A Morning in Portage la Prairie

I am normally a "lone wolf" railfan. I find my time to railfan when I can so it's difficult for me to arrange to meet up with anyone else to see trains, plus when I'm alone I get to decide where to go! So when Thomas Sajnovic messaged me to ask if I was available, I hesitated for a moment and decided "what the heck!" Tom was in town doing some training with CN and we arranged to go out on Sunday, May 3rd. I picked him up at 6 AM and we headed over to the CP yard to start.

The usual collection of old Geeps were by the shops.

CP 8231 and company in Winnipeg

CP 8231 and several other GP9s are for sale, "as is where is".

We stood and watched for a few minutes. I spotted a BNSF unit over by the now-closed Rugby Tower. I took this poor shot and then we hopped in the car to try to get a better angle. Of course, by the time we drove around, two CP locomotives had hooked onto it and were pushing it into the shop area as I tried to stop to photograph it. No picture for you!

BNSF 8235 in Winnipeg

We consoled ourselves with photographing a pair of switchers in the nice sunrise light.

Big stacks on those locomotives!

After that, we headed over to the Prairie Dog Central to get a couple of shots before proceeding to Portage la Prairie.

The PDC had all three of its diesels out.

The Prairie Dog Central fleet

BNSF 1685 is the last Burlington Northern Manitoba Limited locomotive (ex BNML 2). It was donated to the PDC in July 2010. The green loco is 4138 which has been with the PDC for quite a while. The new arrival is 5232, the striped locomotive on the right.

Ex CN, ex CCGX 5232

Long time readers of the blog will recognize this as ex CCGX 5232, which worked for the Central Manitoba Railway (CEMR) for several years. I first spotted 5232 in September 2009 when she was still lettered as ANY 5232, ex Athabasca Northern. I've written about 5232 many times.

A volunteer who was around at this early hour told me that 5232 was acquired to work on the PDC's car storage business. This six axle power will pull a lot more than the Geeps!

The volunteer - sorry, I can't recall his name - invited us to have a look at #3, the PDC's steam engine. It was still warm from a run the previous night.

Being in the shade, it was a little difficult to photograph. I did the best I could.

A couple of CP westbound trains rolled by while we were chatting. 

Once we were done at the PDC, we hit the road for Meadows and beyond. I had to pause briefly at Meadows to shoot yet another photo of the grain elevator...

Then we carried on to Marquette - no grain elevator there any more, of course - and on toward Portage la Prairie. While traveling the back roads near Poplar Point, I spotted this grain elevator at a (Mennonite?) colony.

I spotted this nice barn near there too.

Anyway, we finally made it to Portage la Prairie. Tom spotted a rail grinder moving on the CP tracks, so we made our way over there and found LIMX 3411 tying up.

Sadly LIMX 3411 derailmed in Portage the day after we saw it.

While admiring this magnificent piece of equipment, I spotted movement on the CP... and I spotted yellow UP engines! We sprinted for the tracks to capture UP 3556 and UP 3645 leading CP 9562 and a grain train.

While we were admiring that train, Tom spotted movement on the CN side, so over we went! This was CN 2679 leading an intermodal train east.

CN 8877 was about 3/4 of the train back, providing DPU power.

That's the best part of railfanning Portage - action on both tracks!

That train finished going past us at 09:02. We decided to go see the CP station. After we arrived there, we spotted a westbound train on the CN at 09:15. CN 2200 led 8838 and 8901 past the station.

The station is looking good! A big shout out to everyone working to restore the station.

I like the ex Manitoba Hydro locomotive.

I'm guessing it was nicknamed "Snoopy".

CP 3111 was the resident switcher in the CP yard.

After those three trains in Portage, there was a lull. We decided to head back to Winnipeg via the Trans-Canada, which meant there was a potential for CN action... and there was! To be continued...

Other Portage la Prairie posts

Grain Elevators of the Glenboro Subdivision

Come with me while I show you the grain elevators still standing on the Canadian Pacific (CP) Glenboro subdivision, from Winnipeg to Souris, Manitoba.

First, let's talk about the Glenboro subdivision. The subdivision runs from Woodman, which is on the CP Carberry subdivision, 3.8 miles west of Rugby aka the yard. At mile 12.4 it crosses the CN Rivers subdivision at Diamond.

In A Grain Elevator Loop, Part 1 I discussed the first four stations, Starbuck, Fannystelle, Culross and Elm Creek. Here's some photos I didn't use the first time.

Starbuck

Fannystelle

Culross

Elm Creek

There's no elevator at St. Claude, and I haven't found any mention of any former elevator there. One has to imagine there was one.

Next is Rathwell. This town no longer has a grain elevator (in 1990 it still had 3!) but it does have a grain facility. Louis Dreyfus has a 42,000 tonne facility just west of town. In fact, the Canadian Trackside Guide says it has an SW1200 for switching. I honestly just took one snap and carried on so I never saw the loco.

Louis Dreyfus, Rathwell

There are no elevators in Treherne, although there certainly were some. They were gone by 2007.

Note that CP has been threatening to abandon a portion of the Glenboro subdivision since 2006. The section between Rathwell and Page had no rail users. Later this was amended to Rathwell to Nesbitt. Surprisingly, in mid 2014 CP removed the Glenboro subdivision from their list of "to discontinue" lines. Back in 2010 I reported that the River Hills Railroad was looking at taking it over, but that's over and the RHR's web site is offline.

Holland is next on the line. It has a lovely Paterson elevator.

Paterson in Holland, MB

Holland is a nice little town. I love these murals showing their civic pride.

Tammy Mahon was on Canada's national women's volleyball team from 2002 to 2012, and was the captain from 2008. She was also a star track and field athlete. Good for her and good for Holland for being proud of her.

Holland even has a windmill.

Next is Cypress River, featuring two elevators, both now Paterson elevators.

Paterson grain elevators in Cypress River

While documenting these elevators, I came across this little fella.

Grain elevatorsssssssssss

It was very much alive, but quite scared of me, and slithered away to do snake things.

After Cypress River is Glenboro. There are no elevators there any more, sadly.

Next is Nesbitt. This town actually features two grain elevators. The first is the former Manitoba Pool grain elevator just east of town.

Former Manitoba Pool elevator, Nesbitt

There is a large Cargill facility a few kilometres west of town. This facility has a capacity of 17,700 tonnes, and when I saw it, it was being served by CP!

Working the elevator

CP 8755 and CP 3079 were doing the honours.

Red Power

There was a crew van at the crossing I was at. I assume these guys were coming off shift when they were done switching.

Cargill near Nesbitt

The next location on the CP Glenboro subdivision is Page, and it has no elevators.

The western end of the Glenboro subdivision is at Souris, where it meets the CP Estevan subdivision. Souris is graced with two grain elevators. There's the former Manitoba Pool elevator, at the junction of the two subdivisions.

Pool Power

Just to the left of the elevator, you can see its replacement, the Viterra "Souris East" grain elevator.

Souris East

This Viterra facility has a LOT of storage tracks!

Storage? We got storage!

There you have it - the remaining grain elevators on the CP Glenboro subdivision. I hope you enjoyed the tour!

Extra - If you are doing serious research, may I recommend the Mendeley program. It tracks your PDFs and research items and allows you to do searching, quoting, and annotation. I use it for my grain elevator research and it is great at search. And it's free!

Extra extra - You might also like Elevators of the Carman Subdivision.