Here's a contrast of two VIA trains seen on April 26... April 26 2012 and April 26 2010 (both in Winnipeg).
In 2012, VIA 6431 led the Canadian out of Winnipeg.
In 2010, it was VIA 6420 leading the Canadian.
Notice a few differences. The obvious one is that the 2010 version had unrefurbished engines leading the train. Also, the 2010 version had three deadhead cars: Diner Empress and two coaches.
Tweedsmuir Park was on the tail end in 2012.
In 2010, Prince Albert Park brought up the markers.
A difference to note here. Excepting the deadhead cars in 2010, the trains were the same length, but the 2010 version had one less Skyline car in the consist. The 2010 train had another Manor car instead.
The two trains had only one car in common, VIA 8326, Franklin Manor.
Postscript: When I was photographing the 2012 version, I made a point of shooting the dome of Tweedsmuir Park. One of the passengers had a good look at me as they passed by.
Just some rivet-counting geekery today. I've updated the code in the engine search portion of my train sighting database to allow a range of numbers to be entered. A few examples might be in order.
Suppose I wanted to see which VIA F40PH-2 engines I've seen. I know they are numbered 6400-64something, so I would go here and enter VIA for the road name and 6400-6499 for the engine number.
Follow this link for the results. This is what it looks like:
Each engine is listed with the count of the times I've seen it. Clicking on the count goes to a search for that engine number, listing each date/location I've seen a train containing that engine.
Looking at the results, I've never seen VIA 6423, VIA 6430, VIA 6447, or VIA 6450. Why not? Well, all of them were wrecked / retired on or before 2001 when I started getting serious about recording engine numbers.
Which engine did I see most often? VIA 6420.
From my first record on May 18, 2003 in Moncton to June 7, 2011 in Winnipeg, I've recorded it 24 times. Note that this is a bit of a cheat because at times I would record it multiple times per day if I was chasing the train. On November 9, 2005 I chased the VIA Veteran Train from Brookfield, NS to Moncton, NB and VIA 6420 was the lead engine.
Again it was part of a few chases so I saw it on less than 89 separate days. I would have thought it was one of the original GP38-3 engines, NBSR 980x.
VIA 6420 leads VIA 6407 and the rest of VIA 693 (the Hudson Bay) out of Winnipeg, Manitoba.
This is my first shot with my new circular polarizer.
What does a polarizer do? Well... it's hard to explain and I don't totally understand it. Sunlight is unpolarized, meaning that the light waves vibrate in a variety of directions ("planes"). However, sunlight that reflects off a nonmetallic object is polarized. A polarizing filter only allows a certain "plane" of light through. Turning a circular polarizer adjusts what "plane" of light is allowed through to the camera, so reflections can be blocked.
The end effect is that contrast is higher (skies are darker, for example, as you can see above). Also, a polarizer can help cut through haze as much of the haze is reflected light.
There are some interesting images here showing the difference between non-filtered and filtered images.
I bought a Hoya PRO1 58mm polarizer. There are cheaper polarizers, such as this Hoya model. The differences include multi-coating (to reduce lens flare) and construction (plastic vs. metal frames). It's all in what you are looking for.
I caught yesterday's Hudson Bay VIA 693 heading out of Winnipeg on its way to Churchill. The train had VIA 6420 leading as they left Foreman Hunt's work limits.
As usual I used the patented Bill Linley method of recording car numbers by shooting every car. When I was shooting the second coach I noticed passengers looking at me so I kept shooting them as it went by. Nice to see some waves!
I know I haven't been posting at my usual frenetic pace. Work has kept me very busy and the blogging has fallen by the wayside a bit. I have still been shooting trains every now and then, and here are a few of the VIA trains I've seen in May that I haven't already blogged about.
Back on May 5 I was out at noon to shoot the Thursday Canadian. This one had a Rocky Mountaineer car on it, coach RMR 3251. This was the first "summer" Canadian so it was much longer than the usual 9 or 10 cars of the winter version.
As I recall, they stopped for a signal short of St. James Junction, so they were going pretty slowly when they passed me.
The next VIA I saw that I haven't blogged about yet was May 26's Canadian. This was another Thursday VIA 1. This was an entirely ordinary Canadian with no deadhead cars, shot at Waverley Street in Winnipeg.
What made this one special was the meet with CN 114. I was worried that 114 was going to block my shot of the Canadian, but the RTC gods were smiling and 114 was on the north track. VIA 1 shows up at 2:30 minutes in the video.
Finally, I shot both VIA trains this past Saturday, VIA 1 and VIA 692. First, the Canadian at mile 10 of CN's River subdivision.
This had old friend VIA 1721 deadheading behind the engines and ahead of the baggage car.
