Show to Show

Here's a few trains I saw while en route to shows - the Railway Days show at the railway museum in Winnipeg, and the Manitoba Mega Train model train show.

VIA 1 / Canada 150

VIA 6436 in Winnipeg

My family and I went down to the Forks in Winnipeg on September 16th for a late lunch at the Original Pancake House (recommended!) and to visit the Railway Days at the Winnipeg Railway Museum.

I noted that the Canadian was still at the station, two hours after its scheduled departure. This didn't surprise me a lot since it has been chronically late all summer, often by several hours if not more. I took a quick trip up the stairs beside the Forks to take a few shots.

There were a bunch of people around in high-visibility vests and "Canada 150" wrapped VIA 6436 was apparently being detached from the train. You may recall that I saw VIA 6436 trailing on VIA 1 back in May.

VIA 6415 and 6409 at the Winnipeg station, with supervision

VIA 6415 and 6409 remained on the train at the station. The Canadian appeared to be cut in two, as is normal for the long summer trains. I went back to the Forks Market to rejoin my family, and noted VIA 6436 heading east toward Beach Junction, maybe to turn on the wye there. I didn't see it again.

Railway Days

After lunch, we headed into the VIA station and climbed the stairs to the Winnipeg Railway Museum. It was nice to tour the museum again and see old friends and new exhibits.

The Countess of Dufferin steam locomotive was looking as nice as usual.

We walked around the museum and I spent a few minutes talking with Daryl Adair of Rail Travel Tours. They've had a setback with the cancellation of trains to Churchill - a staple of their business - but Daryl has adapted with some fall foliage runs on the Budd RDCs between Sudbury and White River in Ontario, and some other Canadian rail tours. Check out their web site for more information!

After that we entered the train shed to see what VIA had left to be toured.

It turns out that we had Evangeline Park and Chateau Argenson on display.

Inside the dome

The view from the dome was nice but it would be better out on the rails!

Sadly BNSF wasn't exhibiting their unit and caboose that day. I guess they needed to use it!

Fall Foliage

Fast forward to October 1 - I went out early in the morning to try to catch some fall foliage action before heading to the Manitoba Mega Train Show.

I went over to the CP Emerson subdivision because it has some nice trees along the right-of-way.

Fall colours but no train!

I waited there for about half an hour but nothing showed up, so I headed north toward the show.

On my way there, I stopped at the CN Rivers subdivision and noted a green light facing east... and a headlight in the distance.

I set up at one of my favourite spots, at Carman Junction, but I decided to shoot the side of the train rather than my usual head on photo. My reasons were twofold - I wanted to include a bit of fall colour, and it was morning sun so the westbound train's nose would be quite dark.

Here's CN 8952, 2613 and 2116 heading up the container train as they rounded the bend at Carman Junction.

A touch of fall colour

It's not very impressive fall colour but it's hard to do better in Winnipeg!

I decided to get one more shot, so I headed west and got ahead of them before they reached Diamond. This time I put the 70-200mm lens on to get a more head on photo, since there was no foliage out there to include anyway.

Glint shot of CN 8952

I elected to process this as black and white because shots from this angle with the sun off the side of the train tend to lack colour anyway. I could have saturated the heck out of the photo but it wouldn't have looked very realistic.

The train looked pretty good from the side here, too, even without fall foliage.

Containers under a blue sky!

I headed off to the model train show after that. Read about it here!

Thanks

Thanks to the hard working volunteers at the Winnipeg Railway Museum for putting on the Railway Days show every year. It's great for people to be able to experience railways of the past and understand more about how the railways of the present work.

Also thanks to the organizers, presenters and vendors at the Manitoba Mega Train show for another great show!

See Also

• Manitoba Mega Train Show 2017
• Manitoba Mega Train Show 2016
• BNSF 2761 / Railway Days 2012

ES44ACs on the Sprague

It was a beautiful afternoon on Sunday, March 8th, so I bundled the kids in the car and we headed out to see some trains. I decided to visit the CN Sprague subdivision because, well, that's where I've been going recently. When I reached the intersection of highway 1 with the Perimeter Highway (here), I saw there were two freight trains waiting to leave Symington Yard, and one was already rolling out onto the Sprague. Time for a chase!

I decided to shoot the train coming off the bridge over the Floodway. This necessitated getting my feet a bit wet, as I had to trudge through some wet calf-high snow to get a decent angle. I think this is really more of a summer shot location, but what the heck. This was 3:48 PM.

