Meet Me At Midnight

CN 2002 in Ste. Agathe, Manitoba

The Plan

I heard there was an early Sunday morning BNSF detour train (CN F306) running on the Letellier subdivision. Since Sunday morning is my fun day, and I'm not afraid to shoot at night, I went out around 11 PM, with my ever-tolerant wife shaking her head at my insanity.

My understanding was that CN 533 was meeting 532 in Morris, and then 533 would meet 306 at Ste. Agathe. Friend and RailsMBSK member Mark Perry was at the controls of 533.

The players:

• CN 532 - Daily Winnipeg to Emerson local train, bringing cars to BNSF
• CN 533 - Daily Emerson to Winnipeg local train, bringing cars from BNSF
• CN 306 - BNSF detour train returning east to the US via Emerson

CN 533

When I left, I wasn't sure if the detour train had left Winnipeg yet, so I drove down to Morris, hoping to catch the 532/533 meet. You may recall that I saw the 306/533 meet in Morris recently.

I was a bit late as I saw CN 533 pulling out of Morris as I approached. I ignored it and went into Morris to try to grab CN 532 before it left, but it was already gone.

Returning to highway 75 I chased 533 north, passing it and setting up at the same rural crossing I shot at the last time I was photographing detours. I didn't take any video here, just my Canon T1i on a tripod... 2.5 seconds at f/8.0, ISO 100. This was just after midnight.

Ghostly CN 2002

Right after the locomotives passed, I took the camera off the tripod, tossed it in my AmazonBasics backpack, tossed the tripod in the back seat, and took off for Ste. Agathe.

As it turns out, I didn't need to rush. They were crawling up toward the switch well after I got there. I set up to take a few photos, intending to photograph the engines as they paused for the conductor to throw the switch to the loop track. Here they are coming to a stop.

Coming to a stop

I tried a few photos - I thought they were good - but it turns out I didn't have the focus. Check out this long exposure (25s) of the conductor walking back to the train after throwing the ground throw switch. Totally not in focus!

Focus? We don't need no stinkin' focus!

Obviously, I didn't use the "live view" trick I wrote about earlier. Oops.

The track at the Viterra grain elevator in Ste. Agathe is arranged like this, as far as I can see.

CN 533 was coming from the bottom of the diagram (south) and went around the loop counter-clockwise. They stopped short of the north switch to wait for the arrival of 306.

There's a road called "Mission Road" that parallels the track at this location. I parked off to the side and walked up to the head end of the train. The two tracks that join the CN line to the loop track are crossed by Mission Road and are signaled with lights - surprisingly!

I took a few photos of 533 sitting there with the pride of the fleet, ex UP Dash-8s CN 2002 and CN 2036. The best of the photos leads this post.

Finally, 306

At 01:47 AM, 306 rolled on by with BNSF 7490 and 7209 leading a long brown string of freight cars. I shot video here on my Canon S3 but it was really bad. Here's  a long exposure of 306 passing by (10 seconds, f/8.0, 17mm, ISO 100).

The rest of the train was mostly brown BNSF hoppers with the occasional leased car mixed in. I popped off a flash on some long exposure shots to see what it looked like.

I think with better timing I could have had several logos show up side by side. I only had one flash at the time and it took a few seconds to recharge before I could fire it again. I was just holding it in my hand and manually firing it at full power.

Once the train passed, I headed south on highway 75 to the same crossing that I had photographed CN 533 at earlier. I put the Canon T1i on a tripod, and after carefully focusing, I put it in video mode. Flashing red battery symbol! Ack!

I grabbed my spare battery from the backpack in my car and swapped batteries. Fortunately I had lots of time.

Here's the video:

Lighting provided by my car's high beams, of course.

I gave up the chase after that and headed home. When I got home, I started the video uploading to YouTube and went to bed.

I think there are a few more BNSF detours yet to go through Winnipeg. I probably won't be shooting any more at night - work and all that, you know - but who knows, maybe I'll catch another one during the day.