The other old friend was VIA 6414, the Loto Quebec engine.
The weather turned pretty sour during the day Saturday, and there was some lightning and rain (and a tornado watch!) when VIA 692 returned to Winnipeg from its long trip from Churchill. I shot the Hudson Bay at Diamond.
On Monday (April 26) I worked from home in the morning, and intended to work from my office in the afternoon. I drove up Wilkes Avenue at noon, planning to catch the Canadian on the way. I did see VIA about halfway between Kenaston and the Perimeter, right on time. The Canadian was extra-long, with 3 deadhead cars on the head end and 13 cars in revenue service.
Right after that, I was brought into a conference call. Rather than drive while talking on my cell phone (have you signed Oprah's No Phone Zone pledge? Neither have I), I elected to pull over. While I was on the phone, several more trains rolled on by.
CN 199 followed VIA out of the city, with CN 5641 and CN 2401 providing the power. The container traffic was on the head end here, with the miscellaneous junk trailing. I was able to step out of my car, take a shot, then get back to the call.
Shortly after that, an eastbound rolled by with CN 8907 and CN 2423. It may have been CN 198 but I'm just guessing. 198 often rolls into Winnipeg around noon. No photos for that one.
The fourth train was the twice-weekly CEMR train heading for the Carman subdivision. CCGX 4010, CEMR 4001 and CEMR 4000 pulled about 70 cars. I took a few shots through the windshield and this is the best of them.
Soon after that, my call was done and I continued on to the office. Maybe I need to relocate my office...
I was on vacation Thursday (April 1) to look after the kids. Of course my thoughts turned to railfanning, and we were on the road by 11:15 to go shoot the Canadian. I wanted to go to Elie to shoot it by the elevator on the west side. We headed down Wilkes Avenue and then onto highway 1, seeing no trains in the meantime. We arrived at Elie and set up to wait for the Canadian. I broke out sandwiches and we had a little picnic while we waited.
Just after 12:30, I heard VIA 1 calling the signals at east Elie. I got ready and soon enough they rolled on by. This is exactly the shot I wanted. The video, not so great. It started OK but the camera had focus problems and I caught the tripod's arm with my camera's strap and yanked it to the right. Sigh.
I decided that we should proceed on to Portage la Prairie and see if we could catch the Canadian on the west side. They beat us to Portage, but I heard them call a "clear to stop" signal meaning they were stopping, so that was good for me. As we went around to the west side, I saw a CP local heading west with a single unit pushing, five Simplot boxcars, six covered hoppers, and a rider caboose on the head end. No time for photos.
As we reached the west side of Portage, I saw an eastbound CN freight (CN 312) coming into town. 312 had two units on the head end. This is why the Canadian had to stop, since the Rivers sub is single track west of Portage. We set up in a field near the mall and waited for the Canadian.
The Canadian rolled by at about 13:25. Here's the whole train, again.
After that excitement, we drove around a bit in downtown Portage until CN 199 showed up. I decided to shoot it from the CN station. It had a very interesting consist.
It had Dash-9 CN 2525 followed by four Dash-8 units... BC Rail 4610, CN 2434, CN 2416, and CN 2429. Nice to see so many Draper Taper units!
We headed home after that. Somewhere along the way I saw a westbound CN freight and shot it from a long distance away. If I had to guess, I would say it had CN 8849 and CN 2649 for power but that is just a guess. The lead unit was definitely an SD70M-2, though.
It was a good outing!
I had a quick look at Miramichi on my way through this morning. UPM 711 was working the yard around 0950. There were a lot of cars in the plant.
At the NBEC yard, CFQC 3000 and NBEC 1840 were running around dodging snowplow 61612. They were getting out of the way for VIA 14 to come in. This was the first time I've ever seen 3000, so I was pleased it was such a nice day for photos.
At 1006 VIA 14 rolled in with three-eyed 6420 and 6415 leading a Renaissance train. They saw a fair bit of snow on the way from Montreal!
Around 1130 I heard NBEC 587 working at the Belledune smelter but I didn't have a chance to have a look.
David Morris, Peter Gough, Ken MacDonald and I left at 10 AM from Fredericton on November 9th to chase the special VIA Veteran's Train as it made its way from Halifax to Montreal. Our plan was to start at Onslow just west of Truro and chase him to Moncton.
We made good time and we were in Truro before 1 PM. As it happened the train was 17 minutes late leaving Halifax (thank you to the Othens for letting us know). We decided to head to Brookfield, just east of Truro, to catch him there.
Brookfield, Nova Scotia
13:20: As we rolled up to the crossing, we saw CN local 515 heading down the cement spur, van first with one car and 4774 trailing.
