Rainbow Railfanning 'Round Rivers

On June 19th I was in the Carberry-Brandon area of Manitoba and had a free evening. I had seen some photos from a location just east of Rivers (the namesake of the CN Rivers subdivision) and I wanted to check it out.

Little did I know how many rainbows I'd encounter around Rivers!

Warning! This is going to be a long post, and very picture heavy. Let's go.

In Rivers

From Brandon, I headed north on highway 10 past the old grain elevator at Forrest, under the CN main line, and then turned west on highway 25. This road parallels the CN line a few kilometres to the north and I saw a train go by as I was rolling west.

I arrived at Rivers and drove through town. I noted a locomotive parked by the former station (more on that later) and I continued to the west end of town.

I saw an approaching container train in the distance, so I set up to photograph and video it by the former Cargill grain elevator(s).

Soon, two of CN's finest, ET44ACs CN 3035 and 3048 rolled past the elevator.

CN 3035 and 3048 passing the Rivers grain elevator

It was nice to see the elevator's  doors open, indicating that it is still in use. In fact, later on I saw a grain truck drive up to the elevator.

The skies were pretty interesting that night, as you'll see later.

Recording.... recording...

Here's the video of that train.

Once the train passed, I headed back into town. I stopped by the VIA station to check out CN 2438 idling away.

CN 2438 is one of CN's GE Dash 8-40CM (or C40-8M) units with the "Draper taper" behind the cab for greater crew visibility. Opinions are very mixed on whether the visibility is improved very much, and I don't think many crews like them.

Many of the 55 CN units that were built have the "CN North America" logo on them.

CN North America Logo

Grant's Cut

The location I wanted to shoot at is nicknamed "Grant's Cut". I don't know why.

To get there, you drive east from Rivers on highway 25, then hang a right on Road 120W - basically the first right after crossing the Little Saskatchewan River. Drive straight through the 4-way intersection and keep going and you will cross over the CN Rivers subdivision. This is Grant's Cut (Google Maps).

Looking north

Note the skies! It was really threatening to rain by this time, and the clouds were moving swiftly. I parked off the bridge - it's really just one lane - and stayed relatively close to my car just in case it started to rain.

This is the view to the west...

Looking west from the overpass at Grant's Cut

And this was the view to the east after a few minutes...

Double rainbow! What does it mean?

Rainbows were the theme of the night. The weather was very unsettled and there were some very dramatic clouds around. I was pretty concerned that I was going to be rained on - or hailed upon - but the nasty stuff passed by to the north. I did feel a few rain drops now and then. There was even some lightning in the distance.

So, nice broad curves to the east and west... and an overpass with no traffic. A lovely location! One other nice feature is that you can look straight down the track toward the east...

Mile 140.8

Wait... what's that in the distance? Red lights and a set of headlights?

CN 347

I was really hoping the rainbow(s) would stick around for the train's arrival. How cool would that be?

I've had some luck with rainbows and trains in the past. I just barely included a rainbow with a CP SD40-2 back in August 2014 and with a CP GP38/GP9 pair in Winnipeg. Back in 2010 I was railfanning in the Calgary area and caught a sunset rainbow at Keith.

Alas, it didn't happen here. The rainbow was gone by 19:03 and the train didn't arrive until 19:06. So close!

The sun was very spotty indeed. Notice the train rolling through the rural crossing and the "sucker hole" of sunlight here.

Catching the sun

This is a highly cropped view with my 70-200mm lens. The train was still a long way away.

Here they are just about to take the curve... in the dark.

Back in the dark

A few seconds later, they've emerged into sunlight again and are taking the curve.

Taking the curve at Grant's Cut

CN 2151 and BCOL 4641 were the power on this train. The profusion of empty centerbeam flat cars means this is CN 347... a train I have photographed many times. It is very distinctive.

The weather was so strange that night. Here's a shot of them a few seconds later and it looks like a beautiful day!

Gorgeous evening!?

The train rolled on, endlessly, centerbeam after centerbeam after centerbeam. I counted from my video and I think there were 138 cars. I think these were all 73' cars so that's a 10,000' foot train.

I've heard CN 347 called a "sail train" because of the appearance of the empty cars, and also because they have a sail effect and create a lot of wind at ground level for trackside crews who have to inspect the train as it passes.

No CN crew has ever said anything nice about this train!

As I said, the light was very variable and part of the time the train was in relative darkness. Challenging for photography and video!

After that train passed, there was a lull for almost an hour.

Green = GOOD

I was thinking about whether I should hang around or hit the road, but eventually the signal lit and that told me a train was en route.

