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! :)
Some railfan excursions work out really well and you see something new, or different, or get a great photograph. Some... well, on some excursions, you are just grinding.
"Grinding", for those who aren't computer gamers, is doing repetitive actions in a game to gain points or experience to advance in the game. Sometimes it's called "farming". An example would be going out and killing some monsters in the game and collecting gold. It doesn't advance the plot but it gains your character some money or experience points.
Sunday afternoon was a grinding expedition.
I knew the photos weren't going to be spectacular from the start. It was a gray, overcast day with no prospect of any sun. I didn't expect any unusual power but I was hoping to catch one of CN's "new" rental units (see below).
I decided to head to the CN Sprague subdivision. As I approached it, I saw a train coming into Winnipeg from the east. I barely got to Symington yard before the train.
Symington Yard
CN 2037 and BCOL 4647 coming into Winnipeg
CN 2037 and BCOL 4647 were hauling a decent-sized train. They stopped briefly after they passed me, probably to line a switch, then carried on.
BCOL 4647 and CN 2037
On the second track was a hump yard set with CN 6016, GTW 5948, CN 6010 and slug CN 203.
GTW 5948 in Winnipeg
These are permanent members of the hump fleet here in the 'peg.
On the third track was an intermodal train led by CN 2657 and CN 2141. I wasn't sure if this train had just arrived or was about to depart. It turned out that it had just arrived and was probably pushing its containers back into the intermodal yard in Symington.
So. Many. Wires.
The Redditt
It didn't look like anything was coming in on the Sprague, since that train had just arrived, so I decided to go east and check out the CN Redditt subdivision. That's Redditt with two "t"s, not the well-known Internet site with one "t".
There was nothing going on in CN's Transcona yard - cars but no locomotives - so I headed out toward Dugald. There was no indication of any action as I passed through town, and I went just east of Dugald and looked east down the arrow-straight track and saw nothing. Oh well.
Back to the Sprague
I returned to the CN Sprague subdivision. I saw there was a green signal facing Symington, indicating it was clear for an outbound train, but nothing was moving yet.
I drove out to the Lorette siding and found a 4-unit train sitting there.. led by shiny CN 2991 then grimy CN 8865, CN 5773, and CN 8852.
CN 2991 and friends in the CN Lorette siding
CN 2991 was shiny and new so I took a few photos of it.
Side view of CN 2991
You can see how the sky was pretty dull... there was a little colour in it due to the (hidden) sunset but it wasn't really photogenic.
The train had about 15 or 16 loaded coal cars... odd for Winnipeg.
Loaded coal cars
I continued down to Dufresne, wondering if another train was in the 6500' siding there. There was no train, but the new LED signals were well lit up.
Signals and the Dufresne grain elevator
On my way back, I passed the train at Lorette again with no sign of the train it was supposed to meet. I finally did spot the train right at Deacon's Corner but I wasn't able to get over to photograph it. It had CN 2909 on the head end of the intermodal train, with another locomotive on the rear.
By this time, it was almost 5 PM and it was time to hit the grocery store and get home to make supper. Also, it was getting pretty dark.
The Emerson
As I crossed the CP Emerson subdivision on my way home, I saw a headlight to the north. I went to a quiet crossing just north of the Perimeter Highway and waited for the train to come. I decided to put my camera on the tripod and take a 1 second exposure and let it streak, rather than try a pan. I had my phone out to take video.
It was a potash unit train with CP 8750 and CEFX 1059 leading the charge.
CP 8750 smearing the sky
I do like long exposure train photos!
That was enough for me... off to Sobeys!
