Foreign Power on the Emerson Sub

One Sunday morning (March 9) I decided to go spend a couple of hours railfanning here in Winnipeg. Nothing was going on and it was a reasonably nice day to get out of the house after a long winter. I did a little tour of the Symington yard area and saw a few trains - nothing special - then went around the Perimeter Highway toward home. As I crossed the CP Emerson subdivision, I saw a headlight to the north, indicating a southbound train.

I hear these trains from my house, but it's rare that I actually photograph one. Sadly I live too far away to see tracks from my front steps! I had to photograph this one. I headed south on St. Anne's Road and then cut back to the tracks on Prairie Grove Road. There's a crossing there, but I figured I had time to get on the other side of the Floodway to shoot the train with the the bridge. I kept going on Prairie Grove to highway 75, then a quick jaunt south got me to winding Hallama Drive, on the south side of the Floodway.

The problem with Hallama Drive is that there is nowhere to park when there is lots of snow on the ground. I pulled over as much as I could, put the 4-way flashers on, and nobody came along... except the train.

As it pulled out of the trees and into view, I was amazed to see a CP SD40-2 leading two CSX engines.


It made a fine sight crossing the desolate snow-covered landscape.


They were not going very fast, so I took quite a few photos. I thought I might be able to get ahead of them relatively quickly, so I headed south down highway 75. The CP track diverges fairly sharply from 75 right away, so I wasn't hopeful for a quick catch, but I figured I could go all the way to Niverville if necessary.

I don't know the area but I decided to try cutting back in fairly quickly. I drove toward what I thought was the track direction, and I came to a crossing and found the train stopped there. It turns out they were going to enter the 8,327 foot siding in Grande Pointe. But first, a little shovel and broom work was required to get the switch to move. Both crew members were on the ground digging away. They yelled to me to pick up a shovel and help! Fortunately they were joking...


I took the opportunity to photograph CP 6029, CSX 442 and CSX 861.


Once they were done clearing the switch, they lined it for the siding and slowly crawled forward. I took a few snaps and then took video from the crossing.

I hope they had a good trip!

Diamond Is My Best Friend

I was out on Friday September 16 during the day, spending some time with my son. We headed up to Assiniboine Park to play at the new Nature Playground. It's a very cool place.

On the way we stopped at Wilkes Avenue to see if there was any CN action. Nothing seemed to be happening, so I drove west out to Diamond. There I found the above train on the CP Glenboro subdivision waiting to go south across the CN Rivers subdivision. It had CP 6029 and CP 5920 with a long string of grain hoppers.

Why was it waiting? Well, after I shot the CP photos I saw a headlight to the west. It turned out to be a CN freight headed by CN 2241.

The second unit was CN 2240. 2241, 2240... if they had a third unit it would have to have been CN 2239.

CN 2241 East was not going very fast, so we gave chase. I passed it just east of the Perimeter and shot it again.

By this time my son was getting tired of the trains, so we headed off to the Nature Park for some running around.

On our way back, I ducked out on Wilkes Avenue again and I saw the CEMR freight train was parked at the end of their Carman subdivision. CEMR 4000 was the lead unit but the real surprise was the second unit, SD40 CEMR 5396. That unit has been for sale for almost two years!.


Oh yes, I forgot to mention that the Loram ballast cleaner was parked just west of the Perimeter on the little stub siding there. The covers were off the side of the power unit and a few workers were servicing it.



There was lots of stuff around to see!