Wrapping Up Kamloops

This is the sixth and last in a series about a May 2015 visit to Kamloops, British Columbia. Start at the beginning.

After seeing the Rocky Mountaineer off, I returned to downtown Kamloops to see what was going on with CP. At 20:15 I found a crew that apparently had just put their power away.

Too bad I didn't have the focus right. :(

Facing west from the same pedestrian bridge, I saw CP 8904 at the head of a coal train waiting to enter downtown.

Kamloops is a crew change point and they switch crews right beside the pedestrian bridge. Here's 8904 pulling up to the office to swap crews, from ground level this time.

On coal trains, CP seems to run a toaster* in the lead followed by one of the SD30C-ECO units (refurbished SD40-2 units). They then have another toaster as mid train power and one more on the tail end. I saw this combination multiple times during my times in Kamloops.

* toaster = squarish, boring locomotive aka AC4400CW or ES44AC. A derogatory railfan term.

So, to recap: toaster and SD30C (CP 5018) on the head end:

Mid-train toaster (CP 8923) with a little bonus coal on the dynamic brake fan grids, and crewman giving the train a rollby inspection:

Finally, end of train toaster (CP 8915).

I like the SD30Cs but the endless parade of ES44s and AC4400s... I don't understand why some people say CN has no variety in its locomotives!

After they passed, I walked down to the parking lot visible in the distance to shoot a side-on view of the parked locomotives. I was especially interested in CP 5875 with its multimark.

I think I had the camera on my monopod, on a timer, holding it up over the chain-link fence. Better than trespassing!

I shot CP 6250 as well but the angle wasn't as good.

After that, I wandered over to a nearby ice cream shop to top up my energy. As I walked out, I heard the tell-tale thrum of big diesels and ran to the crossing to find CP 8615 pulling up for a crew change.

You can see a piece of the pedestrian bridge that I was standing on for several of these photos. The plexiglass barriers make it a bit challenging to photograph from some angles, but you can jam the lens in between the panels if necessary. I suppose they are there to discourage littering.

By this time (20:45) the light was getting dim. I was using a shutter speed of 1/20s so there is some motion blur. Note that 8615 (with 8754 and 8922) was meeting a westbound freight in the yard.

After the tail end passed, CP 8624 (and 9683) throttled up and rolled on by with its intermodal cargo.

I packed it in for the night after that.

I didn't railfan at all on May 14th - shocker! - and I didn't intend to railfan on May 15th, but while driving to the airport I spotted a pair of CN locomotives switching the fuel facility by YKA (Kamloops airport). I grabbed a couple of quick photos before returning my rental car and boarding.

CN 5268 and 6023 were shuffling tank cars around.

PS - My flight back home was pretty uneventful. As we descended to land in Winnipeg, I photographed the Fort Garry area with my iPhone. You can see the former Manitoba Sugar property on the left, the CN Letellier subdivision across the bottom left of the photo, and Chevrier Boulevard running up through the middle of the photo.

Thanks for reading about my Kamloops adventures! You can start back at the beginning or read all my Kamloops stories.

I'll be posting about my grain elevator adventures in northwest Manitoba soon... stay tuned.

The Grey Cup Train, Part 1

On Saturday, October 6, I took my kids to Union Station in Winnipeg to see the Grey Cup train. It was scheduled to be open for viewing from 11 AM to 4 PM. We parked at 10;30 and the line was already quite long.


At 11 sharp they opened the gates and we started shuffling along. By 11:07 we were crossing under the entrance archway. They had quite a greeting party out.


The Winnipeg Blue Bombers cheerleaders were doing a great job welcoming everyone.




We lined up inside the station. As we slowly made our way through the station, VIA was calling passengers to board the westbound Canadian. It took until 11:43 until we climbed the inactive escalator to see the Grey Cup train on track 3. Here's VIA 6445 proudly at the head of the train.


You may remember that VIA 6445 was the lead engine on the Coors Light train too.


VIA 6445 was one of the last refurbished engines for VIA. I had expected that it would not be refurbished until after this gig, but it is obvious that it is a refurbished engine. In fact, you can see that they applied the Grey Cup decals right over the refurbished logos.


You can see the refurbished colours on the rear of the engine.


The next car was VIA 8615, and that's where we boarded.


Here's a sneak peek of what was in the car. VIA 8615 had an excellent display of the history of football, especially Canadian football.


On part 2 of this I will continue on through the two CP cars and then out to the Grey Cup itself, which was not actually on the train!

PS: Here's a great series of photos of the Grey Cup train when it was in Vancouver.

Grammar extra: Nothing drives me crazy more online than people using "sneak peak". This is wrong. It is SNEAK PEEK. Grrrr.


READ PART TWO