One Day, Six Trains

On April 25th, I spent some time trackside around Winnipeg and saw a total of six trains.

VIA 693

I decided to head up to the CN Rivers subdivision to try to catch the Winnipeg-Churchill train departing. This is VIA 693, formerly known as the "Hudson Bay". At times it has had a Park car on the rear but I think they haven't had one for a while.

I got to the track and headed east along Wilkes Avenue. As I passed Carman Junction I saw headlights to the east, which I assumed was VIA. I noticed a CN crew working on the signals at the junction so I parked just west of them on the shoulder. Sure enough, it was VIA 693 approaching at a slow speed.

VIA 6434 leading train 693 out of Winnipeg

The train had VIA 6434 / 6418 for power with baggage car VIA 8606, coaches VIA 8113 and 8122, diner ANNAPOLIS (VIA 8404) and sleeper CHATEAU MONTCALM (VIA 8219).

CHATEAU MONTCALM on VIA 693 leaving Winnipeg

Incidentally, I saw almost exactly the same trainset on April 11th, except on the 11th it had a second baggage car, VIA 8600, for some reason.

CN 8015 East

After that, I headed to just east of Diamond and parked. I got my laptop out and banged away on the keyboard, while glancing up occasionally to look for trains. After about half an hour, I spotted a train in the distance, rounding the corner at mile 16. As they passed Diamond, I got out the "big gun" (my 70-200mm lens) and took some shots of the approaching train.

CN 8015 across the prairie

The approaching train disturbed a group of birds, who briefly swarmed in front of the train.

CN 8015 and a cloud of birds

I dropped my camera and took video with my iPhone, so I didn't take any more stills of the train. It was a general freight with a lot of covered hoppers on the head end, a mid train DPU (CN 2308), and mixed freight on the rear.

The video is at the end of this post.

CN 5641 West

About half an hour later, the next train came rolling along.

CN 5641 near Diamond outside Winnipeg

 It was another general freight, with CN 5641 and CN 2145 for power.

The poor birds were disturbed again...

CN 5641 and the birds

There was nothing particularly interesting on the train... the usual graffiti that I won't share.

I decided that was enough, and headed toward home. However...

CP 2240 East

As I rounded the Perimeter Highway, I thought I spotted a headlight on the CP La Riviere subdivision to the south. I exited and drove toward it a bit, and sure enough, it was a train.

CP 2240 and 3016 were heading north / railway east, coming back from working the entire subdivision. They had a set of CP flatcars on the tail end, empty after depositing their loads of pipe near Morden.

CP 2240 leading the La Riviere wayfreight

Enbridge is replacing the majority of its existing Line 3 pipeline, which runs from Hardisty, AB to Superior, WI. In Manitoba it runs through Cromer, Morden and Gretna. The line was originally built in the 1960s and was running at reduced pressure after a rupture and spill near Pilot Butte outside Regina in 1999. The new pipeline is being build adjacent to the existing line and the existing segments will be taken out of service.

Again I recorded video with my iPhone.

I managed to get some of that sticky Manitoba mud on my shoes. That stuff is a mix of mud and clay and is really hard to get off. Often you end up with an inch or two of it layered to the bottom of your shoes.

Manitoba mud

That was it for train watching for a few hours... until...

CN 8949 East

I took my son to his choir practice in the late afternoon, then headed out toward Transcona. I saw a train leaving Symington Yard through Beach Junction, heading east, so I carried on out toward Dugald to get ahead of them. I knew they would have to slow down through the yard so I was confident I could beat them.

In fact I got to a rural crossing on the way to Dugald and had enough time to set up my Canon S3 as a video camera. I then shot the approaching train with my camera, then dropped that and took video with my iPhone and with the S3 as well. This was my first time recording video with two devices at once, and I've spliced them together in the video at the end of the post.

Here's CN 8949 approaching with 8925 assisting. It's starting to get green here in Manitoba!

CN 8949 with a dark nose

After that train passed, I collected my video camera and headed to Dugald. I sat there for a bit near the elevator until it was time to head back into Winnipeg to pick my son up.

CN 730

However, CN wasn't done with me yet. I saw another eastbound train so I pulled off to the shoulder to photograph it. The long string of Canpotex cars with the 2+1+1 DPU arrangement made it pretty obvious it was CN 730, destined for Saint John, New Brunswick and the potash dock there.

CN 3018 and CN 2959 were the head end power.

A little side pan shot of CN 3018...

CN 3018 from the side

I drove on for a bit and found the mid-train DPU... CN 3112.

CN 3112 in the middle of a potash train

Bringing up the rear was CN 2942. This train had some newer power!

CN 2942 on the rear of a Canpotex potash train

No video for this one!

The same train was through Drummondville, Quebec at 09:09 Eastern on Friday, and out of Joffre, Quebec at 17:30. It arrived in Saint John, NB Saturday morning around 10:30 AM.

The Video

So I've been talking up this video all through the post. Here it is, with CN 8015 East, CP 2240 East and CN 8949 East.

