Some Recent Canadians

Here's a few Canadians I have seen recently. Here's a challenge for you. Tell me which photos I've processed with HDR.

Let's start with July 26. I was out at Carman Junction in Winnipeg to shoot VIA 1. Here's the head end as they start to round the bend.


The same train, just a few seconds later after it has mostly rounded the bend...


No going away shot here as it was out of focus.

Skip ahead to August 11. This is just past Shaftesbury Boulevard, about a mile east of Carman Junction. Note how brown the grass was... we haven't had a lot of rain in August.


Here's the going-away shot.


And the video...


And now, August 16, at St. James Junction. I was sitting in my car, reading a book, and I was so engrossed in it that I almost missed the Canadian going by!


Going away.


Here's the video of the August 16 Canadian, complete with wind noise and the bang-bang sound of the wheels going over the CN-CP diamond.

Here's a bonus train, CN 786 coming into Winnipeg on July 26 with a long string of potash cars... perhaps going to Saint John?


So... what photos did I use HDR on?

Much Better

After complaining about "blah" shots, I am going to follow up with a few much nicer shots. Monday noon, I went looking for the Canadian up on Wilkes Avenue. I decided to shoot from near the top of the overpass to get a little height and a change in angle. What do you think?

The Canadian was a few minutes late, but had a bonus of two cars dead heading behind VIA 6411 and VIA 6408... diner Imperial and Assiniboine Park.

I spun around for the "going away" shot and framed the Canadian under the overpass.


I turned around and there were headlights approaching on the south track. It turned out to be CN 101, led by single engine CN 2254.


One more engine was about 1/3 of the way back in the train, CN 2256.


That was all very exciting, but where are the good shots?

I headed toward home, and as I crossed the CP La Riviere subdivision on the Perimeter Highway, I saw a string of grain cars headed south. I took the exit and chased the train. It was easy to catch up to it, as I believe the speed limit is a mere 15 MPH here and the limit on the highway parallel to the tracks is 100 km/hr. I saw SD90 CP 9109 and SD40-2 CP 5764 were hauling just over a hundred grain cars.

I set up just south of the grain elevator in La Salle and waited for the train. The benefit of such a slow train is that you get to take a lot of shots as the train passes the elevator! This was my favourite.


Once the head end passed, I jumped into the car and got ahead of them for one more series of shots outside the town. The sun was dancing in and out of view but I was lucky to get a few with some sun on the engine.


I was very pleased with my CP shots. It was well worth the 15 minutes it took to chase and shoot the train!

Today's Near Misses

I went out to shoot the Canadian today at noon. I wasn't entirely sure where I wanted to get it, but as I was driving I heard that CN 852 had a near miss at Waverley Street here in Winnipeg. That decided it for me. I saw a train was stopped on the north track as I drove along Sterling Lyon Boulevard but as I approached Waverley Street I saw it had started moving. I parked by Cora's as usual and by then the train had cleared the crossing. VIA 1 was just around the corner at Fort Rouge by that point, headed toward me. The signal maintainer was a little bit east of Waverley Street, watching the train to ensure there was no damage.

I saw the Canadian in the distance. As they approached, the crossing lights came on and the gates started coming down... and a pickup truck ran the crossing. I'm guessing the truck had been stopped and saw a gap to move into on the north side of the tracks, so the driver decided to go, probably not seeing the lights. I was watching and they started moving into the crossing after the lights came on. They ended up crossing the tracks while the gates were coming down.


Hello, Floform Countertops!

Fortunately for them there is no gate blocking their exit. They cleared the crossing, and VIA had slowed down anyway so there was no imminent danger... this time.

Here's the intersection in question. Click on the map to go to Google Maps.

The red dot is where the truck was in the photo above. It looks like there is plenty of space between the tracks and Taylor Avenue to the north, except that it's only a few hundred feet.

Oh yes, here's the Canadian in the fog. They have started the short winter trains, alas.


The fog cleared up and BNSF 2756, Operation Lifesaver caboose BN 12580 and 31 cars rolled by shortly afterward.


The story of the CN 852 incident came out later. Apparently a northbound bus was in traffic, stopped on the crossing due to cars between it and the intersection of Grant and Waverley. The crew of 852 likely put the train into emergency, and fortunately the light turned green and the bus was able to clear the intersection before 852 hit the bus. The lights and crossing arms were verified to be operating by the crew of CN 852. The Winnipeg Free Press published an article about it.

This is a dangerous intersection, given that Waverley Street is pretty busy and the track is the CN Rivers subdivision, two tracks that see well over 50 trains a day. I know people have been calling for an underpass like what was done at route 90 just a little ways west, but of course that costs millions of dollars, all from the city or province. I have no doubt that it will eventually get done.

In the mean time, groups like Operation Lifesaver are doing their best to educate the public about safety around trains. Obviously more education is needed!