Further Reading and Watching

• BNSF Detours, Day and Night
• Grain Elevators of the Letellier Subdivision
• Video: BNSF Reroute: Pumpkins Through the Canadian Prairies
• Video: BNSF Grain Train Resuming Canadian Journey
• Video: Trespassers and a BNSF Detour (Hinton, AB)

BNSF Detours, Day and Night

BNSF is detouring trains through Canada on CP and CN due to an avalanche in the US - in Marias Pass, I believe. Many great photos have been shared on Facebook (RailsAB, RailsMBSK) and elsewhere, and I'm glad it is being well covered. Here's my small contribution to the documentation of this interesting event.

The First F306

CN and BNSF, together again

I heard that the first of the eastbound BNSF detours over CN was coming to Winnipeg on Friday, so I ventured out to try to catch it coming into the city. I thought I'd head up to the CN Rivers sub then head west until mile 20 (where the road diverges from the track) or until I saw it.

I saw a headlight from the west immediately, which turned out to be CN 8919 leading an intermodal train. One quick "3/4 wedgie" then off to find BNSF.

CN 8919 passing the former site of the Manitoba Pool grain elevator, mile 10.6

It was not long before I spotted another train coming from the west. I had a feeling it was the BNSF detour train, and the long string of brown I saw behind it confirmed it. CN F306 approaching the famous Diamond west of Winnipeg.

I hopped onto a snowbank to capture the train with CN 2841, BNSF 6127 and BNSF 6138 leading a long brown snake of BNSF grain hoppers.

BNSF 6127 approaching Winnipeg

CN put their own locomotive on the head end of all of the detour trains, due to union requirements (microwaves!) CP is doing the same on their railway.

BNSF 6138 approaching Winnipeg

I sped ahead of it and captured it again at Carman Junction as it passed a signal worker doing some servicing.

CN 2841 leading two BNSF engines through Carman Junction

The train stopped at Waverley, and that's where I met up with Jack, Mark and Christopher who were doing their own chasing.

The detour train at Waverley Street

I wasn't able to stay to chase it down to Emerson, but Jack and Mark did a fantastic job documenting that so I wouldn't have had anything more to contribute anyway!

The CN engine was taken off and a new crew took it down to Emerson. Jack took some great video of the train en route to Emerson.

The Second F306

I heard that the second CN F306 was arriving in Winnipeg late Friday night, and heading south on the Letellier sub early Saturday morning. I headed out around 11 PM to Waverley and I saw a train there but I wasn't convinced that it was the BNSF detour.

I drove around a bit in the Parker area hoping to find a shot but I'm not really familiar with the area, several roads are closed at the moment, and there are many water-filled potholes that really alarmed me. I decided to head south out of the city, and I was concerned that I had already missed the train and it was heading south ahead of me.

I drove all the way to Morris (about 70 km), finding nothing there. I knew that CN 533 was coming up from Emerson and would have to meet up with 306, probably in Morris. I went down to Saint Jean Baptiste and found nothing there either, except for 7 or 8 grain hoppers at the ex Manitoba Pool grain elevator and a few curious deer.

I drove back up past Morris to Ste. Agathe where I picked up the BNSF detour train heading south. I found a crossing right next to the highway and shot (and videoed) BNSF 4782 and BNSF 4390 leading 115 cars. I used my car's high beam lights to provide a bit of illumination.

After the train passed, I packed everything back in my Civic and continued on to Morris. I decided to catch them passing the older Paterson grain elevator in Morris. Camera back on the tripod... a little night focusing and I was ready to go.

I quite like how this turned out.

Star light, star bright, first train I see tonight

(camera settings: 20 second exposure, f/8, ISO 200, 17mm focal length)

They passed by me stopped just short of the north leg of the wye.

One of the crew threw the switch and the train rolled onto the wye to pull onto the former CN Miami subdivision to clear the main for CN 533.

I went up to 5th Street to record them coming up the Miami spur. They stopped short of the diamond with the CP La Riviere subdivision, and another crew member got off to do whatever magic was required to get the light to cross the diamond. He then took the derail off and hopped back on the train as it rolled west on the Miami "sub".

I took a few stills but they did not work out very well. There's a bit of video at the end of this post.

