Confessions of a Train Geek: 5943

Showing posts with label 5943. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 03, 2018

Railfanning the Longest Day of the Year

VIA 1 near Anola, Manitoba

I've been wanting to railfan all day on June 21 for several years now. It's the longest day of the year, after all. This year it fell on a Thursday, so I had to work, but I did manage to get out at the start and end of the day.

Morning

I hit the road at 6 AM, heading toward Symington Yard and points east of Winnipeg. Passing over the Sprague subdivision, I didn't see any approaching trains nor any action in the yard. I kept going around Winnipeg to the CN Redditt subdivision and headed east toward Dugald. At Dugald, there were no signal indications showing an impending train, but I did see this hay bale, so it wasn't a complete loss. ;)

Hay bale sunrise

I headed back to Winnipeg and carried on west on Dugald Road to see if anything was happening at the Greater Winnipeg Water District. Often they run out to the water treatment plant (or beyond) on Thursday. When I arrived, it looked like a few crew were arriving to get started but it would be a long time before anything would be moving. I didn't have time to wait, so I carried on toward Symington Yard. I decided that if nothing else showed up, at least I could see the SD40 locomotives working the hump.

On my way there, I spotted a CN locomotive and slug leaving the yard on the St. Boniface spur.

CN 7251 and slug CN 252 on the St. Boniface spur

Slug 252 was leading CN 7251 as they rolled along. There were three crew on the head end - I'm assuming one was a trainee, wearing a green safety vest instead of the usual orange.

I carried on down Lagimodière (that's a hard word to say) Boulevard to the south end of Symington Yard. There I spotted CN 8805 and Norfolk Southern 1108 pushing a train into the yard. I grabbed this terrible photo of NS 1108.

NS 1108 in Winnipeg

The sun was not in my favour!

Two hump yard sets were working. CN 6016, CN 6010, grey GTW 5948, and a slug (probably CN 203) were on one track, and GTW 5943, CN 6015, CN 6005 and slug CN 217 were on the other.

As I watched, the GTW 5943 set started putting on a sound and smoke show, getting their string moving out from the yard in preparation for pushing it up the hump.

GTW 5943 smokes it up

It was impressive to watch - and hear!

That was the morning.

Evening

I saw on the VIA Rail tracker site that VIA 1 was coming into the city late (as usual). I thought I might be able to catch it before it was too dark.

I headed out along the CN Redditt subdivision toward Anola. I pulled over a couple of times to check its progress, and I saw I had plenty of time. I zipped up to the CP main line but saw no signals lit, so that was a bit of a bust. At least I took a few silhouette photos.

Silhoutted CP Signal

That was at 9:11 PM, so there was still a bit of light around.

Back to CN! I headed east to a crossing just west of Anola. I arrived at 9:32 PM and familiarized myself with the area, since I had never been to that crossing before.

The east facing signal was green over red.

Green signal = GOOD

Waaayyy in the distance to the east I could see headlights.

In order to get a decent shutter speed, I selected ISO 1600, and f/3.2. This gave me a shutter speed of 1/200 seconds.

VIA 1 blasted through at 9:43 PM with VIA 6453 and 6427 leading.

VIA 1 blurring its way west

1/200s was not fast enough to freeze the action!

I liked the going away shot better, with the sunset sky.

VIA 1 facing a green signal

I knew there was no way I was going to catch VIA 1 again, so I packed up my gear and headed back toward home. I went along Dugald Road with the forlorn hope that VIA might be stopped in Transcona Yard - no luck there.

I headed south past Symington Yard to find a CN freight stopped by Tinkertown, just outside the yard. CN 2136 was the lead unit.

CN freight train outside Winnipeg

This was taken at 10:05 PM. I can't remember if I used a tripod or a monopod, but I'm sure I used something to steady the shot. My camera settings were ISO 3200, 1/30s shutter speed, aperture f/3.2. It wasn't totally dark but the sun was well below the horizon.

Note the third locomotive, BNSF 5366.

BNSF 5366 in Winnipeg

You can tell it was pretty dark, because the step lights are visible in the two photos above. Normally you don't see these during the day. I'm not sure if they are always on or if the engineer turns them on... I imagine they must always be on.

I posted a little video to my Instagram stories to show how dark it was.