The CN Brookfield spur local with caboose
The brakeman and the engineer both gave us a friendly wave. Thanks, guys!
Quite a crowd gathered there to wave at the train. I talked to a few of the bystanders as I listened to radio chatter on the scanner (mostly 515's chatter). There was one woman there holding a Canadian flag who had keys to the nice little ex-CN station there, and she offered to let us in after the train went by. I reluctantly declined, as we had to boot it to Onslow next.
The CN Brookfield station
Pat Othen gave us another update and we talked with Bill Linley too.
Soon we saw headlights in the distance. The crowd gathered, the railfans set up for their shots, and VIA 15 blew through in fine style, Canadian flags a-flapping on engine 6420. (14:04) Note the extra headlight on 6420.
Cheering on the Veteran Train
I think the video looks OK except that I was a twit and didn't notice the wire running across the top of the shot. Sigh.
We sprinted for the car and took off. We saw CN 515 coming back to the mainline as we rolled past (14:07), so I grabbed a shot out the window as we sped toward the highway. I don't know if you can see it from this picture but there is some kind of eye marked on the nose. It must be a variant of "WASH ME".
CN 4774 at Brookfield, NS
Note the caboose still in its original position in the consist - NOT on the end of the train.
Onslow, Nova Scotia
Peter G drove us to Onslow in good time, and en route we heard the detector go off, reporting that VIA 15 was doing 66 MPH. Not too shabby! We had lots of time to wait at Onslow.
I saw there was someone up at the old Tatamagouche Road and there were a few railfans and other people at the Onslow crossing. I saw "VIAKEN" posted a photo from Onslow, so I guess he was one of them!
The train stretched out, leaving Truro
Finally the Ocean rolled out of Truro at 14:44. The shot from Onslow was great as we could get the whole train. I unfortunately clipped the Park car off the end of the first shot:
Three locomotives, no waiting
A Park car at Onslow
Once the Park car rolled through, we got on the road to Atkinson.
Atkinson, Nova Scotia
We arrived there and it was raining. Drat! Peter and Ken set up for the "coming" shot and David and
I set up for the "going away" shot. I had forgotten my hat in the car and I didn't dare go back to get it for fear of missing the train. Tim Dryden showed up a few minutes before the train appeared.
We waited for perhaps 20 minutes in the rain until the Ocean appeared at 15:36. Look at the flags on 6420.
We decided to get him coming into Amherst next.
Amherst, Nova Scotia
We stopped on the side of the highway and both Bill Linley and Tim Dryden stopped briefly beside us. After a quick chat, they hurried on to catch the train at the station.
We turned out to have two good shots, one long-distance showing the whole train and the closer one, which wasn't quite long enough to show the entire train. (16:15)
VIA's Veteran Train approaching Amherst, NS
Our next shot was at Fort Beausejour.
Fort Beausejour
I had never gone to Fort Beasejour before so I was interested in the photo opportunity. I usually go to Fort Lawrence, but after going to For Beausejour. I may never go to Fort L again!
You get three good photo ops at Fort B - approaching from Amherst, a foreground shot, then a long-distance going away shot once they go around the curve at Aulac.
The engineer gave us a couple of toots as he passed the Fort at 16:31.
The sun poked out enough to light up the train as it went across the Tantramar Marsh. Nice.
Sackville, New Brunswick
We tried to get the train at Sackville station next, but it apparently did only a single stop. It started moving just after we arrived at 16:47 and didn't stop again. There was quite an enthusiastic crowd at the station.
Veteran Train at Sackville
Memramcook
We ran up the old road and got ahead of him before Dorchester. We pulled over next to one of David's favourite spots and found Tim Dryden and Bill Linley already there waiting. The light was terrible and my video camera misbehaved, so I didn't get any good video here. (17:05)
Moncton
From there we sauntered into Moncton and arrived at the station after the train. They had the engines at the usual spot, so the Park car must have been on or before the overpass. I tried some night shots of 6420 and this one turned out pretty good. Not bad for no tripod, if I do say so myself.
VIA 6420 getting refueled in Moncton, NB
I saw someone else there taking photos of 6420, but he didn't say anything. Comment if it was you!
The Ocean left at 18:06 in practically total darkness. As I started to video their departure my camera announced that it had less than 5 minutes of tape left. It took almost 3 minutes for the entire train to roll out.
We went inside and shot a few photos of the decorated interior, and talked with a few railfans. The staff did a fine job with the decorations. I'm proud to say that the soon-to-be-New Brunswick Railway Museum supplied a few props, including this station board.
Station board from the New Brunswick Railway Museum
Art Clowes joined us for dinner, then we headed home. I got back home at 21:30, almost 12 hours after I left. It was a very good day.