I had a feeling they were going to meet a train at the Lorette siding (mile 138.2). I don't know why I felt that way - just a "railfan hunch" I guess. Sure enough, there was a train waiting there, headed by shiny new ES44AC locomotives CN 2910 and CN 2944.

The crew dismounted to give the oncoming train a rollby inspection. The engineer was quite friendly and commented that there was a lot of traffic due to the northern Ontario derailment near Gogama. He also said the new ES44ACs pull very well.

Very soon the train was on us and I captured the meet.

This sure beat sitting at home!

It wasn't long before CN 2910 throttled up and headed into Winnipeg. Hopefully they managed to park the train before they ran out of hours!

Once they pulled out, we headed south toward Dufresne (mile 130.9), because I wanted to include the grain elevator in some photos. CN 8912 East was still trucking along but I was able to catch up to it, especially when it slowed down approaching Dufresne. I thought they were going into the siding for another meet. I was able to get ahead of them enough to get the grain elevator in a shot.

For the record it was CN 8921 / CN 2322 / CN 2666 / CN 2182 with no DPU.

Notice their headlights were out. As CN 8921 rolled slowly by, I saw a train entering the siding at the far end. Soon I could see CN 2832 coming up the siding - my second meet of the afternoon.

Clearly this was set up as a rolling meet as neither train stopped, with 2832 crawling along until 8921 East had cleared the west end of the siding.

The RTC was on the ball, lining the switch for 2832 to get on its way without any delay. Fortunately they were going slow enough that I could get on the highway side of the crossing well before the lights came on. Here they are just leaving the siding.

As I sped back toward Winnipeg, I noticed them coming around the bend and decided to stop and take a photo or two. The Prairies have this neat feature where there are connecting roads between the two sides of the 4-lane highway every mile or so, unlike the Maritimes, so it's easy to turn around.

One more turn and I was back on my way toward Winnipeg. I decided to stop at Lorette and catch them passing by. Sadly - for them - they took the siding at Lorette too!

Their meet was soon upon them as CN 3032 blasted by. Meet #3 for me!

This train had CN 3032 and CN 2906, with CN 2824 as DPU power in the middle - lots of ES44ACs this afternoon.

By this time it was 5:05 PM so it was time to get the kids home and make some supper. CN 2832 was still in the siding so I figured they were going to meet another train. After driving for a few kilometres, I saw another eastbound coming so I pulled over to grab one last train.

CN 5685 broke up the ES44AC streak, and CN 2580 was trailing power on this train, composed mostly of autoracks.

A few tank cars and one loaded lumber car... the end.

Not bad... five trains in less than 90 minutes.

Running extra - the day before this (Saturday), I was driving home through a blizzard when I spotted a CN train rolling on the Rivers sub. I pulled off the highway to photograph it but noticed VIA's Hudson Bay (er, VIA 692) rolling the other way and decided to shoot that instead. I only had my iPhone with me but the old saying goes, "the best camera is the one you have with you." Here it is.

Just Barely

It had been a long time since I'd seen a Canadian on the road, so on Thursday I decided to catch it at noon. As luck would have it, I was delayed a few minutes leaving work and ended up sitting at the traffic light by IKEA and watching VIA 1 roll by in the distance. I made up a bit of time on the Sterling Lyon parkway heading west but I was stopped again at a red light at Shaftesbury Boulevard. Darn it!

The road speed limit is 80 km/hr (50 MPH) for several kilometres, while track speed is 35 MPH so it is possible to make up some ground. The road speed limit goes up to 90 km/hr/55 MPH after Elmhurst Road but unfortunately for train chasers, the rail speed limit goes up to 45 MPH at mile 8.3 and 60 MPH (80 MPH for passenger trains!) at mile 9.8 just short of the hotbox detector at mile 10. If VIA has a clear signal, there is no catching them after the hotbox!

Fortunately for me, the VIA crew didn't seem to be in a huge hurry after Carman Junction, so I was able to slowly pull ahead by mile 12. As it happens, they had a CLEAR TO LIMITED signal approaching Diamond. Trains get this signal when they are changing tracks at Diamond. The Diamond interlocking is at mile 14.3 but the important thing is that there is a STOP sign at the intersection of Wilkes and Harris Road. I will not blow through a stop sign so I knew I had to get my shot before then, or there was zero chance of getting anything but stainless in the distance.