Or maybe I heard the engines before the signal lit.

I can't remember which came first, but either way... TRAIN.

I knew it was coming from the west, which is not great light for evening photography, but what can you do? Take pictures anyway, that's what!

Oil Train

CN 2957 East

CN 2957 East was an oil train. They had a single unit on the head end, a CN grain car as a buffer car, then a long black snake of oil tankers.

I think the above photo turned out pretty well for shooting somewhat toward the sun. It took a fair amount of processing in Lightroom but I like that side glint.

The going away shot shows the dark and foreboding clouds and some rain on the horizon... plus a little shadow selfie.

Going away

Of course, if you crop in far enough, it looks like a beautiful evening...

Dark clouds? What dark clouds?

Pictures can be deceiving.

There was a tail end unit, CN 3041, with another buffer car between the locomotive and the tank cars. You can see it in the video I compiled.

I hung around another 10 minutes or so but it was starting to get late (8:15 PM) and I wanted to check Rivers out one more time. The clouds were still pretty dramatic... and if you look closely, you'll see a wee little rainbow on the horizon just left of centre.

Not your normal clouds

Back to Rivers

Time for.. a crew change..
Apologies to the Little River Band

I drove back into and through Rivers. On the west side I saw there was a train pulling up to a stop... out of town.

They were stopping at a rural crossing and there was a CN vehicle there.

I suspect they were doing a crew change there to avoid blocking crossings within the town.

CN 2242 was the sole power on the head end of this long freight train. It had a lot of autoracks.

I was at the highway crossing on the edge of town.

I decided to do something a little different and shoot with my "long lens" (70-200mm) to get a telephoto look, then use my iPhone to take a quick wide angle snap as the train passed.

The problem with the telephoto / long shot was that there were a few shrubs (visible in the photo above) that prevented a nice full train shot, and then there was the crossing gate itself to get in the way. I'm not 100 percent happy with the shot below.

Making the best of a bad angle

It would have been a better composition had I stood closer to the tracks, but that's not safe and so I settled for this.

I prefer the iPhone shot I took a few seconds later.

The iPhone wins!

After that, I rushed over to the other end of town to shoot them passing the train station, with the grain elevator in the background.

Backlit in Rivers

Imagine this shot in the morning... golden sunrise light on the nose of the locomotive, elevator and station lit... that would be nice.

Not this time.

I had a notion to get them on the bridge just east of town.. before Grant's Cut. I knew I couldn't beat them there but maybe I could get a silhouette shot against the sunset. Worth a try!

Silhouette shot

Yep, pretty much what I wanted. Jeannette Graves has a similar shot on Flickr.

I drove back east along highway 25. Looking to the south I could see a container train slowly rolling west in the distance.

There was another rainbow. Of course.

Rainbows were definitely the theme of the night.

Did you know that "rainbow" comes from the Latin arcus pluvius, meaning "rainy arch"?

In school everyone learns ROYGBIV, the seven colours decreed by Sir Isaac Newton. I always knew it was VIBGYOR - not sure why - but I think Roy G. Biv is a lot easier to say.

Here there was no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow... just a container train. Nice enough for me.

The photo to right was with my telephoto, cropped in. Check out the wide angle photo below.

That's a big old cloud

I couldn't stop taking photos of the sky!

Taking a LEAP

Another rainbow...

On my way to Rivers, I had noticed a major north-south road, highway 270. As I was returning east I decided to drop down 270 to the tracks and see what I could see.

When I got there, I very quickly saw CN 2242 approaching from the west. I took a video of the train (see bottom of post) and then took a few photos of the area.

This is "Leap", a new control point / set of crossovers on the Rivers subdivision. It has all new shiny LED signals. This is part of a 9 mile stretch of double track between Knox and Levine.

There used to be a Manitoba Pool grain elevator here, at "Smart". It was demolished in 2002.

While admiring the signals, I was surprised by a westbound train.

I was so surprised, in fact, that I didn't have time to adjust my settings and shot a full two stops too dark!

Fortunately, I shoot RAW files so there is enough information in the file to recover a decent shot, despite underexposing the image so badly.

RAW FTW

Remember, kids, always shoot RAW. ;)

I liked the going away "glint" shot.

Glint FTW too

The train had CN 2953, 2969 and 5796 on the head end.

This post has been picture-heavy already, so I'm not going to post any photos of the cars, but I did want to mention that it had not one but two 2001 Census hopper cars (DCLX 7490 and DCLX 8096).

Photos by Last Light

It was getting pretty late by this point, so I went back up to highway 25 and then down highway 10 past Forrest. I couldn't resist stopping to take a few photos of the old Forrest grain elevator.

