October 16

I was out and about in Winnipeg on Sunday, October 16. I think the kids were with me because my wife was working. I had tried to catch VIA 693 but we left our house too late to get it. We ended up doing a few things together and I ended up near the CP yard. I saw an interesting consist at the east end of the yard and had to take a few photos of it. It's not often you see an AC4400, a blocked off SD40-2, and a "red barn" SD40-2F together. Old friend CP 6078 with the blocked-out windows was second, and "red barn" SD40-2F CP 9023 was on the end, a new engine to me.CP 1530 and CP 8205 were in the yard, switching.

We drove around a bit then headed home on the Perimeter. I knew CN 532 was heading out and I figured I could get a shot of them south of the city. I exited at Pembina and headed south on highway 75 through St. Norbert. I easily got ahead of them and waited just south of the community in the first wide open space. I arranged things so we were parked on a service road paralleling the highway, figuring there might be a chance to take some stills then jump in the car and leapfrog ahead to get another shot.

I should mention it was very windy. The radio said it was 50-60 km/h gusting to 70-80.

Here's the first shot, with CN 5528 on the point.

After taking a few more as the train approached, I sprinted for the car and peeled out. I figure the train was only going 25 MPH so it was easy to get ahead of them, as I had a few kilometres of side road. I parked at the end and took video as the train passed. Pardon the wind noise!

Busy Day in Winnipeg

My wife was working today, so I was home with the kids. At about 3 PM it was obvious that I needed to get out of the house to preserve my sanity, so I bundled the kids into the van and took off for Slurpees and trains.

First we rolled up Fermor Avenue then Plessis Road past CN's Symington Yard. There wasn't much going on there. As I continued up Plessis Road I saw an eastbound freight rolling toward Symington Yard. I took a left onto Dugald Road, hoping to get to Symington's entrance before the train. Alas, the traffic lights were against me and I didn't quite make it. However, I did see that a westbound was waiting for the eastbound to get into the yard. I went up Warman Road to the end and waited for the train to pass. Once it passed at 16:00, CN 2261 and 2626 boomed a deep bass as the engineer throttled up for the long trip eastward.


The kids were clamoring for their Slurpees, so we hit a nearby 7-11 and took care of that. Then we headed north into CP territory. I randomly chose Day Street as a good place to watch the CP mainline action from, forgetting that it led right to the CEMR shops. Bonus! Within a few minutes of arriving there, a short eastbound rolled by at 16:44. The lead unit was CP 3014, but the nice surprise was the trailing unit, B unit CP 6078. I last saw this unit in Sintaluta, SK on June 25, 2009.


Right after the train passed, a black Suburban pulled up and a uniformed police officer beckoned me over. He asked if I had noticed if the crossing arm had bounced after the train went past, and I said I hadn't noticed. He said he had no problem with me being there, but not to walk the tracks. I of course agreed (safety first when railfanning!) and off he went. I should have checked to see if he was CP Police or Winnipeg Police. Doesn't matter, I wasn't doing anything wrong. :)

To be continued...

Winnipeg to Regina Trains

On June 25, we drove back from Winnipeg to Regina. On the way, we saw a few trains (mostly CP) and I managed to record two of them.

Broadview, Saskatchewan is a division point and you can often see a train there. This time I saw CP 3100 and 3034 resting there. Unfortunately they were not in a photogenic spot.

Later, I saw an eastbound freight just east of Grenfell, Saskatchewan. It appeared to be accelerating from a stop. I pulled over to a rural crossing and set up my video camera, only then noticing that it had been left ON. The battery light was blinking but I turned it on anyway and then started shooting stills. The battery died about halfway through the train, which is good enough, I guess. You can just see the Grenfell elevator in the distance behind the train in the photo.



As we passed Grenfell, I saw a westbound freight off in the distance. Clearly there had been a meet. We carried on and soon came to Sintaluta, SK (love that name) where another eastbound freight waited in the siding. I stopped to take a few stills before heading on. I was pleased to see the second unit was CP 6078, an SD40-2 converted to a "B" unit with blanked-out windows.



I understand the B units were created by CP because they were dedicated to Locotrol (remote control) service and would never lead.