So I hastily pulled over a few hundred metres short of the stop sign and jumped out, camera in hand. I grabbed the above shot of the lead engine, VIA 6415, and then started recording the consist using the classic Bill Linley method of photographing every car. The train had 22 cars, including a deadheading WATERTON PARK just behind VIA 6431.

The trailing car was TREMBLANT PARK, with someone taking my photograph!


Here's the "going away" shot as they cross Harris Road and approach Diamond.


I did not make any attempt to pursue, of course!

Fellow railfan Manny Jacob shot the train later on in Portage la Prairie.


Afterword: I have reworked the home page of my site. I'm trying to streamline the navigation and feature my photography more. I'd appreciate your comments, good or bad.

EDIT: Revised the signal indication that VIA would have seen.

VIA in Campbellton

On Saturday May 30, after the abbreviated Chaleur chase (part 1, part 2, part 3) we returned to Campbellton. In the evening, a fierce rainstorm swept through just before VIA 15 arrived. We headed out to see the Ocean at the station, with lightning flashing in the distant east sky. I put my Canon on the tripod and tried some night shots in the rain just after 9 PM. It was hard to get a shot without a raindrop on the lens!

VIA 15 "Ocean" in Campbellton, NB

They were being refuelled by an Irving tank truck. The Irving guy was kind enough to kill the headlights on his truck while we were taking the shots.

The consist was VIA 6412, 6421, 7011, 7228, 7230, 7227, 7309, 7400, 7313, 7508, 7522, 7521, 7525, 7503.

Our plan for Sunday (May 31) was to shoot VIA 14, then head down to Edmundston and shoot a couple of CN freights before heading home on the Trans-Canada Highway. We were by the pulp mill in Atholville bright and early at 06:38... 25 minutes before the train was due to arrive. We waited around, watching the sun duck behind clouds now and then, and hoping it would be out when the Ocean finally arrived.

At 07:10 we heard it blowing for a nearby crossing and got ready for the shot. It rolled by in brilliant sunlight a few minutes later.


The consist was the same as Friday night's VIA 15: VIA 6415, 6414, 7003, 7223, 7217, 7315, 7401, 7314, 7500, 7520, 7507, 7502, 7513, 7524.

Once it passed, we hit the road for Edmundston to see our CN freights... and for me, some more new territory.

READ ON!

VIA 15 Friday

David Morris and I are in Tide Head tonight, after a chase of VIA 15 from Rogersville to Campbellton in the rain.

We arrived in Rogersville with plenty of time. I was resolved not to stupidly watch the train go by like last time, so we were ready when the train rocketed past at 18:36 with VIA 6415 and 6414.


We gave chase to Miramichi. The rain was persistent but so were we! We arrived at Miramichi ahead of the train and shot him coming into the main yard at 19:11.


CN 5346 and 5299 were in the yard.


After a short stop, VIA 15 was on the road again.


6415's headlight was in sight when we passed over the track on highway 11 just coming into Bathurst, and we decided to get him at Jacquet River next. It was getting dark but I think the video will turn out OK. The train stopped there to drop someone off, then headed out.

We gave chase and arrived at Campbellton about 15 minutes before they did. We stood at the platform to give the "rollby inspection" but didn't take any shots in the dark and rain.

The word is that VIA 14 was delayed about 3 hours leaving Montreal, so we plan to go to Amqui tomorrow to shoot him there before following him to Matapedia. From there we plan to chase the Chaleur as far as it goes. David expects they will turn at New Carlisle rather than go the full distance to Gaspe. Hopefully the rain will not be too bad!

I Got My Fix

I'm writing this from Bathurst, NB tonight and boy, is it cold! I shouldn't complain too much, as the prairie provinces seem to be having a far colder winter this year, but -12 (or -20 with wind chill) is cool enough.

I passed through Miramichi at about 09:40 this morning. I was surprised to see that half of the NBEC yard is not plowed... I guess it shows how little local business there is now. NBEC 6905 was idling away in the yard but there were no RS18s to be found. Tim Dryden has seen SD40s on the Loggieville Sub so perhaps the RS18s are rare in Miramichi now.