Forrest grain elevator at sunset

I combined three photos into one to get enough of a dynamic range for the above photo. A little "HDR trickery" if you will.

I was sure I was done taking photos by this time (9:36 PM), but as I passed the Brandon airport, the old T-Bird on display at the highway caught my eye.

Fine, just one more photo...

Then I was truly done for the night.

The Video

Here's my video combining the two trains at Grant's Cut with CN 2242 at Leap.


I hope you like it. I am trying a new video editing program, Hitfilm Express. So far I like it - and it's free!

Summary

It was a good night. I:

• Explored two new locations (Grant's Cut, Leap)
• Photographed five trains
• Photographed two grain elevators
• Saw a bunch 'o' rainbows
• Got a bonus plane photo

Good times and good photo opportunities. Thanks for reading.

PS - hey, do me a favour and sign up for my mailing list! I'll send you a weekly summary of photos I post on social media (if you opt in to that) and occasionally I'll send you reminders of blog posts like these. That's it. Thanks!

PPS - check out George Dutka's White River Division blog! He posts a great mix of model and 1:1 scale trains.. always worth a read.

Railfanning with Michael Berry, Part 3

Michael Berry and I went railfanning on Saturday September 3rd. Michael is from Montreal and wanted to experience Winnipeg's railfan scene. In part 1 we went to CN's Diamond and in part 2 we visited the Prairie Dog Central Railway. This is the third and last part of the story.

After we finished photographing the Prairie Dog Central's steam train, we drove back down the Perimeter Highway toward CN's main line. We wanted to catch VIA's Canadian out there and we didn't have a lot of time.

However, we were hungry.

Wizard Needs Food, Badly

Am I the only one here who played Gauntlet?

We stopped at the Tim Horton's near the raceway on Portage Avenue to grab a quick sandwich... so we thought. The lineup wasn't long but the service was quite slow... so slow that we had to ask if our orders had been forgotten. We were reassured that they hadn't.

Michael was checking the VIA web site on his phone and noted that VIA 1 hadn't left the Winnipeg station. Note that due to some quirk on VIA's site, you can't see VIA 1's status using their normal web site but you can see it on the mobile site. It's https://tsimobile.viarail.ca/ and it's important to include the "s" in https.

Eventually our food came, and we raced back to my car and hit the road. As we approached the CN Rivers subdivision, we saw a westbound intermodal train. We crossed over the train - thank you overpass - then set off in pursuit. It was clear that we weren't going to catch up to the head end, but the train had a DPU on the rear, facing the sun, so it was worth chasing to get that. We caught up to it just before Diamond and we bailed out to get the shot.

Trailing but still a worthwhile shot!

We hopped back in and chased it for a few more kilometres, to try to get it on the curve at mile 16. I like this photo because it shows the super elevation at the curve.

CN 2938, taking the turn

We left off the chase here. On our way back to Diamond we ran into Brian, the "Mayor of Diamond", and his girlfriend Deanne. I need her to convince my wife to accompany me on more railfan trips! ;)

After a brief chat with His Honour, we set up a little east of Diamond to get VIA 1 in the wide open spaces.

CN had other plans, though, and sent CN 347 along first.

CN 347

This train is an interesting one, certainly one of the most recognizable CN freights in the Winnipeg area. It always has a lot of empty centerbeam flatcars on it, empties going back to British Columbia for more lumber loads.

This CN 347 had CN 8924 and CN 5695 for power, followed by... nothing but centerbeam flats.

Grab a chair!

I noticed two discarded lawn chairs nearby and stood them up as props for this train. Something different...

Michael was a little closer to the tracks... though not as close as this might indicate.

Getting the shot

Empty car after empty car rolled by, seemingly without end. After what seemed like forever, but was actually only 3 1/2 minutes, the end of the train passed.

Finally, the end of CN 347

After that, things were quiet for a few minutes, until the next train came along...

The Canadian

VIA 1

Here's one little chair for one of you, and a bigger chair for two more to curl up in. For someone who likes to rock, a rocking chair in the middle. - The Friendly Giant

This was a good summer length train, two locomotives and 23 cars. It wasn't going as fast as I would have expected.

I was very happy with the going-away shot. Glacier Park was beautiful in the early afternoon sun.

One of the few trains that looks better leaving than coming

Railpictures.net liked it. They also liked Michael's version of the same shot.

Michael was listening on his scanner and he heard them call a "Clear to Stop" signal. I urged him to jump in the car and we set off in hot pursuit.

