay. On my way there, I could hear the RTC giving a message to VIA 693 (the Hudson Bay) and CN 304. The Waverley Street crossing was not working, so they were instructed to stop and manually protect the crossing.
After the new BNSF engine rolled by, it was time for CN 304.
CN 304 rolled up on the south track with Dash-9 CN 2517 leading and ex-BC Rail 4644 trailing. Here they are on the CN-CP diamond at St. James Junction. They slowly trundled past and came to a halt just before the Waverley crossing. Once the conductor got out, it started rolling again and I assume the conductor boarded again.
A few minutes later, as 304 was slowly going by, I was surprised to see a train coming west on the north track. Alas, it was the Hudson Bay! I caught a glimpse of the trailing engine (6456) and I believe the lead engine was 6413 from scanner conversations. No chance of photos!
