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.
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!
The railfan news network was alive with the news that VIA's Canadian leaving Toronto on May 11 (through Winnipeg on May 13) had two "Canada 150" wrapped locomotives on the head end. This was the first time two wrapped F40PH-2 locomotives were on the Canadian, and perhaps the first time two operated together at all.
You may remember that VIA 6454 was the first "Canada 150" wrapped locomotive to visit Winnipeg. The second was VIA 6437 on May 4th and VIA 6416 on May 11th. I was out of town on both of those days so I didn't have an opportunity to see them.
A bonus was that this VIA 1 was also carrying a Rocky Mountaineer car west to home base in Kamloops, BC. These cars get refurbished now and then and I have seen them pass through on VIA 1 before.
What's a "Wrap"?
A quick aside to define what railfans mean by a "wrapped" locomotive or car. Locomotives and rail cars are painted initially. They can be repainted with a new scheme, or in VIA Rail's case they are usually covered with a vinyl "wrap" instead. Think of it like a giant decal. As a commenter on one of my previous Canada 150 posts said,
"They're a lot of work. First a crew comes in to clean the cars. Then a crew does body work and then we jump on them for the wrap. It takes 4 highly experienced 3M installers most of the day to complete one. We also did the Glen Fraser car and another biz class car with similar graphics. VIA then inspects them thoroughly."
Theoretically the wrap can be removed after the promotion is over, but in reality the locomotive or rail car normally needs to be repainted.
The Setup
I knew the Winnipeg railfans would cover it well within the city, so I decided to head east of the city and catch it somewhere on the CN Redditt subdivision. Before I went to bed on Friday night (May 12), I checked VIA's train tracker site and they said it was running a little over 2 hours late. Even better!
May 13... Saturday morning dawned... cloudy. Does a day really dawn if it is cloudy? Let me know!
Anyway... I woke up at 6:30 AM, and after a quick shower and breakfast, I hit the road for points east. I passed through Dugald and saw a few maintenance vehicles in the grain elevator siding there, and carried on to Anola. The siding in Anola was full of rail maintenance vehicles and there were a few pickup trucks around as well. Clearly some maintenance was planned for the day!
Subset of CN Redditt subdivision
I had originally planned to go all the way to Elma (mile 196.8) to catch VIA, but after checking VIA's web site again I decided to stop short, as the last thing I wanted to do was to get behind the train and miss it.
I drove into a few crossings east of Anola but none of them had great sight lines. I wanted a good side shot of the train so I had to have a wide view. I eventually decided on the small community of Vivian, mile 221.3 of the Redditt subdivision. I had been there before as it has a hotbox detector and Wheel Impact Load Detector (WILD) that I photographed for my article in the Trackside Photographer.
I parked on Park Street (heh) and walked around to find the best angle. I arrived at around 08:20 and nothing happened for half an hour. I had my scanner with me but nothing was going on.
I tried setting up my Canon S3 as a video camera but the batteries were dead. So I put my phone on the tripod... a little jury-rigged...
Eventually I noticed that a signal was lit.... and saw a headlight to the west! That can't be VIA...
CN 112
I wasn't really set up for an eastbound train but I did my best to capture CN 112.
CN 112 through Vivian, Manitoba
CN 8805 was on the head end and CN 2968 was on the tail end.
CN 2968 on the tail end
Odd how CN 2968 was facing forward... and what a rusty container!
They called VIA 1 to find out where they were. It turned out that the Canadian was not far away, in the siding in Nourse at mile 217.3, 5 miles east of me. They came in loud and clear on the scanner.
13 minutes after CN 112 left, VIA 1 arrived.
Peek-a-boo!
The Canadian in Vivian
VIA 6402 led the way as the Canadian rolled through Vivian.
"Canada 150" VIA 6402 and VIA 6436 through Vivian, MB
Here's a side shot of the two. The "Canada 150" wraps have 3 cities on each side of the locomotive. There are some cities repeated among locomotives, as you will see, but each side lists different cities. VIA 6402 has Ottawa, Winnipeg and Montreal on the engineer's side and VIA 6436 has Vancouver, Ottawa and Moncton. Canada's capital city was well represented!
A full look at VIA 6436:
VIA 6436 in Vivian, MB
VIA 6441 was the third unit - three units on the Canadian is unusual - and the first car after 6441 was a Rocky Mountaineer car, RMRX 9525.
Rocky Mountaineer #9525
It was, of course, empty.