Normally you can't chase VIA 1 as it is rolling along at 60 MPH or greater, but with a "Clear to Stop" indication, they would not be going too fast. We hurtled along the dirt road, observing the speed limit, and overtook the train within a couple of miles. We jumped out to get the second series of photos.

VIA 6452 on the open prairie

There was a friendly table in the Acadian diner!

Friendly waves and intense focus

I found it interesting to contrast Michael's shot choices with mine. In general we never stood beside each other and took the same photo. He seems to prefer a more head-on approach whereas I like the wide open vista photos. Maybe it's a city versus prairie perspective?

After VIA 1 passed for the second time, we jumped back in the car and chased it for a few more kilometres. We came to the highway 424 crossing - with a stop sign - and I decided that would be it for the chase. We bailed out once more and I shot video at the crossing while Michael took some more photos.

That was the Canadian.

Over the Hump

We left Diamond after that, and as I was driving back toward where Michael was staying, we decided to take a few minutes to visit the hump at Symington Yard. This hump is one of the few hump yards still operating in Canada (CP's Winnipeg hump shut down several years ago) and there are usually three sets of power either at work or ready for work. This day was no exception.

A set with CN 7522 / 7511 was on the hump itself.

CN 7522 / 7511 on the hump in Symington Yard

Another set with CN 7500 / 7513 was sitting to the side.

CN 7500 / 7513 in Symington Yard

The third set was pushing cars over the hump. This was the set that Michael was really looking for, the one with three SD40-2 units! CN 6015 / 6005 / 6012 and 225 were well down toward Navin.

Slug and three SD40-2 units... what could be better?

While we were looking at the hump set, CN 3047 was pulling south/east out of the yard. We believe this was train CN 438.

CN 3047 leaving Symington

That was the end of our time together, and I dropped Michael off to meet up with his family and I headed home to my own family. Railfanning is fun but family is way more important!

Summary

We saw 7 trains over 6 hours, which is pretty good, I think. I hope Michael was pleased with his Diamond experience and I look forward to see more photos from him from this trip and from his normal Montreal railfanning! Thanks for reading and thank you Michael for the company and the experience.


Further reading:

• 10 Questions with Michael Berry
• Hump Yard Dogs
• Michael's Railpictures.net profile
• Back to part 1

A Prairie Railfanning Adventure (Guest Post) - Part 1/2

Local railfan Jack Hykaway shared this great railfan adventure. Follow Jack on YouTube! He included so much content and so many photos that I have broken it into two parts.

A Prairie Railfanning Adventure

My family and I headed west through the prairies this past weekend to visit family in Saskatchewan. Our bags were packed and we were out of the house by 8:00 on Friday morning, a little earlier than we would've normally left for this trans-prairie trip. We left with time to spare because somehow I had managed to convince my parents and sister to stop at a well-known railfanning location for a picnic lunch. We made terrible time through rush-hour traffic in the city, then on the highway, construction along the TCH slowed us even more. Construction was constant - huge stretches of highway were being redone, so the normal four-lane 110 KM/H speed limit was reduced to 80, and in some places to as low as 60, and traffic marched westward in a single-file line.

It was almost 11:30 AM by the time we finally reached Brandon, which is normally only a two hour drive from Winnipeg. CN's main line from Winnipeg to PlaP was bustling with activity, but as we sped under the main line at Brandon North, all was quiet. About an hour later, we arrived at my picnic spot, near Arrow River, MB, just as an eastbound was passing through. That construction along the TCH had cost me a train! We lugged our cooler up the hill anyways, and my parents and sister sat down for some lunch while I set up my tripod and hoped to catch another train at this scenic spot.

I was halfway through my chicken sandwich when my dad pointed at the horizon. “Is that a train?” I jumped up and turned my attention to the eastern horizon – sure enough, a flickering light was cresting the hill in the distance. I got ready to capture the train coming past the grain elevator at Quadra, a mile or two away from where I was set up.

CN 347 glides past the Grain Elevator near Arrow River, MB.

The train turned out to be CN 347, with two SD70M-2s easing a solid block of empty centerbeam flatcars through the sweeping curves at Arrow River. This was the only train I saw during my short time trackside.

(Ed: you might remember I was in Quadra recently, but I didn't see any trains)

We were running tight for time, as we still had many hours of driving ahead of us. After packing up and picking off several wood ticks, we continued west to our destination, Wynyard, SK.

Saturday

Saturday morning, I joined my family on an adventure to downtown Wynyard to visit Home Hardware. They don't have any Home Hardware stores in Winnipeg and mom wanted to check out their cool spinning mops and other handy gadgets. Dad was interested in the comfy Adirondack chairs they had in stock, and my sister and I were passing the time trying on some very stylish sunglasses.