I texted my wife that I was heading home, and I hit the road for home. Symington is about 15 minutes from my house.

As I crossed the CP Emerson subdivision, I saw headlights to the north.

One more train?

One more train!

The train wasn't moving very fast - at all - so it was a bit of a wait. It was OK, though, as it was a nice night and the bugs weren't too bad. It's been a dry spring in Winnipeg, so our legendary mosquitoes haven't had much chance to breed yet.

(yes, I did text my wife to tell her I would be a "bit" later)

At 10:34 PM, CP 8564 rolled past, dragging a long oil train.

CP 8564 by night

At this point, I had set my camera to a ridiculous ISO 6400 to be able to use a 1/40 second shutter speed. There is definitely grain in the photo - lots of it - but it is still a usable photo. My new Canon 77D is doing yeoman work.

At the private crossing I was at, there is a "yard" light providing illumination, so the side view has a lot more light.

Blowing through the crossing

The second unit was CP 9648, followed by a buffer car and a hundred oil tanks...

So many tank cars

After the 100 tank cars, there was another buffer car... then more locomotives!

One was a CP locomotive but the other was NS 8125. Two Norfolk Southern locomotives in one day!

NS 8125 on a CP freight train

Note the BNSF buffer car just going through the crossing. Buffer cars are used in dangerous goods trains like crude oil trains to separate the cargo from locomotives, for crew safety.

Here's another Instagram story video showing that it was pretty dark.
There were another hundred oil tanks on this train. That's 4 locomotives and 204 cars... a monster!

STOP - NO EXIT

The final car was an old CN grain car, the final buffer car.

The final car

That was my experience railfanning the longest day of the year. Someday I hope to continuously railfan the day, but that will have to wait for another year... or two...

Saturday, May 05, 2018

Four Days in April, Part 4

Meet me at Lorette

In a span of about a week in April, I made a point of getting out and photographing trains. I ended up shooting trains on April 14, 16, 17, 18 and 19, and I am going to share each outing in a separate post.

Wednesday, April 18th

GTW 5943

I ducked out briefly on April 18 to photograph trains over by Symington Yard. There wasn't a lot going on beyond the regular hump yard activity. An SD40-2 rich set of power was on one pullback track, with CN 6015, GTW 5943, CN 6005 and slug CN 217 hard at work.

CN 6015 and 6016

On the other track, CN 6016 emerged from behind CN 6015 as they pulled a long string of cars back from the yard. This set was 6016-6010-GTW 5948-255. I like the grey GTW units better than the black-red-white units.

GTW 5948 in Winnipeg

The freight cars were pretty unremarkable, except for this pinkish three bay hopper car - reporting mark CC. I noted one end was painted white, so maybe it is equipped with a rotary coupler for dumping?

A carbon copy / CC?

A train was getting ready to depart the yard, but I didn't have time to stick around to chase it. Sisters CN 8903 and 8960 were on the head end.

CN 8903 and 8960 in Winnipeg, Manitoba

So that was April 18.

Thursday, April 19th

I went out along the CN Sprague subdivision on the evening of the 19th to see what I could see. As I approached Symington Yard, I saw an eastbound freight was getting ready to leave, so I headed east along the Trans-Canada Highway and set up on the "sun" side to capture the train. I decided to shoot a "going away" photo to take full advantage of the sun behind me.

CN 2323 approaching the approach signal

I believe this is the approach signal for the Lorette siding. It was showing yellow over yellow, and CN 2323 would end up taking the siding, as you will see.

There was a DPU locomotive, CN 8878, about 2/3 of the way back in the train. CN has been running a lot of trains in this "1+1" configuration, one locomotive on the head end and one in the middle of the train.

CN 8878 and my shadow

Notice my shadow and my old Canon T1i on the tripod, taking video.

I liked this Saskatchewan car - now lettered for MGLX - Mobil Grain. 663 hopper cars were purchased by Big Sky Rail, at a price of about $10K / car. The Saskatchewan Grain Car Corporation sold off its fleet last summer. The Great Western Railway bought 150 and the Great Sandhills Railway bought 85.

MGLX 625444 outside Winnipeg

CN 2323 East trundled into the siding at Lorette, meeting the waiting autorack train led by CN 2818.

Meet at Lorette

CN 2818 West had four locomotives, including a lease unit.

