A Busy Noon

Thursday March 28 was a busy railfanning day. I went out at noon to see the Canadian and I ended up seeing a little more.

First, I saw a short CP local rolling north on the La Riviere subdivision at Kenaston Boulevard. CP 8216 and CP 3132 were pulling some tank cars and cement hoppers from the local industries. They were quick about clearing the crossing so they didn't hold traffic up for very long.

I went up to the Rivers subdivision around mile 8 and waited for VIA 1. After some time, I grew bored and headed west to see what might be out at Diamond. I passed the track gang that was hard at work replacing rails. They have been doing this for the past few weeks and look like they are just about done.


Just west of Diamond, I found CN 316 sitting patiently on the north track, waiting for their light. 316 had three engines, SD70M-2 CN 8868, SD60F CN 5528 and GP40-2LW CN 9418. The Geep was a nice find for me, as I rarely see GP40s anywhere and in fact I've only seen eight of CN's GP40 engines.


As I headed back east past Diamond, I saw VIA 1 coming quickly, so I grabbed this shot at the crossing just east of Diamond.


Note one of the track workers on the other side of the Park car.


I was heading back east, satisfied, when I saw a set of headlights coming. It was a westbound general freight train, and I shot it around mile 7. It had CN 5726 and CN 2187 for power and had a lot of wood products on board.


That was great... but I saw more after work...

VIA Rail With Rocky Mountaineer

I was out running errands at noon and figured I'd try to get the Canadian at Portage Junction today. When I arrived there, the sun was shining, the sky was blue, and BNSF 2756 was ready to head back to their yard "running light" (with no cars).


I positioned myself to look straight down the mainline track. The nice thing about Portage Junction is that you can get fairly close to the tracks without trespassing. Soon I saw a headlight in the distance as the Canadian ran past Fort Rouge.

Here they are, passing under the signal tower.


Notice the big hump behind the engine? It was Rocky Mountaineer car RMRX 9527.


I shot each car as it went by, to record the car numbers. A gentleman in Skyline 8517 was chuckling at this idiot standing on a snowbank with a camera.


They rounded the corner at Portage Junction and headed toward Waverley Street and points west.


Full consist

See Also

• More Rocky Mountaineer cars
• Rocky Mountaineer Car on the Canadian
• Two Rockies on the Canadian

Three Trains, One Lunch

Train observers know there is an ebb and flow to train traffic. Each railway and each location have their own daily rhythm, determined by when trains are scheduled to run and when they actually do run. Things are often busy on CN here in Winnipeg around noon... which is convenient for train watchers like me.

Yesterday (February 28) I heard there were a couple of westbound freights getting ready to roll in Winnipeg, CN 111 and CN 115. I went up to the CN Rivers sub just before noon to try to catch one or both, and of course VIA's Canadian.

I arrived at the CN main line and picked my spot, just east of Diamond. I parked the car and ate my lunch while keeping an eye out. CN 111 was the first to pass by, with CN 2220 and ex-BC Rail unit BCOL 4601 on the head end.

Nice to see some ex-BC Rail units are still in their old paint scheme.

CN 8844 was a DPU engine in the middle and CN 8886 was pushing on the end.


Shortly after that, I heard CN 314 was starting to move at Diamond just west of me. I worried that they would get in the way of the Canadian, whose horn I could hear to the east of me. Fortunately the Canadian came first, and they were on the south track anyway. They had two refurbished engines, VIA 6406 and 6452.

They slowed as they approached Diamond, waiting for the signal to change.

I hopped in the car to go shoot CN 314. The Canadian rolled out of sight and CN 314's two engines worked hard to bring the train up to speed.

Train 314 had IC 2712 and CN 2657 for power.

I then drove back east to get a shot at a crossing. I went for something a bit more "arty".

I knew CN 115 was coming soon, probably followed by "CN 525" aka the CEMR train to the Carman subdivision, but I was out of time.

As usual, the day's sightings are in the database.

Three Oceans, One Weekend

David Morris sent along photos of the three Ocean trainsets from the last weekend in August. Too bad it was so rainy. The Moncton one is especially noteworthy because it features newly refurbished VIA 6402. Note the hump at the back of the engine for the new generator. This provides standby power to the train so they do not have to run the main engine at full power at the station.

2009/08/29 VIA 14, Sackville

6439-6419
7009
7220-7108-7208-7231
7311-7400-7313
7508-7522-7521-7526-7519-7524
7600
KOOTENAY

2009/08/29 VIA 15, Amherst

6406-6441
7011
7228-7230-7227
7312-7402-7308
7518-7517-7509-7501-7525-7512
7601
EVANGELINE

2009/08/30 VIA 14, Moncton

6400-6402
7003
7223-7226-7222-7217
7315-7401-7314
7500-7520-7507-7502-7506-7513
7602
REVELSTOKE

Day 2 in Northern NB

Bright and early Friday morning, NBEC 1821 was waiting at the Bathurst station.


I headed north from there. As I approached the tracks at Belledune, I saw VIA 14 stopped just north/west of the crossing. They had to stop to reline the switch that the NBEC ore train had left. Within a few minutes, VIA 6406 pulled the stainless steel train past me on its way to Halifax.


Right after that, I heard NBEC 1821 (as train 597) request permission from the RTC to proceed from Bathurst to Nepisiguit Junction.

Later on in the day, I was just approaching Miramichi when I heard someone calling the RTC at about 15:00. I couldn't hear the conversation but I assumed it was NBEC 403 getting clearance to leave. When I got to the yard, I talked to the crossing guard and he said the freight left at about 15:10. I called Chris M and let him know, and Chris was able to catch the train as it approached Campbellton. He wrote about it in his blog.

I also heard the NBEC local train entering the Loggieville subdivision, which explained why there was no power at all in the Miramichi yard. I assume the local was taking the Ultramar tank cars over.

That was it for trains for me on Friday!