Sunset Train

I was heading home on Thursday the 12th when I heard the detector at mile 10 go off.

"CN detector, mile one zero Rivers subdivision, south track, no alarms, temperature minus one six degrees, speed two three."

I figured I had a chance to catch it. Sure enough, I caught up to the rear of the train by the Perimeter. I finally overtook the head end after Diamond, so I kept going until the bend in the track a mile or so west of Diamond.

I jumped out and got ready to shoot. The engineer gave me a bunch of toots on the horn as the train approached - thanks!

As you can see above, the lead unit was CN 8890, an SD70M-2. The second unit was IC 1002, an SD70.


Following those two were a pair of SD60s... CN 5535 and CN 5545.




CN 5545 looks a little better than the last time I saw her, missing her prime mover in Transcona in September!


As I continued on home, I saw CP 3027 and CP 1127 at the head of a small train, waiting to cross the Perimeter on the CP La Riviere subdivision. I took a few photos but the light was not very good by that point.

Transcona Work in Progress

CN operates a repair shop in Transcona on the eastern edge of Winnipeg. This sprawling shop used to be much busier, but it still hosts a locomotive repair shop, a car shop and a maintenance of way shop.

On September 24 I drove along Pandora Avenue West (Route 37) and found the locomotive shop. I stuck my camera through the fence and shot a few of the locomotive bits hanging around the outside of the shops.

The visible units there were CN 2649, CN 5545, CN 5717, CN 5788, and CN 8019. Some looked better than others!

Apparently CN 5717 was involved in an accident in Quebec in late summer 2009. As you can see from the above photo, a part of her is still around. Here's a shot of CN 5717 as she came into Symington back in September 2009.

Another thing to note about the above photo is the many old wheel sets hanging around, and the shiny new ones on the right side of the photos.

Below we see CN 5545 missing a very important part.


CN 8019 was also missing her diesel engine.

There was also a collection of hoods and axles visible.


Now that I know there are some shots possible, I'll have to keep an eye on that space!