Confessions of a Train Geek: 8013

Showing posts with label 8013. Show all posts

Saturday, April 28, 2018

Four Days in April, Part 1

#GoJetsGo

In a span of about a week in April, I made a point of getting out and photographing trains. I ended up shooting trains on April 14, 16, 17, 18 and 19, and I am going to share each outing in a separate post.

Saturday, April 14th

My son goes to a class in downtown Winnipeg on Saturday afternoons, so I ended up with some time on my hands in the area. With the Winnipeg Jets in the playoffs, there are Jets banners and signs everywhere!

I went to the Forks, which is a prime tourist area where the Assiniboine River flows into the Red River. The CN Rivers subdivision and the CN Redditt subdivision meet at VIA Rail's Union Station. These days the CN line is busy but it is sometimes challenging to get a good photo angle. I was in the mood to try something a little different.

I went over near the historic Nutty Club building. I was visualizing a photo that included that building and the CN line, and trying to figure out where to stand to incorporate both into a photo in a pleasing way. Ideally I would have a really tall stepladder so I could look straight down the bridge over the Red River and capture a train there with the Nutty Club building to the left. Since I don't have that, I tried this angle to see how it worked.

Nutty Club building and train, Winnipeg

I think it's OK but it's not ideal. I like the building but I don't like the large gap between the building and the rails, and I also don't like the trees obscuring a lot of the train. I keep thinking that it would be great to get some elevation. Maybe I need to make friends with someone in the office buildings nearby.

I'd like to try a shot a little further left from where I was standing to close that gap.

The baseball field, Shaw Park, is on the other side of the tracks and it would be nice to incorporate that too. I would need a wider lens, for sure. I tried this photo of the park with the CN line but the early afternoon light was all wrong.

Shaw Park sign, bridge, and train... a winning / Winnipeg combination?

I do think this angle has some promise with better light.

After that train passed, I went to the Winnipeg Railway Museum. I was contacted a while ago by someone who is making a detailed scratchbuilt model of the Countess of Dufferin, the historic steam locomotive at the museum. They wanted some photos and measurements of the main driving wheels and the underside of the locomotive, so I took those. While I was there, I heard the rumble of an approaching train, so I stuck my head out the Dutch door between the museum and the VIA Rail train shed. CN 2240 was slowly pulling an oil train east, so I framed it up with the VIA "YORK" diner parked in the shed.

CN 2240 passing the VIA Rail train shed in Winnipeg

I wanted to leave some empty space on the left for the train to "move into", but also include the diner car and the arch of the shed roof. It turned out pretty well, in my opinion. I was fortunate that the CN train was crawling along, so I could take the time to compose it the way I wanted.

I'm not sure why the diner and other car were in the shed. A VIA engineer, who should know, was pretty certain they were there for training.

Diner YORK and other VIA Rail car

I bought a couple of items from the museum's well-stocked gift shop, then left the station. The oil train was STILL crawling along, so I walked over to the bridge over the Assiniboine River and photographed the tail end crossing the river. Note the lack of a buffer car - not required in Canada.

CN 8013 on the tail end of an oil train

It was time to pick up my son, so that was the end of my railfanning for the day.

It's important to always be trying new perspectives, especially when you're photographing in a location you've been to many times before. Use your imagination and be willing to experiment. It's not always going to work out, but you can't find gold without sifting through some rocks. Stretch your photographic muscles and you'll be a better photographer.

Read part 2

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

A Rocky Mountaineer Evening

After my tranquil Tranquille afternoon, I headed over to the south side of Kamloops to see what was going on at the CP side of things.

I'm a little confused on the timing of this train but I think all units are the same train. The time stamps are off because the first photo was taken with my Canon and the other two were taken with my iPhone. CP 8739 and 5004 were the leaders.

I think they must have been the same train because there's no way two westbound coal trains would have passed by me within two or three minutes. I just can't figure out why I would have used my Canon for one and then sat in my car for the other two.

Anyway. After the coal train passed, I went down to the ~~Weyerhauser~~ Domtar mill and spotted spreader CP 402880 and plow CP 400648. There is a wye there that used to service a sawmill and it is a handy place to park equipment, I guess. I spotted a Sperry "doodlebug" there back in August 2013.