CN's Leasers
I mentioned that CN has some "new" rental locomotives. CN has been experiencing a surge in traffic and is short on crews and power. They have been aggressively hiring people and now they've leased a bunch of locomotives. There are a lot of rumours about how many locomotives they are getting but here's what I do know is "on the property":
19? CREX ES44AC locomotives in the 1500-1520 series
2 PRLX SD75 locomotives (201 and 204, patched Warbonnet units)
There are rumours of more but that's what has been confirmed to date. The CREX units are apparently getting microwaves installed so they can lead on CN. Union rules on CN require a microwave and refrigerator in the lead locomotive, so usually American locomotives have to trail on CN because they don't generally have both of those. CP's union doesn't insist on having a fridge or microwave so CP's trains often have "foreign" power leading.
I'm sure I will catch a CREX unit soon... I just have to keep grinding!
One of the most basic mistakes made in railfan photography is not paying attention to the direction of light. I know this because I made this mistake many, many times.
Here's an example of terrible light. I shot NBEC 1855 in Campbellton, NB in May 2009 shortly before it was scrapped. This is straight out of the camera with no editing.
Awful, right? Where's the sun? Off to my right, creating terrible shadows on the unit..
Now some creative editing in Adobe Lightroom or other programs can help bring details out, but the result is going to look artificial. Keep in mind that in digital photos, bright areas hold more information than dark areas, so when you lighten a dark area it will be very pixelated. I did some serious smoothing on this image to try to get rid of the pixelation.
It's much better if you can walk around and take the shot from a different angle.
The common rule of thumb is to have the light source (usually the sun) behind you, over one shoulder. This should give your subject decent illumination, not quite head on but enough to get rid of most shadows.
Of course, you cannot always get the angle you want. I was fortunate in this case but in many cases you're stuck with the sun in front of you. What to do?
Some people would just not take the photo. I figure, it's digital, why not? Maybe you can get something good out of it.
Here you sacrifice all ground and engine detail but you get a lovely sky and some nice light on the side of the train. Notice I'm still on the "sun side" of the train. If I had walked across to the other side before the train came, I would have been shooting right into the rising sun.
Shooting into the sun? Well, we can make that work too.
The trick is to expose it properly. The sun is going to make your camera sensor underexpose everything. If it is a static scene like this one, you can use HDR like I did and take several frames at different exposures and combine them. Or, you can go for a silhouette shot and expose for the sun and let the subject go totally dark.
But what about a moving target, like a train? Well, chances are, unless you are super prepared you are going to be using automatic exposure and you're going to get a dark train. Your best bet is to not do it.
Here's an example. I was up near Symington Yard in Winnipeg when I saw an interesting train leaving, led by GTW 5948 and new-to-CN 5442. The problem was they were heading north out of the yard in October at 1:30, so the sun was basically high and behind the train. Hence this kind of light:
Terrible, right? I knew this was a throwaway shot but I took it anyway to make sure my camera was working. I took side shots of each engine as they went by, and the light was better.
A "going away" shot would have been even better for light, except that I was on the wrong side of the train!
In this case there was no way to get on the other side of the train without being unsafe and trespassing, and I won't do that. Take what you can get.
I've only been talking about the direction of light. Another whole blog post would be about the quality of light - noon, sunrise, sunset, "blue hour".
Here's what I want you to take away from this:
Know where the light is coming from
Try to keep the light behind you, over one shoulder
If the light is in your face, try a different angle or be inventive to save the shot
Stepping away from VIA for a moment, here are some freight trains I have seen recently, under a variety of lighting conditions.
First, set the wayback machine to July 29. I was driving home and spotted a headlight in the distance on the CN Rivers subdivision and pulled over to grab this shot of CN 2538 leading a freight train out of Winnipeg.
With light like this, all you have to do is point and shoot!
I'm guessing they had the front door open for a little ventilation.
Now to October 6th. I was driving near Beach Junction (at the north end of CN's Symington Yard here in Winnipeg) when I saw a train slowly moving out. I zipped up Warman Road (here) and hopped out to get these shots.