I went back to the main line and found the third crew member lining the switch back to the main. I asked him when CN 533 would be coming through, and he said they were just south of Morris.

It was not long before CN 533 came through with CN 2142 and 2003 leading a long train.

Streaky lights of CN 533

I popped off a few photos here and there, and I liked this one of the train sliding through the crossing the best. (30s, f/8, ISO 400)

Red train at night, railfan's delight

Once CN 533 passed, I hit the road for home, since it was 2:35 AM! I went straight home and went straight to bed. Image processing could wait!

Here's my compilation video.

See Also

• Grain elevators of the CN Letellier subdivision
• Night Train
• Appointment at McGivney
• CN Detour, Day 1

BNSF Runthroughs

I mentioned in a previous post that I saw a BNSF engine on the Canadian side of the border at Emerson, Manitoba, and that BNSF has started running power through into Manitoba. I'm going to talk a bit more about that now.

BNSF Manitoba services a number of industries in Winnipeg. One of their major industries is the Paterson elevator at Lilyfield, at the northwest corner of Winnipeg, off Inkster Boulevard. I mentioned this before.


Here's a Google Map view of the area.
The "racetrack" in the middle is the loop track serving the concrete Paterson elevator. It is reachable by CN from mile 11.0 of the Oak Point subdivision (shared with the nearby Prairie Dog Central at this point) and by CP from mile 8.3 of the Carberry subdivision. The odd thing is that BNSF Manitoba has the contract to serve the elevator.

What has happened in the past is that CN brings the traffic up to the Fort Rouge yard on CN 533, then either CN takes it from there to Lilyfield using running rights over CP, or BNSF Manitoba takes it from Fort Rouge to hand off to CP who takes it the rest of the way.

What is happening now is that BNSF is occasionally running unit grain trains with their locomotives on the train to Noyes, Minnesota. There it is picked up by CN crews and run up the CN Letellier subdivison as CN 533, onto the CN Rivers subdivision/CN Reddit subdivision to Symington Yard. There the engines are put on the other end and it proceeds to the Paddington interchange in St. Boniface onto CP track, through the CP yard and the CP Carberry subdivision to the CN Oak Point subdivision. It is run by CN crews in Manitoba the entire way. Thanks to Mark Perry for the information.

On Saturday I was heading west on the Bishop Grandin Boulevard when I spotted a train (CN 533) heading slowly north on the CN Letellier subdivision. I took Pembina Highway north to try to get ahead of the train. I went all the way up to Portage Junction before I spotted the power - 4 BNSF engines! A quick exit onto Jubilee to Osborne did the trick, and I was able to get to the area near the new rapid transit bus station before they did. After less than a minute, BNSF 7630 led the parade.

The engineer was kind enough to open his window to stick his arm out and give me a wave. I appreciate that!

Next was BNSF 5498. I saw this unit in Grand Forks back in 2010.


The third engine was BNSF 1007, with graffiti on the side. It's very rare to see an operating engine with graffiti.


Bringing up the rear of the consist was BNSF 4856. You can see the bus station to the right.


TaylorOver9001 filmed the same train just south of Portage Junction.

A BNSF unit train was first spotted on February 4 (photo in Morris, Manitoba). Another BNSF engine was spotted on February 12 just outside Winnipeg.

I understand there is a possibility that BNSF Winnipeg crews could be operating these unit trains in the future. In December 2013 the Canadian Transportation Agency ruled on an application for interswitching by Richardson International for their Red River South elevator outside Letellier, MB, based on a 1912 agreement between the Midland Railway and the Canadian Northern, predecessors to BNSF Manitoba and CN respectively. CN was ordered to interswitch traffic for the elevator at Emerson. I don't fully understand the ramifications except that interswitching rates are regulated and are lower than commercial rates, so CN would be paid less. CN has appealed.

I would love to read the details of the 1912 agreement. The CTA ruling has some interesting quotes which seem to imply that BNSF could haul directly from the Red River South elevator into North Dakota but could not do local switching along the route, nor bring traffic from that elevator to Winnipeg. Maybe it's good that I am not a lawyer.