Waiting for the Sunset Train

I still can hear the whisper of the summer night
It echoes in the corners of my heart
The night we stood and waited for the desert train
All the words we meant to say
All the chances swept away
Still remain on the road to the dune
- "Desert Moon", Dennis DeYoung

After a successful evening of sunset Sprague subdivision railfanning, I went out again the following evening, hoping for some more good photos. This time I didn't take my son along, so it was a solo outing... kind of like Dennis DeYoung's first solo album, "Desert Moon".

I elected to start on the CN Rivers subdivision, since it has the highest rail traffic of any rail line around Winnipeg. When I arrived "on scene", there was an eastbound freight train rolling by, with another east-facing train sitting at mile 10. I chose to chase.

CN 2421 East

Too much train on my hands

CN 2421 and IC 2465 were powering that eastbound grain train. I elected to photograph them at Harstone Road, which is a crossing just west of one of my usual spots, Carman Junction.

I chose this location because I could get on the north side of the tracks, where the sun was. Since it was an eastbound train in the evening, the light wasn't great so I had to make the best of it.

IC 2465 - not a "Blue Devil"

These Illinois Central (IC) 2400 units (C40-8W locomotives) were originally owned by GE's Locomotive Management Services (LMS) and were leased to Conrail and painted blue. Eventually 12 of them became IC 2455-2466 and were dubbed "blue devils" by railfans. I like seeing them.

Sadly, IC 2465 was repainted sometime between 2013 and 2015 and is no longer blue. This was actually the first time I saw this unit, so I never saw it as a "blue devil".

Eric Gagnon has a great article on CN leasers between 1994 and 1998 that includes the "blue devils" when they were still LMS units.

Someone had dropped a pizza box in the middle of the road, so I had to include that in a photo.

MGLX 397044 and pizza

Note the ex Saskatchewan Grain Car Corporation car... now MGLX (Mobil Grain). It's one of several hundred purchased from the province.

About 15 minutes later, a westbound train came. As I drove west to find a spot to catch it, I found that CN 8899 East was still sitting at mile 10 on the north track. I pulled off the road and I was able to catch the meet.

CN 8800 West, Meet CN 8899 East

East meets west

I like how someone has cleared the grime off the reporting mark on CN 8800.

PRLX 250 returns

Note the unit in second position - PRLX 250 again! I saw that the previous night coming into Winnipeg, so here it was, continuing westward out of the city.

I definitely had to chase this train!

I headed west, past Diamond, to mile 15. There I set my old Canon T1i up on a tripod to record video, then shot the train as it went by.

Little potash train on the prairie

Those locomotives and the pink potash cars looked pretty sweet in the sunset light.

Another shot of PRLX 250? Why not?

PRLX 250 redux

The third unit was CN 2225, for those keeping score at home.

Here's the video...

I didn't feel like there were going to be any more CN trains for a while, so I decided to take a quick trip north to the CP Carberry subdivision and see if I could catch a train there before I had to head for home.

Luck was with me, because as I arrived trackside, I could see a headlight in Rosser, several miles to the west of me.

I found a crossing and setup for video and still photography. As the train approached, I could see it was an oil train. The sunset sure looked nice shining off all of those tank cars!

CP 9668 East

Shot of the day

I took a number of photos as the train approached. Say what you will about unit trains, to me they look very nice stretched out across the Canadian prairie... especially with some sweet sunset light on the side. This was truly "the best of times", in my opinion.

As the train passed, I pivoted to get the "going away" view as they approached a set of signals.

Highball!

Sunset snake...

Sunset snake

The tail end had another locomotive on it, and as the end approached, I saw it was a BNSF locomotive, BNSF 7413. I photographed them passing the signals, then I threw my gear in the car and gave chase, hoping for another photo of the BNSF unit.

BNSF 7413 splits the signals

Here's the video...

I wasn't really able to catch up to the train, but I grabbed this long distance photo of BNSF 7413 and the buffer car on the rear of the oil train before giving up and heading home.

The Grand Finale

As I turned onto St. Mary's Road, I spotted this sunset scene and had to pull over to capture it. That's the Investors Group Field stadium on the left, home of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers (arch-nemesis of my beloved Saskatchewan Roughriders).

Styx!

PS - I quoted Dennis DeYoung at the start because I finally saw him in concert, here in Winnipeg, on August 16. Dennis is the former lead singer of Styx. He and his band played at the magnificent Burton Cummings Theatre. I sat in the 4th row and enjoyed the performance of the full album "The Grand Illusion" plus many Styx hits. At 69 he still sounds great, and his band was excellent.

Dennis DeYoung and band in concert

If you get the chance, go see Dennis - or Styx - in concert. Both put on great shows.

Dennis DeYoung, up close and personal!

I don't think I mentioned it here, but I saw STYX on Vancouver Island...

STYX.. 72485

See Also

• Sublime Sprague Subdivision Sunset Sightings
• Not Just Waffles and Chocolate - Sunrise and Sunset
• Sunset Train
• Sunset Meet
• Quick Concert Photography Tip (Styx in Concert)

The T1i Rocks!

One question my wife asked me when I told her I wanted to purchase a Canon T1i was: we have a perfectly good camera, what will you gain with the new camera?

My answer: THIS.

CP 8800 and 9629 led a train through Indus, Alberta on Sunday evening, after sunset, and I still got the shot.

From past experience, I know that when the sun goes down, the Canon S3 goes back in the bag. It simply cannot shoot a moving subject in low light. Impossible. However, the T1i can do it.

This shot was taken with a shutter speed of 1/400s, aperture of F/4.6, and ISO 1600. The S3 is not capable of ISO "film" speeds greater than 800, and ISO 800 looks terrible on the S3. And this was with the KIT lens!

DISCLAIMER: I did bump up the brightness and reduce the contrast a bit when editing these photos. I was shooting JPEGs, not RAW. They still looked good right off the camera.

Here's the tail end of the train, with CP 8542 giving a shove.


I am very impressed with the T1i's capabilities. Very impressed.

CP 8800

Today's slide is a well-lit shot of MLW RS-18 CP 8800 in Fredericton, New Brunswick on August 29, 1981.

CP 8800 was built in July 1958 as the last number in the MLW RS-18 series for CP. As part of CP's RS18 rebuild program in the 1980s, it was rebuilt in 1985 and became CP 1831. Apparently something happened to it in the mid 1990s, as it was shown stored unserviceable in the 1997 Trackside Guide and it was retired on March 20, 1997 and scrapped.

There's a nice photo of CP 1831 on Railpictures, leading a train through Quebec in 1993.