Railfanning with Michael Berry, Part 3

Michael Berry and I went railfanning on Saturday September 3rd. Michael is from Montreal and wanted to experience Winnipeg's railfan scene. In part 1 we went to CN's Diamond and in part 2 we visited the Prairie Dog Central Railway. This is the third and last part of the story.

After we finished photographing the Prairie Dog Central's steam train, we drove back down the Perimeter Highway toward CN's main line. We wanted to catch VIA's Canadian out there and we didn't have a lot of time.

However, we were hungry.

Wizard Needs Food, Badly

Am I the only one here who played Gauntlet?

We stopped at the Tim Horton's near the raceway on Portage Avenue to grab a quick sandwich... so we thought. The lineup wasn't long but the service was quite slow... so slow that we had to ask if our orders had been forgotten. We were reassured that they hadn't.

Michael was checking the VIA web site on his phone and noted that VIA 1 hadn't left the Winnipeg station. Note that due to some quirk on VIA's site, you can't see VIA 1's status using their normal web site but you can see it on the mobile site. It's https://tsimobile.viarail.ca/ and it's important to include the "s" in https.

Eventually our food came, and we raced back to my car and hit the road. As we approached the CN Rivers subdivision, we saw a westbound intermodal train. We crossed over the train - thank you overpass - then set off in pursuit. It was clear that we weren't going to catch up to the head end, but the train had a DPU on the rear, facing the sun, so it was worth chasing to get that. We caught up to it just before Diamond and we bailed out to get the shot.

Trailing but still a worthwhile shot!

We hopped back in and chased it for a few more kilometres, to try to get it on the curve at mile 16. I like this photo because it shows the super elevation at the curve.

CN 2938, taking the turn

We left off the chase here. On our way back to Diamond we ran into Brian, the "Mayor of Diamond", and his girlfriend Deanne. I need her to convince my wife to accompany me on more railfan trips! ;)

After a brief chat with His Honour, we set up a little east of Diamond to get VIA 1 in the wide open spaces.

CN had other plans, though, and sent CN 347 along first.

CN 347

This train is an interesting one, certainly one of the most recognizable CN freights in the Winnipeg area. It always has a lot of empty centerbeam flatcars on it, empties going back to British Columbia for more lumber loads.

This CN 347 had CN 8924 and CN 5695 for power, followed by... nothing but centerbeam flats.

Grab a chair!

I noticed two discarded lawn chairs nearby and stood them up as props for this train. Something different...

Michael was a little closer to the tracks... though not as close as this might indicate.

Getting the shot

Empty car after empty car rolled by, seemingly without end. After what seemed like forever, but was actually only 3 1/2 minutes, the end of the train passed.

Finally, the end of CN 347

After that, things were quiet for a few minutes, until the next train came along...

The Canadian

VIA 1

Here's one little chair for one of you, and a bigger chair for two more to curl up in. For someone who likes to rock, a rocking chair in the middle. - The Friendly Giant

This was a good summer length train, two locomotives and 23 cars. It wasn't going as fast as I would have expected.

I was very happy with the going-away shot. Glacier Park was beautiful in the early afternoon sun.

One of the few trains that looks better leaving than coming

Railpictures.net liked it. They also liked Michael's version of the same shot.

Michael was listening on his scanner and he heard them call a "Clear to Stop" signal. I urged him to jump in the car and we set off in hot pursuit.

Normally you can't chase VIA 1 as it is rolling along at 60 MPH or greater, but with a "Clear to Stop" indication, they would not be going too fast. We hurtled along the dirt road, observing the speed limit, and overtook the train within a couple of miles. We jumped out to get the second series of photos.

VIA 6452 on the open prairie

There was a friendly table in the Acadian diner!

Friendly waves and intense focus

I found it interesting to contrast Michael's shot choices with mine. In general we never stood beside each other and took the same photo. He seems to prefer a more head-on approach whereas I like the wide open vista photos. Maybe it's a city versus prairie perspective?

After VIA 1 passed for the second time, we jumped back in the car and chased it for a few more kilometres. We came to the highway 424 crossing - with a stop sign - and I decided that would be it for the chase. We bailed out once more and I shot video at the crossing while Michael took some more photos.

That was the Canadian.