EDIT: Added the link to the WFP article.

VIA Ocean and Chaleur Combined

As many of you know, VIA often runs the Ocean and Chaleur trains together to Matapedia, Quebec, where the Chaleur is detached and runs up the Gaspe peninsula. Sometimes they run separately all the way from Montreal.

This weekend, there was a storm and there were problems with two of the engines. The combined train had Operation Lifesaver 6411, 6413, and Spiderman 6434. At Matapedia only 6434 was still working, but they managed to restart 6411 and it departed at 10:30 (5.5 hours late) on Saturday February 2.

Photo by Jim Babcock

Chaleur passengers were bussed from Matapedia. However, the train itself continued on to Halifax as part of the Ocean. It was an odd train, with three engines, 5 stainless steel cars, and the Ocean's 10 Renaissance cars on the end.

The train finally arrived at Halifax station at about 23:00, or 6.5 hours late. It departed on time the next day.

David Chiasson caught the weird Ocean coming into Bathurst.


He caught it again at Gloucester Junction on the other side of Bathurst, lead engine smoking like crazy.


Good catch, David!

VIA Photos by Michel Boudreau

Michel Boudreau sent me some photos of VIA 15 at Bathurst on January 5, 2008. I have been tardy in posting them, but better late than never, right?

Here's VIA 6411, the Operation Lifesaver unit, leading the train.


Quite a crowd!


Michel said there was so much baggage that some of it was loaded on a truck to be taken directly to Montreal. It would be too hard to put a second baggage car on, given the effort involved in modifying a Renaissance consist. Besides, I can't recall seeing a train with two baggage cars in a long, long time.


Thanks for the photos, Michel!

Riding the Ocean from Miramichi to Amherst and back

Nick and I went to Miramichi today to ride the Ocean from there to Amherst and back. We met Luc Doiron at the station and chatted for a bit.

1029 VIA 14 arrived, with 6411 (Lifesaver) and 6434 (Spiderman) leading a Renaissance consist.


The consist was 6411, 6434, 7011, 7223, 7217 ... more to come .. and Yoho Park on the end.

1037 The consist rolled forward for the second platform stop.
1040 We departed Miramichi in car 7217.

When we arrived in Rogersville, I spotted David Othen filming our arrival. I took a few snaps of him from the car but out of respect for his privacy, I won't post them. :)

1120 We departed Rogersville. We hit two slow sections between Rogersville and Coal Branch. It was fairly rough track but the Renaissance cars went smoothly over it. I noticed how close some of the trees and bushes were getting to the track. It reminded me of the Salem and Hillsborough Railroad before we had them cut back.

1205 We arrived at Pacific Junction and got onto the CN Napadogan subdivision.

1215 We passed a number of CN ex-gypsum cars stored on the siding near Gordon Yard.

After arrival at Moncton, Nick and I detrained and went up to the engine. The very friendly engineer invited us up and we had a little chat about brakes with him. After a bit, we stepped out and ran into list member Tim Dryden. I admit I was a little brief with him, as I was worried about getting back on the train before it left. I apologize, Tim!



1255 We left Moncton station.

1307 We took the siding before Painsec Junction and spent 10 minutes crawling along before what I have to assume was CN 307 rocketed past on the main around mile 117. It had 3 big engines and a GP38.

After Memramcook at 1335 and Dorchester at 1342, we arrived in Sackville at 1353.



1421 VIA 14 left for Halifax.



1554 VIA 15 arrived at Amherst. I tried to take video of its arrival but some woman seemed to make a point of walking right between me and the lead engine. Very annoying. I'm sure she wasn't doing it on purpose but gosh darn it.





We boarded the train, dropped our coats in 8117, then took up residence in the dome. I hardly left the dome. :) I had a good chat with an older couple from B.C. who were doing a cross-Canada trip. They had flown into Newfoundland, toured Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and were off to Quebec City next.



The consist: 6412, 6442, 8622, 8137, 8117, 8506, Chateau Rouville, Chateau Iberville, Acadian, Chateau Joliet, Chateau Viger, Chateau Papineau, Chateau Iberville, Chateau Rigaud, Chateau Levis, Revelstoke Park.



1700 We arrived at the Moncton station.

1727 Outside Gordon yard we met NBEC #402, stopped in the siding with CFMG 6907 and SFEX 4204 leading 17 cars.



At Pacific Junction I caught a glimpse of an eastbound CN train waiting on the main for us to get onto NBEC trackage. Any idea what train this was? I just got a very quick grab shot so it's not great quality at all:



1830 We rolled past the Rogersville station without stopping.

There was a beautiful sunset:


I caught a shot of the UPM engine as we passed through:



1912 VIA 15 left us and Miramichi behind. The engineer gave us very friendly waves.