You may recall that when VIA has carried the Rocky Mountaineer cars in the past, they had to put the car between the two locomotives due to the cabling used. I'm told there is new cabling so that VIA Rail can marshal the Rocky car(s) behind the locomotives and just pass the Head End Power (HEP) cabling through. It looks nicer too!
The going-away shot was not that impressive but I was there for the head end, not the tail!
Kootenay Park on the tail end of the VIA Rail Canadian
Here's the video of VIA 1 through Vivian with the two "Canada 150" locomotives. When you watch the video, note the two Skyline dome cars together.
Here's the complete consist:
VIA 6402
VIA 6436
VIA 6441
RMRX 9525
VIA 8609
VIA 8106
VIA 8143
VIA 8503
VIA 8517
VIA 8413 Louise
VIA 8308 Bliss Manor
VIA 8341 Thompson Manor
VIA 8313 Cabot Manor
VIA 8301 Abbot Manor
VIA 8339 Sherwood Manor
VIA 8316 Christie Manor
VIA 8324 Dunsmuir Manor
VIA 8327 Fraser Manor
VIA 8224 Chateau Roberval
VIA 8228 Chateau Vercheres
VIA 8208 Chateau Dollier
VIA 8212 Chateau Latour
VIA 8219 Chateau Montcalm
VIA 8509
VIA 8414 Palliser
VIA 8206 Chateau Denonville
VIA 8227 Chateau Varennes
VIA 8708 Kootenay Park
I've highlighted the Skyline domes and the two diner cars. Now if you were a poor soul in Dunsmuir Manor, you had to walk forward through six sleeping cars to get to diner Louise or back through six to get to Skyline 8509 and through that to get to diner Palliser. Talk about a long stroll to get a bite to eat!
I think it might have been better to stick one of the domes between the Manor and Chateau cars, but maybe there were good reasons to marshal the train as it was.
After VIA rolled through, I tossed everything in the van and took off west in chase.
A Quick Grab
Surprisingly, I overtook VIA very quickly. I had not expected to overtake it at all, really, but I thought I'd give it a shot. Since I overtook it well before Anola, I turned up a side road and quickly parked to grab the power rolling through.
Side on view of "Canada 150" locomotives near Anola, Manitoba
After shooting those, the chase was on again.
I zoomed through Anola - slowing down to 60 km/hr, grrr - and carried on toward Dugald. I was well ahead of them by this point so I decided to shoot them at the grain elevator in Dugald.
VIA 1 in Dugald
I wanted to get the other side of the train to get the other six cities. Since it was cloudy, light direction was not a concern! I parked by the baseball field and rushed over toward the track to grab the shot.
VIA 1, the "Canadian", through Dugald, Manitoba
There was no time to set up for video so I just dropped the tripod and shot some stills.
VIA 6402 in Dugald
VIA 6402 had Moncton, Saskatoon and Kitchener on the conductor's side, while VIA 6436 had Guelph, Winnipeg and Montreal on the left. Note that Winnipeg is on both engines, just on different sides.
VIA 6436 in Dugald
The going away shot was a little better here.
Kootenay Park in Dugald, Manitoba
(I like how Chrome wants to correct "Kootenay" to "Hootenanny")
Enough
At that point I gave up the chase, as I didn't think I would catch them again. I would have had to crawl along at 60 km/hr and risk getting stuck behind traffic, and they had a clear shot to Transcona and beyond and there was no way I would catch them again before they parked at the station downtown.
Instead I elected to go east outside Dugald and wait for the promised 4 westbound CN freights. That's for another post...
From Others
Jack Hykaway was near Nourse just east of me and recorded VIA 1 coming through.
He also included VIA 6416 (from a week ago) in the video. Thanks, Jack!
Ken Storey photographed the 12-hour late VIA 1 through part of BC. He has several photos in his excellent VIA Flickr album but to me this was the shot of the day.
You'll note that the locomotives are different from when I saw the train. VIA 6402 was dropped at Saskatoon, I believe, and 6441 came off at Jasper and was replaced by 6453. It's too bad the wrapped unit wasn't leading. The odd thing was that the Rocky Mountaineer car wasn't dropped at Kamloops but instead went all the way to Vancouver.
(this is part 3 of a series. Read part 1 first if you like!)
After railfanning in Winnipeg, I planned to go to Portage la Prairie sometime during my stay in Winnipeg this December. My wife and I decided that December 27 would be the best day for me to go. For those who don't know, Portage is an ideal railfanning location due to the CP and CN main lines running side-by-side with only a few hundred feet between them. I had visited Portage once before, on July 27, 2004.