I passed Bathurst and there was no talking at all on the scanner. I was beginning to wonder where NBEC 402 was, when I heard it near Belledune. I went to the west end of the Belledune siding, and there was NBEC 6904, CFMG 6903, and NBEC 1821 rolling light out of the Chaleur Lumber spur. They coupled up to the four lumber loads and pushed them back onto the rest of the train. They must have just put some empties in when I arrived. Train 402 left Belledune at 11:15 with 42 cars. (4 lumber loads, 6 boxcars, 3 empty log cars, 5 woodchip cars, 3 CN covered gondolas, 1 tank car, 3 86' boxcars, and the 17-car Ultramar ram).


When I came to Bathurst after supper, I found the ore train NBEC 586 at the VIA station. RS18s 1813 and 1868 were idling at the head of a short train. Plow 616-20 was just finishing plowing part of the Bathurst yard. NBEC 586 left at 16:37 with 13 cars (8 NBEC ore cars, 3 CN covered gondolas, and 2 AOK covered hoppers). Probably the same CN gondolas that came in on 402! No photos, as it was dark.

For my final trick, I went to the Bathurst station to see VIA 15 arrive. As I watched the light approach from the distance, I realized the tape in my camera had less than one minute of tape left. I quickly but calmly swapped a new tape (#24) for the old one and put the camera back on the tripod in time for the train to arrive at 20:04 with 6415 and 6418 leading 11 Renaissance cars. They headed out within 8 minutes.


After whining about not having seen any trains for exactly one month, it feels good to be back. :)

Self-Doubt and "Oh, Crap!"

Every railfan has their moments of self-doubt, and their "oh, crap!" moments. I had both tonight in Bathurst.

New Brunswick East Coast Railway's ore train 586 from Bathurst to Brunswick Mines comes on duty at 18:00. I was at the NBEC yard at 16:10 and nothing was going on. Two NBEC MLW RS-18s were down in the yard and NBEC 1851 was dead by the station. I figured I had some time, so I went over to East Bathurst to look at the Smurfit Stone facility. While I was there, I heard train 586's crew bring their train out onto the main and then call the RTC. "Oh, crap! I'm out of position!"

I had hoped to get them at the iron bridge near highway 11, but that was clearly out of the question. I decided to head for Nepisiguit Junction, as I knew they would have to stop to line the switch for the Nepisiguit Subdivision. I headed to the end of Smith? Court and jogged the last few feet into the wye at the Junction. Soon I heard them rumble around the corner and pull up to the switch. Give the conductor credit, he lined that switch so fast that the train stopped for a mere 25 seconds.


At 18:56 train 586 rolled onto the Nepisiguit Subdivision with NBEC 1868 and 1821 leading 14 CN covered gondolas and 5 AOK covered hoppers.

I resolved to try different locations than last Thursday's chase. I did get him at the first highway 430 crossing at 19:03, albeit only with video.

I took a side video shot at 19:07 to show some of the pretty colours coming out.

I decided to go behind the Blue Mountain? racetrack and get him coming around the corner there, rather than take the second highway 430 crossing. It was a pretty good location but there's not a lot of room to step back from the train there. The light was really starting to fail at 19:14.


I took one more side video shot a few minutes later just before the track went away from the road. I decided to give up the chase, as the light was getting pretty bad, and go to Nepisiguit Junction to wait for VIA 15.

I got to the overpass over the Junction by 19:40 and set up my tripod on the overpass. There is lots of room to shoot westbound trains there without fear of cars. I waited.. as the light went away. Soon I snapped the "night shot" feature on my video camera to have some hope of shooting anything, and waited..

Here was my moment of self doubt. Did I miss the train? Was it early coming into Bathurst? No, that couldn't be, because I heard nothing on the scanner. But where was it? I hate those moments.

After 40 minutes of waiting, VIA 15 showed up at 20:16 in the near dark. I taped them coming, and used my Canon S3 to record them going away:


They had to stop to reline the switch at the west end of the junction, so I got to the VIA station ahead of them. They rolled in at 20:29. I went to the head end and tried a few time exposures of the engine. I think I did it a bit too long. What do you think?


They rolled on out at 20:35 with 6415, Operation Lifesaver 6411 and 16 Renaissance cars with Assiniboine Park at the end.

Oh, and this morning VIA 14 arrived in Miramichi at 10:09 and left at 10:16 with 6400, 6417, 7011, 7223 and 14 other Renaissance cars plus ReveLstoKe Park.

CN and VIA in Nova Scotia

The kids and I set out for a little railfanning this morning around 9:00. We went by HIT and Rockingham Yard, and I was surprised to see both empty. I talked with David Othen, and after checking the signals at Millview (dark), we concluded that both 148 and 120 had not arrived.

