May 5

As I alluded to in a previous post, I saw a lot of stuff on May 5. I was out with the kids, shooting trains and doing kid stuff.

First up was VIA 1, the Canadian, at St. James Junction. Photos are here and here. They had a couple of dead-heading cars that I neglected to mention in my previous post, namely diner Acadian and this HEP 2 car, VIA 4122.

It's always neat to see deadheading cars on the Canadian.

The kids and I headed up Pembina Highway, as I was intending on seeing what was around the CP Winnipeg shops. On the way, I saw an eastbound freight stopped at Subway by the Winnipeg Maintenance Centre, with CN 8003 and CN 5701 for power.

As we approached the yard, driving down Logan Avenue, I noticed a train working a grain elevator nearby. A quick detour brought me to view CP 3106 working the elevator.


I watched for a few minutes, and lo! the train started to roll toward me.

This was not my first time shooting CP 3106!

Continuing on, we ended up at the sports field just south of the shops. We went across the field and I started shooting.

There was a variety of power there. There were a fair number of SD40-2 engines were there, including multimark units CP 5927, CP 6019 and CP 6055.

Red SOO-painted 6062 was there as well, although not in a very photogenic location.

The usual GP38/slug pairs were there, CP 1127/3027 and CP 1128/3028. I'm getting so used to seeing those particular engines that I hardly ever bother to photograph them any more. I know it's crazy, but how many photos of the exact same engines in the exact same locations can you have? :)

The usual few AC4400 engines were around, such as CP 8515.

Also present were ES44AC engines CP 8764 and CP 8823.

Dual-flag SD90 CP 9550 was present, but again was not in a location that I could show the dual flag logo very well. The paint used for the under-cab numbers on the SD90s seems to have been very poor. It seems like every CP 95xx engine has faded numbers.

I spotted new engine CP 9355 bringing an intermodal train in, but it was far away and all I managed was a shot through some trees.

By this time, my kids were getting pretty bored so we went to the playground and had some fun there, then headed home.


As always, you can see the complete day's sightings in my database.

Crossing at Diamond

VIA 6440 at Diamond

I went out to shoot the Canadian on Saturday (Jan 30) and got more than I had hoped for.

My kids and I went out in search of the Canadian. I decided to head up to Wilkes Avenue by the Perimeter and shoot it there before heading into town. We arrived a bit early, so I figured I would head west to Diamond to get some of that nice prairie sky. As I approached Diamond (where CP crosses CN) I saw an eastbound intermodal train coming on the north track at 12:09. I pulled over. I could see only one unit on the head end, meaning there had to be a DPU unit somewhere in the train.

As the head end passed me, the train started slowing and eventually came to a stop with the trailing engine (CN 2258) just west of me.


As the CN train was slowing, I heard a series of horn blasts from the north. After a bit of thought, I realized it could mean only one thing - a CP train on the Glenboro subdivision! The Glenboro sub does not get much traffic these days, and in fact CP intends to abandon some of it.

Once the CN train stopped, I raced to the actual diamond to see CP 3106 and 3116 waiting at the light in the distance.


They were waiting for the Canadian, which rolled past at 12:24, right on time.


Right after the Canadian passed, the CP train proceeded across the diamond and continued south.

By then my shooting hand and my toes were frozen, so it was time to go. It was nice to see the diamond get some use!

See Also

• Drama at Diamond
• Diamond Is My Best Friend

CP 3106

On my way south on Kenaston Boulevard, I spotted a CP train switching just west of Kenaston. I stopped to take a few shots. CP 3106 was just finishing assembling a small train at 18:51. About 2 minutes later, they crossed Kenaston on their way north to St. James Junction and on to Rugby Yard.