Here, the sun was off to my right so the conditions were not ideal. The best you can do is either point into the sun and accept a silhouette shot (and probably manually adjust the exposure), or turn as much away from the sun as you can. First up was ex-GTW engine 5948. You may recall I saw that before on CN 533.
The second engine was equally interesting. This is CN 5442, freshly painted after being acquired by CN. You may remember I mentioned back in March that CN was buying new and used power. This is an SD60, former GMTX 9099.
The CN 5400 number series used to be for CN's SD50s but those are all retired. Canadian Railway Observations has some details on the "new" SD60s.
CN 5442 sure looks a lot different on the outside from CN's cowled SD60s. Speaking of those, here are two for comparison (from October 11th). Love those zebra stripes.
Again, good lighting conditions so "point and shoot" and away you go.
Earlier in the same day, I shot this early morning train with CN 8924. This was just before 8 AM and the sun had just come over the horizon. It's to my right so you know the nose is going to be in shadow. I elected to try a "glint" shot with the sun on the side of the train. If you have time, take a few test shots before the train comes to manually adjust the exposure. Fortunately there was enough light to be able to use a shutter speed of 1/200s to freeze the action. To be honest, a bit more motion blur would have been fine too.
Now, up to almost the present! I shot this train on Saturday (Oct. 20) as it headed toward Diamond. I had to play "catch up" as I came to the Wilkes Avenue / Perimeter Highway intersection and it was already half past me. Fortunately it is not too hard to get ahead of freight trains here. You can see the light was not great, given that it was overcast, and it yielded this rather pedestrian photo.
With flat light you get a flat photo. A bit dull.
To make things a bit more interesting, I decided to do a pan shot as the train closed. I dialed the shutter speed down to 1/30s and panned, and it worked out. Note the "#13 Go Blackhawks" scrawled in the dirt on the engine.
Later in the same day, I was hanging around waiting for the Canadian. My kids grew tired of waiting so we headed out, but we did manage to grab this train headed by IC 2725. Again, dull light so I chose a shot to fill the frame with the engine.
One final train from October 20. The light had not improved so I was basically shooting to record the engines.. plus if you are trackside and there's a train, why not shoot it?
Since there was only CN 8947 on the head end, I knew there would be a DPU engine somewhere. It turned out that CN 2244 was on the rear. I dialed down the shutter speed to capture this pan shot.
I was driving on the Perimeter Highway over the CN Letellier subdivision in Winnipeg when I spied CN 533 coming home. It was really the most remarkable coincidence, as there is only a short stretch of track visible to the south, and there was the head end of 533 rolling along, with two engines including a grey one leading!
I exited at Waverley Street and headed up to Bison Drive, intending to get well ahead of the train to photograph this mysterious grey engine. They were going a lot faster than I thought, as the gates were coming down at the crossing as I approached it. I ended up stopping and clawing for my camera as the train approached. Good thing I keep the camera on the passenger seat. (Doesn't everyone?)
Here's the grey engine.
This engine is former Grand Trunk and Western (GTW) 5948, an SD40-3 now owned by Alstom and lettered GCFX 5948. It was apparently originally built for the Kansas City Southern railway.
The above shot was through the windshield, and I rolled my window down to take the "going away" photo below. You can see where the large white "CN" on the side has been painted over.
On my return from my errand, I noticed that there was a CN freight train parked just west of Diamond outside Winnipeg. The train had IC 2703 on the point and was apparently waiting for a westbound freight before heading into Winnipeg. I set up my video camera to point at 2703 for the meet... and then they rolled ahead a few hundred feet! Maybe they were shy.
In good time the westbound train arrived. It was led by a Dash-9.
The crew of 2703 were on the ground to inspect the train.
Not bad for Yet Another Meet!
Here's the video.
Oh yes, after 2703 started rolling, I headed out to get another shot of it. First, a pacing shot.
They were not going especially fast yet. I decided to nab them on the other side of Diamond and call it a day. Here's that shot.
You can see they were crossing over to the south track here.
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