After a short break to feed the kids, I spoke with David and we headed to the Halifax Ocean Terminals (HOT) to wait for 148. We watched GP38 units 4728 and 4722 push some container flats into HOT at 11:00.


At 11:25 CN 148 came into view, led by CN 5729 (SD75I). It had to stop to change the switch and I got this shot. I took video of 148 rolling by the switcher.


We went to a park for a while, then came back to see VIA 15 leave on time at 12:38, with the same consist I saw yesterday on 14.


Finally, we went to HIT and saw CN 120 pushing its consist at 13:04.

VIAs in Nova Scotia

I shot VIA 14 at Amherst today at 13:07. VIA 6415 led Loto-Quebec 6414 and a Renaissance consist with no Park car.


A lot of railfans don't like the Loto-Quebec look. I don't know - I could take it or leave it. At least it's something different.


Later, I heard on the CBC that a VIA train hit a car at Brookfield, NS. I passed by there at 15:22 on the TCH. From the highway I could see VIA 15 was stopped past the crossing, and the CN local (headed by an SD40?) was trapped on the cement spur. I understand VIA 6411, the Operation Lifesaver unit, was the leader. Isn't that ironic...don't you think?

Fortunately both women in the car survived.

Northern New Brunswick railfanning

Today I went to Bathurst for the first time in a long time, and of course I saw a few trains on the way. I had my Fuji 3.2 megapixel digital camera with me, and I was looking forward to taking just stills.

It was foggy near McGivney and I couldn't see anything at all as I passed.

I noticed quite a few cars at the UPM-Kymmene plant in Miramichi. The outside yard was pretty full and there were quite a few inside the fence too. This is the first time I've seen it since NBEC took over the plant switching so no doubt they are doing things a little differently.

VIA 14 was reported 32 minutes late leaving Bathurst. I went to Beaver Brook and saw them go through at 10:15 with VIA 6415 and 6420 leading the Renaissance train with Evangeline Park at the rear.



I drove back to the yard and beat them there with 30 seconds to spare, even with the driver going 40 km/h in front of me. They had a quick station stop and headed out. NBEC 1854 and 1816 were shunting around at the other end of the yard, and CFMG 6907 was resting with NBEC 1819. I noted that the two dead C-424s, 4219 and 4243, were still in the yard (I saw them March 29).



As I approached Bathurst I heard NBEC 1818 West get permission to occupy main track between mileages 106.6 and 108. That's the section of track between Nepisiguit Junction and the Bathurst yard limits. They must have been coming off the Nepisiguit Subdivision.

I heard NBEC train 587 talking as I approached Belledune near noon, and as I was parking I saw NBEC 1867 and another red RS18 running light out of the plant. There was talk on the scanner about a couple of cars left in the siding off the main line, so I thought they were getting those.

When I left Belledune at 16:30, I heard train 587 again! It turns out they were working the Irvco siding off the main line, picking up those leftover cars. They rolled by at 16:35 with 1835 leading 1867 and 4 gondolas, 2 boxcars, 1 tank car, an airslide hopper, and a string of about 17 NBEC ore cars.

I almost like the going-away shot better!


I raced to the highway and easily beat them to Beresford through intermittent rain. I had some indecision about whether to shoot straight down the track or off a bit to the "sun" side. As you can see I decided an offset shot was better. They rolled past at 16:58.



The train was parked on the siding in front of the VIA station in Bathurst when I arrived at 17:10. Shortly thereafter they started doing some switching. Gotta love that Alco smoke!!


I watched them until about 17:35 when I spoke with the engineer. He said the next crew would be taking the train to Brunswick Mines around 18:00 to 18:30 and train 403 would be arriving around the same time. I figured I had time to grab a quick supper, so I stopped at Subway on my way out to Nepisiguit Junction to catch 403. As I passed over the tracks at the Junction I saw boxcars rolling by underneath. DRAT!

I turned around and beat it down to Riverside Drive. I managed to get ahead of them without breaking speed limits and shot them at the golf course at Squire Green Drive at 18:00. They were 6903, 4214, 4210 and 6902 with about 54 cars.



When I saw the IC boxcar I thought of Roman Litarchuk. :)


NBEC 403 led by CFMG 6903 parked on the main line, and NBEC 586 led by NBEC 1835 was on the passing track.


Much more about NBEC 586 (train to Brunswick Mines) later... this is enough for one blog post!