I set out from Winnipeg before sunrise to maximize the light. As I passed over the CN mainline at Wilkes Avenue I saw a westbound train rolling by. I figured I would probably beat it to Portage. I stopped in Elie for a quick bathroom break, and when I emerged from the gas station I heard a train horn. Elie, by the way, was the site of a very violent tornado on June 23, 2007. No high winds in December, thankfully. I hit the road and paced the train for a while. It looked very nice silhoutted against the prairie but it was too dark to take a photo.
I eventually decided to cut it off before Portage, so I took the exit at Oakville and rushed to the tracks. I taped it at 08:05 as it passed the local grain elevator. Unfortunately it was still pretty dark and the video camera struggled with the focus. The train had CN 2252 and 2239 leading 168 (!) cars.
I took up the chase again, but on the scanner I heard them calling the outer limits of Portage and I knew I could not get downtown before them. I decided to go around Portage and get them on the other side, as they would have to slow down through the city. By the way, their calls told me this was CN 769.
I found a small crossing just west of Portage, with plenty of time to set up the tripod and take some stills. At 08:30 CN 769 blew through. For trivia's sake, this was the longest train I've ever seen.
After that excitement, I headed downtown to see what was up. I was thrilled to see two big units on the CP side, until I realized they weren't going anywhere. CEFX 118 and CP 9138 did a little switching in the yard, then parked on the secondary line and sat... and sat... with red lights on the signals indicating no other trains around. There were two other CP units in Portage, 3120 and 6039.
I just noticed that I saw CEFX 118 once before - in Chicago on May 8, 2007. The other time I saw CP 3120 was in... Portage la Prairie!
I did a little driving around, a little photographing, and eventually I saw a headlight to the west. At about 09:54 CN 346 rolled through with CN 2533 and 2233 pulling 95 cars, a mixed consist with a lot of forest products. CN 2533 is an old friend to the Maritimes, and I saw it once in Saint John, NB on November 1, 2006.
I made a crucial mistake after that train, getting into my car, and missed a CN container eastbound at 10:03 with 2 units. They passed under me when I was on the bridge. Dang it.
I saw a CN track foreman near their little hut by the VIA station, and I asked him if he knew when the Canadian would be coming through. He checked the RTC display and said they would be by around 11:00. He mentioned the Hudson Bay was on the Gladstone sub but would be coming through soon. I thanked him and went up to the bridge to get overhead shots of those two.
I eventually saw a little headlight to the west that turned into an F40PH. From the length of the train I could see it was VIA 692, the Hudson Bay, running 3 hours late at 10:33. It had VIA 6456, 6445, baggage, coach, coach, diner, and sleeper Chauteau Viger. They did not stop at the station.
Soon after that, VIA 2, the Canadian, came by at 10:44, 50 minutes late. The consist was VIA 6436, 6453, deadhead sleeper Fraser Manor, baggage, coach, 8227?, Skyline, car, Skyline, diner Emerald, sleeper Draper Manor, sleeper Butler Manor, sleeper Dawson Manor, observation car Tremblant Park. As it approached me, the Canadian disturbed a group of birds that were feeding on spilled grain between the rails.
After that, nothing. Nothing on the CN side, nothing on the CP side. Oh, I shouldn't say "nothing" because CP 3120 eventually rolled out and started doing some shunting. The two big CP units rolled down a little way to make room for 3120.
I had told my wife I was leaving at noon, so I was starting to get nervous. As noon approached I saw the lights on the CP side had changed, and at 11:48 a CP eastbound rolled through with CP 9700 and 9663 leading a long doublestack train.
CP 3120 pushed a short train out of the yard with a boarded-up CP caboose at the head end.
Right after that, the two big CP units hooked on to their train, and left at 12:03 with CEFX 118 and CP 9138 leading 88 cars.
I hit the road back to Winnipeg. I heard a CN track foreman on the scanner talk to the RTC, and the RTC mentioned there were two westbounds coming through shortly. Sure enough, I heard CN 115 call its way through Portage at 12:20. Therefore, one more westbound on the way! I decided to try to get it at Oakville. As I turned off the highway, I saw it approaching across the wide open prairie. As I zoomed down highway 13 I was trying to figure out who would get to the crossing first. I'll cut the suspense... it was me by at least 5 seconds. I screeched to a halt before the gates, hopped out and started filming. Westbound CN 303 rolled through with CN 2554?, IC 6058, and 113 cars (I knew it was CN 303 by some later scanner traffic).
With that I headed back to Winnipeg, a little annoyed by the lack of CP traffic but otherwise satisfied. I was especially pleased to bag two VIA trains. 4 CN trains, 3 CP trains, and 2 VIA trains... not too bad.
