More Rocky Mountaineer Cars

I had a tip that Thursday's Canadian would have a couple of Rocky Mountaineer cars, so I went out at noon to see them. It was another beautiful but cold day. When I arrived at Wilkes Avenue I saw an eastbound freight train stopped a little west of St. James Junction. The power was SD60 CN 5506 and Dash-8 BCOL 4618. Old power!

BCOL 4618 has been repainted in CN colours.

BCOL 4618 in Winnipeg

The number sounded familiar, so I looked it up after and I realized I shot this unit in her BC Rail colours back on August 21, 2009.

BCOL 4618 still in BC Rail colours

I went over to the Junction and waited with another railfan for the Canadian. It was about 10-15 minutes late.

VIA Rail with Rocky Mountaineer cars

The lead Rocky Mountaineer car was RMR 9523, a dome car built by Colorado Railcar.

RMR 9523, Rocky Mountaineer

Trailing that was Rocky Mountaineer 5506, a former CN/VIA Dayniter.

Rocky Mountaineer #5506

That was fun!

VIA Rail "going away"

Shortly after the Canadian left, the freight started rolling. It turns out it was CN train 852.

CN 5506 in Winnipeg

While it was rolling by, CN 101 passed on the north track. CN 852 had to stop because 101 was crossing over from the south to the north track in front of 852.

Another nice day for photos and video.

See Also

• VIA Rail with Rocky Mountaineer car
• More Rocky Mountaineer cars

Two Trains From Lunch

I went up to Wilkes Avenue to shoot trains this lunch hour, and I was very fortunate.

First up was CN 786, an eastbound potash train with former BC Rail 4618, CN 2401, and CN 2275 for power. The first two are Dash 8s and the last is an ES44DC.

Note the aircraft appearing to fly into the top of the engine.

I went over to see the BNSF yard, missing the chance to shoot a westbound freight with CN 5711 and CN 8801. Oh well.

My third train was CN 101, a hot container train rolling out of town. This one had more conventional power, CN 2273, CN 5648, and CN 2637.


While 101 was rolling by, two railfans pulled up and I introduced myself. They were two brothers, coming to watch the CN action.

Once 101 was done, my time was up so I headed out.