I did some editing to cut out a lot of the "watching train cars go by" monotony. I understand some people like to see the whole train, but I don't.. and the CP one in particular was going so slowly that it would really draaaaag the video out. I hope you like the editing - please let me know what you think!

See Also

• Seven Train Day
• Busy Times in Winnipeg
• 14 Miles and 5 Trains

14 Miles and 5 Trains

Last time, Thomas Sajnovic and I were in Portage la Prairie in the morning of May 3. We had just decided to head back to Winnipeg via the Trans-Canada Highway, and therefore have a CN railfan opportunity.

We headed east, and I had to stop in Oakville to check out the grain elevator... again.

Onward... we ducked into Elie so I could show him the station-turned-house there. A train was heading west through town as we approached the crossing. Missed it by that much!

Onward again... we approached Headingley and I decided to cut up White Plains Road to rejoin the CN Rivers subdivision at mile 20. I was hoping that driving alongside 10 miles of CN two-track main line would yield a train or two. We weren't disappointed!

Almost immediately we spotted a headlight to the east. We stopped and nabbed this four-engine train led by CN 2676.

Note the old ties alongside the track, courtesy of the track replacement CN is doing along the Rivers sub this spring.

Proceeding a little further east, we came across an eastbound train stopped short of Diamond, on the south track. It turned out to be our friend CN 2679, seen in Portage la Prairie earlier that morning! After two hours they had managed to travel 40 miles...

Sadly they were destined to wait a while longer. The next westbound train to pass them (after CN 2676, above) was a train led by some interesting power.

CN 5303, looking pretty shabby, led shiny CN 5261 and a mixed freight train. 5261 is shiny because it was one of the locomotives in CN's recent propane-powered test.

The crew of 2679 were on the ground for the rollby inspection.

I decided to slow things down to show which train was actually moving...

A shutter speed of 1/25s blurred things nicely. I think I was using my monopod (more on that in another post) to keep things steady.

After that, we proceeded east while CN 2679 simmered away. Between Hall Road and the Perimeter I spotted another westbound, so a quick U-turn brought us back to Hall Road to catch CN 5641 and CN 2237 pass one of John Deere's finest.

We were feeling pretty good about the Rivers sub at this point!

I spied what I thought was another headlight to the east, and sure enough, we were fortunate to catch just one more train, east of Carman Junction.

CN 2674 and IC 2714 were on the head end, and CN 2531 was pushing on the rear.

"The End"

Thanks to Thomas Sajnovic for the great company! And thanks to CN and CP for sending out the good trains! ;)

Back to A Morning in Portage la Prairie

Last Trains of 2011

I did manage to squeeze in a bit more 'fanning at the very end of 2011. Here's what I saw.

I saw CN 2566 leading an eastbound freight in the falling dark of December 30.


Ex-UP CN 2136 was the second engine. There's a little lens flare going on there, probably reflections of the train's headlights inside the lens mechanism.

I made an effort on December 31 to go shoot the last Canadian of the year, as I did in 2009. I went out to Diamond just west of Winnipeg and found CN 404 rolling toward me.


SD75I engines CN 5641 and CN 5694 were leading, followed by SD60 CN 5511.

There was too much foreground clutter to shoot a westbound from the south side, so I walked over to the north side after 404 passed and waited for VIA 1. She had VIA 6443 on the head end, followed by now-rare unrebuilt F40PH-2, VIA 6451.


The paint is wearing off the plow on 6443.

The Canadian blew by at an impressive speed.


The kids were restless, so off we went. On our return trip, I caught one more, my final train of 2011. CN 2651 led CN 5602 and an intermodal train. CN seems to like the Dash-9/SD75I combo for its general freights these days.


When the lead engine passed, the conductor gave me a nice wave out the side window. When I reviewed my photos later, I realized that both the engineer and the conductor were giving me waves.


You have to squint a bit to see the engineer's hand. Thanks for the waves!

Wave 'bye to 2011!

Parade

On Monday (April 26) I worked from home in the morning, and intended to work from my office in the afternoon. I drove up Wilkes Avenue at noon, planning to catch the Canadian on the way. I did see VIA about halfway between Kenaston and the Perimeter, right on time. The Canadian was extra-long, with 3 deadhead cars on the head end and 13 cars in revenue service.


Full consist.

Right after that, I was brought into a conference call. Rather than drive while talking on my cell phone (have you signed Oprah's No Phone Zone pledge? Neither have I), I elected to pull over. While I was on the phone, several more trains rolled on by.

CN 199 followed VIA out of the city, with CN 5641 and CN 2401 providing the power. The container traffic was on the head end here, with the miscellaneous junk trailing. I was able to step out of my car, take a shot, then get back to the call.


Shortly after that, an eastbound rolled by with CN 8907 and CN 2423. It may have been CN 198 but I'm just guessing. 198 often rolls into Winnipeg around noon. No photos for that one.

The fourth train was the twice-weekly CEMR train heading for the Carman subdivision. CCGX 4010, CEMR 4001 and CEMR 4000 pulled about 70 cars. I took a few shots through the windshield and this is the best of them.

Soon after that, my call was done and I continued on to the office. Maybe I need to relocate my office...