We walked along the tracks on the way to the store, so I snapped a few photos of the small CP yard and station in Wynyard.

CP’s yard in Wynyard, SK. A third GP20C-ECO is hiding behind the two others on a farther track

The old CP station in Wynyard sits boarded up

The yard looks healthy, contrary to what we're seeing here in Winnipeg. A few dozen tanks and hoppers sit in the yard while a trio of GP20C-ECO units sit just beyond the cars. CP also built a new yard office in town, and it seems crews have been busy along the Sutherland Sub just west of town. A new crossing, a pair of crossovers and two ribbon-rail mainlines stretch to the horizon out of the west end of town.

Later on that afternoon I had some free time, so I went back down to the tracks to see what I could see. A CP truck was waiting by the station so I figured a train must be close, as most trains stop to change crews here. I was right - in a few moments a light crested the hill and CP 298 rolled into town.

CEFX 1046 leads CP train 298 out of the yard at Wynyard, SK

CEFX 1046 was in charge of train 298 this day. The train did some switching out of the east end of the yard before it continued east. Jack posted a video:


As the train completed its switching and started to depart, my dad and I drove out of town a few miles and searched for a photogenic spot. We checked out a spot in the hamlet of Mozart, but the light wasn't quite right there, and it wasn’t the shot I was after, so we headed back to the highway and we continued east. The pit-stop at Mozart almost cost me the train, as when we arrived at my chosen spot, the train was only a mile or so behind us and it was doing good track speed. We drove down a sandy grid road for a quarter-mile, and I sprung out of the car to set up. The wind was really howling in this part of the prairie, so I used the car as a wind-block to capture a stable shot of the train streaking through the green farmland.

CEFX 1046 has the short manifest train rolling through the prairies at track speed

A CP toaster brought up the rear of CP 298, and if you look closely directly above the hopper car in front of the DPU, you can barely make out the large grain elevator in Wadena, SK, about 13 miles to the north.

A CP Toaster is shoving hard on the rear end of CP 298

Dad and I were back in Wynyard in time for dinner, and I went to bed satisfied with the shots I had taken.

Sunday

VIA’s cookie-cutter station building
sits beside the impressive CN station,
currently being restored

We headed back toward Winnipeg on Sunday morning, but the railfanning was far from over. My parents agreed to drop me off in Melville so I could catch VIA 2 and take the train back to the city.

I was on the platform at 12:30 PM, which is the train's regular arrival time for Melville.

Unsurprisingly, it was running late. A quick call to VIA's 1-800 number revealed that No. 2 was running a couple hours behind schedule and was estimated in the station at 4:00 PM. A three-and-a-half-hour wait wasn't so bad - CN kept me entertained with train after train through town.

A dash of blue is trailing three CN units
on a westbound Intermodal train.
This train is slowing for a crew
change at the west end of the yard

It was bittersweet seeing those trains, as it was likely that most would end up delaying VIA 2 even further. One train pulled into town from the east and sat on the track nearest to the station for over two hours. A retired CN employee was waiting to catch the VIA with me at the station, and we were discussing different theories as to why the train had been sitting in town for so long. As it was nearing 4:00 PM, the freight train was still blocking the track closest to the station. This is the only track VIA can use to pick up/drop off passengers in Melville – passengers aren’t allowed to cross the tracks here to board the train due to safety concerns.

CN 2500, a C44-9WL is accelerating out of Melville Yard with a long intermodal train in tow

The freight train refused to move, and other trains were going around it on the siding. I called the VIA hotline again, and found out my train had been delayed until 5:30 due to the freight traffic. I conveyed the bad news to my fellow passenger, and I decided to grab some supper at the CO-OP nearby and go for a stroll to see the sights in downtown Melville.

A pair of AC units led a manifest freight into Melville on the mainline. This train was sitting on the mainline for two hours before continuing west.

When I returned to the station with some supper and a few snacks for the train ride, the hiss of air brakes releasing was a welcomed sound. The AC units on the head end of the massive freight train pulled the slack from between the cars, and with a bang, the train was on the move again.

It was nearing 5:30, and even with the track cleared, there was still no sign of VIA. At a quarter to six, I called one last time, and they claimed that VIA No. 2 was still scheduled to arrive at 5:30 in Melville – that shows just how much the folks working at VIA’s call centres know.

Will VIA 2 finally arrive? Was Jack stranded in Melville for days? Find out next time in the exciting conclusion to Jack's Prairie railfanning adventure!

Read part 2!