Dog Catching

You know the old yarn that in the Prairies, you can watch your dog run away for three days? It might be an exaggeration, but you sure can see a long way out here.

In early August I was in Regina, Saskatchewan, one of the flattest areas I've seen in the Prairies. I negotiated some railfan time early in the morning of August 8 and headed out at sunrise to get some shots. I shot a few grain elevators and then moved to the west side of Regina. I had noticed one elevator there on the CP mainline and wanted to see it. It's at the intersection of Pinkie Road and 13th Avenue, here.

It was raining lightly as I approached the main line. I saw a couple of CP GP9s working outside the Brandt facility. CP 1541 and 1533 were switching some tank cars.


They had an honest-to-god caboose there too, CP 434412.


I watched them switch for a while in the rain and took some video.


Finally, they coupled up to their caboose and I figured they were headed back to Regina, so I took off east on 13th Avenue to wait for them. After about 10 minutes I realized they were going west. Oops. I came back and saw they were waiting to go north just west of where I was. I took this long-range shot of the completed train.


I figured I would investigate where they were going, so I drove north to route 730 to have a look. I got snared in road construction and as I was waiting, I saw a westbound train approach. I tried to get to the crossing by 13th Avenue but the train was there just before me. CP 8866 and CP 8831 blew by.


I waited in the rain for the train to pass. CP 8521 was a mid-train DPU engine.


Good thing this is the Prairies! After the train cleared the crossing, I returned to the Trans-Canada Highway and headed west. Since everything is wide open it was obvious where the train was... just a kilometre or two north of me! I overtook the train and was well ahead of it by Belle Plaine, so I pulled off to shoot it there.

I saw there was a westbound train stopped at Belle Plaine in the siding. CP 8604, CP 5908 and CP 9614 were patiently waiting.


Those SD40-2 engines, once the primary power of Canadian Pacific, are getting more and more rare. The ES44AC engines and the AC4400CWs have taken over. I'm trying to get my shots when I can!


Soon enough CP 8604 West blew through. I had the shutter speed a little lower than I wanted, but I kind of like the light blur on 8604, suggesting motion.


I had my video camera set up too.


I was out of time by this point, so I headed back to Regina to rejoin my family.

EDIT: Added the videos.

Another Late Canadian

I was considering going to shoot the Canadian on Saturday when a message from a friend out east confirmed it for me. His friend was traveling coach on the Canadian and he wondered if I was going to shoot it... sounds like a good reason to me! I bundled the kids in the car and off we went to Wilkes Avenue.

I went east on Wilkes from the Perimeter, then started back toward Diamond when I saw headlights to the west. It turned out to be CN 314 on its way into Winnipeg, with CN 2556 and 5743.



We carried on to Diamond. I decided to shoot just west of Diamond, to include the west-facing signals in the shot behind the Canadian. We waited.. and waited.. and waited.. I don't know what it is about VIA these days, but Saturday's Canadian was the second late VIA 1 in a row leaving Winnipeg. VIA 1 finally showed up at 13:25, a good hour late leaving Winnipeg.

As a bonus, it had 3 engines.




By this time, the kids were starving so it was time to leave. As I was driving east, I heard CN 198 call the signals at Diamond, so I knew they were right behind me. In less than 5 minutes CN 8866 and 5673 arrived. I did not stay to shoot the whole train but I got the head end with the long lens.

I am going to try to shoot VIA 1 on Monday to complete the set of Canadians.