Over the Hump

We left Diamond after that, and as I was driving back toward where Michael was staying, we decided to take a few minutes to visit the hump at Symington Yard. This hump is one of the few hump yards still operating in Canada (CP's Winnipeg hump shut down several years ago) and there are usually three sets of power either at work or ready for work. This day was no exception.

A set with CN 7522 / 7511 was on the hump itself.

CN 7522 / 7511 on the hump in Symington Yard

Another set with CN 7500 / 7513 was sitting to the side.

CN 7500 / 7513 in Symington Yard

The third set was pushing cars over the hump. This was the set that Michael was really looking for, the one with three SD40-2 units! CN 6015 / 6005 / 6012 and 225 were well down toward Navin.

Slug and three SD40-2 units... what could be better?

While we were looking at the hump set, CN 3047 was pulling south/east out of the yard. We believe this was train CN 438.

CN 3047 leaving Symington

That was the end of our time together, and I dropped Michael off to meet up with his family and I headed home to my own family. Railfanning is fun but family is way more important!

Summary

We saw 7 trains over 6 hours, which is pretty good, I think. I hope Michael was pleased with his Diamond experience and I look forward to see more photos from him from this trip and from his normal Montreal railfanning! Thanks for reading and thank you Michael for the company and the experience.


Further reading:

• 10 Questions with Michael Berry
• Hump Yard Dogs
• Michael's Railpictures.net profile
• Back to part 1

What a Contrast

Here are two VIA trains from this week, and what a contrast between them!

First up was VIA 693 aka the Hudson Bay on Tuesday. We have some pretty nice autumn colours this year, and you can see them as VIA 6452 approached Shaftesbury Boulevard on its way out of town.


There was a brush fire a bit south of the tracks and the VIA crew were warned about the lack of visibility. The fire had been burning for a few days and Tuesday's high winds were not helping.


Fast forward to Thursday noon and it was snowing! The whole day was miserable with mixed snow and rain. I only shot the Canadian because I had to go out for an errand.


What a difference two days made.


Epilogue: The Grey Cup train was in Portage la Prairie today and hopefully the weather was a bit nicer there. John at the CP Rail Manitoba and Minnesota Sub blog caught the train in Minnedosa, and I plan on seeing it Saturday morning.

Portage Junction Tuesday

I wanted to shoot the Hudson Bay VIA 693 on Tuesday, but I was bored with the usual Wilkes Avenue shots. I decided to head to Portage Junction by Fort Rouge to get a different angle.

Workers are hard at work on the Southwest Rapid Transit Corridor and much has changed in Fort Rouge. One beneficial thing for railfans is that they have built a large mound of earth near the Junction that is great to stand on to shoot trains. Previously it was hard to get a shot over the fence separating the tracks from the rest of the area, but now you can stand on the hill and easily shoot over the fence.

The Winnipeg Free Press just released an article about the corridor and it looks like the photographer was standing on the same mound.

First up was a westbound container train. I didn't catch the number but it was headed by CN 2283 and BCOL 4653.


I understood that CN 112 and VIA 693 were both going to pass the location around the same time, and I was concerned that the freight train would block my view of the VIA train. Fortunately, VIA came just before CN 112 did.

I like the composition of this photo but the focus is soft.


Here comes VIA 6452!


They went around the bend at Portage Junction to meet CN 112, who was coming east on the south track.


CN 112 had CN 2200 on the head end.


CN 2260 was pushing hard on the tail end. There were no other engines on the train.


Look, I even included the Tim Hortons sign in the shot. Now you know it's Canadian!

Extra Sleepers

After my visit to the Winnipeg Maintenance Centre, I realized I hadn't been shooting the Winnipeg-Churchill train (VIA 693) much lately. I resolved to remedy that, and I started on Tuesday. I went to Carman Junction to wait. The Hudson Bay was more or less on time and I grabbed a few shots.




As they passed I sprinted to my car, hoping that they might slow down before Diamond. Being a good railfan, I had parked it facing the right way.

I caught up with them just past the detector at mile 10. As I approached Diamond I saw they were slowing, so I hopped out of the car just short of the stop sign. They paused very briefly and then headed out.


The trailing unit was VIA 6449, which I saw in the WMC. They had three Chateau sleepers, two more than the usual consist.

Some Recent VIAs

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.


Check out the video, and the lightning at 0:16.


Th-th-th-that's all, folks!