I headed back to downtown Kamloops after that, because I knew the Rocky Mountaineer was due in. Very exciting! I have been to Kamloops several times but always when the Rocky was not running, so this was my first chance to see it in Kamloops.

There were several busses arriving by the former CN station (now a Keg restaurant) and I asked one of the bus drivers when the train might show up. He said it was arriving at 7 PM, and sure enough I spotted it coming off the CP main line at 7 on the dot. This train was coming from Banff and had to get onto the CN Okanagan subdivision to A) drop passengers off at the station and B) proceed to their depot in the CN yard.

Here they are.

It might have been nicer if they had closed the door, but I guess they don't cater to railfans... ;)

Here's a little glint shot as they roll under the Red Bridge just before stopping at the station. The main building of the Kamloops Heritage Railway is visible under the bridge.

I have to say that the onboard crew appeared to be universally cheerful. Nice wave from a pair of them here!

They disembarked the passengers at a reasonably brisk pace. They were at the station for just over 30 minutes, so I didn't have a lot of time to grab photos. Here's a photo showing the train in downtown Kamloops at the teeny CN yard there.

The KHR is just visible to the left with a stub end track. The former CN station is visible behind the garish yellow CN "no trespassing" sign. Off camera to my right is the Interior Savings Centre, a multipurpose facility hosting the Kamloops Blazers hockey team as well as a prime concert venue. I was fortunate to see Sarah McLachlan there on my last visit (for maybe the 5th time?).

After taking a few photos of the stationary train, I went down to the South Thompson River. I've wanted to capture the Rocky Mountaineer on the bridge over the river ever since I first visited Kamloops, and this would be my chance.

RMRX 8013 came into view first. Note the Red Bridge in the background.

They crept across the bridge, and I was photographing away, waiting for the perfect opportunity... wait... wait... NOW.

That's what I came for. W00t!

(you can buy this print)

One final frame, and we're good for the night.

Next up.. CP in Savona, more Rocky, lots more CP, and back to Tranquille. Read on! Thanks for reading!

Sunday, January 18, 2015

Return to Banff, Part 2

My family camped in Banff, Alberta in July 2013. In part 1 I described a successful early morning of railfanning in Banff and at Morant's Curve. Here I complete the tale, still at Morant's Curve near Lake Louise.

After the three CP trains rolled by, there was a lull for about an hour. During that time I walked up to the small parking lot near Morant's Curve to look at the interpretive display.

At 08:18 CP 9724 started around the curve.

You can see that the sun has finally reached the track!

Here's the video:

That was exciting... but I decided it was time to head back to Banff to try to catch the Rocky Mountaineer. On my way there, I saw a bear up the hill from highway 1A. I took a couple of really long shots before continuing on.

Once I rejoined the Trans-Canada Highway, I spotted a westbound CP freight waayyy in the distance. I stopped at a scenic viewpoint and took a couple of photos of CP 8877 West.

I arrived at the station in Banff to find a large crowd of people waiting for their train. At a few thousand dollars per person, there was a lot of money spent on the Rocky Mountaineer!

They came to a stop and the passengers started boarding. It didn't take very long for everyone to get on board.

This is my favourite photo of the Rocky Mountaineer in Banff.

I like the "swoop" theme they have on their train now. Contrast that with the red-white-blue scheme they had in 2010:

Note that 8012 was the second unit in 2010, and it was the leader on the Rocky Mountaineer in 2013.

I didn't hang around to see them leave as I wanted to catch them "on the road". I took this near head-on photo and headed west.

In 2010 I had waited at Banff for the train to leave, and ended up sprinting to get a shot of the Rocky on the road. I wanted a bit more time to set up so I left before the train. I drove to Muleshoe on the 1A and parked at the scenic outlook, and headed down toward the track with my cameras and tripod.

I set up the tripod and put the Canon S3 on top, then fired a few test shots with my T1i. Given that the sun was off to the left but ahead of me, the lighting was tricky. I ended up using an exposure bias of -1.3 stops to keep the sky from blowing out. It's always a good idea, if you have time, to fire off a test shot or two and see how it looks and check the histogram to ensure it's not over- or under-exposed.

The Rocky Mountaineer rolled along and I captured this photo - exactly what I was looking for.