Meeting adjourned

I repositioned to the sun side of the train to record the train leaving. I didn't have a lot of time and I wish I had 30 more seconds to set up for the video. Oh well!

The train had CN 2818 / CN 3019 / CN 5621 / GECX 7383 for power. Here's a view of GECX 7383.

GECX 7383 leaving Lorette siding

Aaaand here's the video.

I decided to let them go without a chase, so I went up to the CN Redditt subdivision. I went to the first crossing east of the highway and saw the tail end of a train heading east. Time to chase!

It turned out to be a long chase. I had to drive through Dugald and beyond before I caught up to the tail end. I continued on through Anola before I saw the head end of the train. After another few kilometres, I figured I was far enough ahead to cut right into a side road to get to a crossing to nab the head end.

As it was, I barely had time to put the car in park and jump out to get the shot of CN 8007 East.

Over the hood shot

BCOL 4615 was second in line, with CN 2009 third.

BCOL 4615 at a rural crossing

I took a few shots of the train with the setting sun glinting off the side. I liked this one the best.

Autoracks at sunset

That was nice.

I headed back toward Winnipeg. As I passed through Dugald, I noted a white bus with a red "CP" on the side. The bus had a set of "hi-rail" steel wheels on the front end and it had a lot of people in it. When I first saw it, it was coming down route 206 in company with a couple of conventional hi-rail pickup trucks. Maybe they were coming off the CP

A CP rail bus!

I continued into Winnipeg, making my way down Plessis Road past Symington Yard. I noted that CN 2818 West was stopped just short of the Fermor Avenue overpass.

GECX 7383 and company, waiting

That was the end of the railfan day for me, and this marks the end of this series. Thanks for reading these "four" days in April, which ended up being five. Call it a bonus day! :)

Monday, April 30, 2018

Four Days in April, Part 2

CN 2315 meeting CN 2666

Monday, April 16th

I had an hour or so to spend railfanning on Monday afternoon, so I went over to the southeast corner of Winnipeg next to the Tinkertown Family Fun Park. CN calls this "Navin" and it's the end of the CN Sprague subdivision, which runs from Rainy River, Ontario through the United States and through Manitoba to Winnipeg.

As I approached the area, I noticed a train was coming into Winnipeg from the east. I drove to Navin to catch it coming into the CN yard.

The track has a few little curves as it comes into Winnipeg, so I elected to photograph it approaching one of those bends as it passed under the Perimeter Highway.

Leading lines

This was taken with my 70-200mm lens (what I call my "long" lens due to its reach) and I cropped it in a bit. I decided to process it this way, because I felt the high contrast of the image was well suited for black and white. I liked the leading lines of the rails.

After I took the shot, I stepped across the tracks (at the crossing) to photograph it from the "sun" side. That was one reason why I shot it from such a distance - I wanted to allow enough time for me to cross safely, before the lights started flashing and the gates started coming down. I like to take good photographs but I like living a lot more!

CN 2315 and a black snake

Still using the "long" lens, I took several photographs as it approached the crossing. I'm not sure which one I like better.

WEST - Perimeter Highway

Note the snow on the nose of CN 2315! It was a lovely day in Winnipeg. We've been fortunate that the majority of snow missed us; Ontario was suffering through some snow while we had blue skies and no snow. This train would have come from Ontario and I guess it didn't linger in sidings long enough to melt the snow.

I scooted down closer to the yard to shoot them again, because I wanted a better shot of that third unit, a leaser.

When I got to the south end of Symington Yard, CN 2666 was waiting to leave.

CN 2666 and company waiting to leave

CN 2666 East was on the closest track to me, and CN 2315 West went by on the farthest track. The two middle tracks are pullback tracks for the hump yard.

Here's that lease locomotive - GECX 9473.

GECX 9473, an ex Union Pacific locomotive

The outgoing train, CN 2666 East, had CN 2202 in second position. It must have been a bit toasty in that locomotive at one point!

Mmmmm... toasty

I returned to that area in the evening, and took this iPhone shot of one of the humpyard sets.

Puff puff

The set was sitting there, and GTW 5943 was periodically revving up and letting out a little puff of smoke. Odd.

That was April 16! Stay tuned for April 17 with some sunset photos.

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Confessions of a Train Geek