Christmas Eve Action

I hope the holiday season has brought you joy. I had a bit of joy on Christmas Eve when I went out railfanning!

I bundled the kids in the car and headed to Diamond to try to catch the VIA Rail Canadian as it left. I was a bit late leaving home but I hoped that VIA 1 was also a bit late.

On my way around the Perimeter I spotted a CEMR train at Oak Bluff, with the locomotives on the east end, ready to go back into Winnipeg. I decided that I had a few minutes before they would start rolling so I carried on to Wilkes Avenue and headed east to try to cut off VIA 1 if it was coming.

Well, VIA wasn't there, but I did see a CN westbound train, led by CN 2853.

CN 2853 in Winnipeg

I went west out to Diamond to see if I could see any eastbound trains. No more CN trains were visible but I saw a CP train waiting to go north on the Glenboro subdivision. This was a solid grain train led by CP 2305, CP 3100, and multimarked CP 5765.

CP 2305 and company on the Glenboro

In this photo they are just beginning to pull as they got their light to cross.

Weary CP 5765 was the only six-axle power on the train.

CP 5765 pulling

I decided to try to get the train crossing the Assiniboine River. In order to do that, I had to beat them to the crossing by driving along Harris Road / highway 334, a gravel road.

Fortunately Harris Road was mostly clear so I was able to sustain 70-80 kph (speed limit: 90) and get to highway 241 ahead of them.

I crossed the river and parked on the wide shoulder just north of the road bridge, then sprinted across the road and back to the road bridge to capture them crossing the nearby train bridge. Did I say "bridge" enough in that sentence?

I got to the bridge a few seconds before the lead locomotive started to cross. Just enough!

CP crossing the Assiniboine River

I've always wanted to get a train there. Cross that off the list!

After capturing that, I returned to Diamond at a more leisurely pace. Within a few minutes, I spotted a headlight to the east that looked VIA-ish. It was indeed a 40-minutes-late VIA 1, with 6426 and 6453 leading the way.

The VIA Rail Canadian in the snow

Prestige-class car "Prince Albert Park" brought up the rear.

Prince Albert Park

I was glad that I didn't miss the Canadian after all.

After it passed, we carried on to Carman Junction to see if CEMR had passed through already. I spotted it approaching the junction and took a few shots. I was surprised to see that they had five locomotives... surely some kind of record for CEMR. Normally you see two or maybe three. I don't expect all five were running.

They pulled up to the derail and stopped.

CEMR at Carman Junction

Fan favourite SD40-2 CEMR 5396 was leading, followed by new-to-me CCGX 5201, SD40-2 CCGX 5311, and two long-time CEMR GP9s CEMR 4002 and CEMR 4000. CCGX 5201 is a rare SD38AC (ex DMIR).

The conductor came out to remove the derail and then got back into the cab. They sat there for a while, clearly waiting for permission to enter the Rivers subdivision.

I spotted a headlight to the east, which turned out to be CN 8917 heading westward.

CN 8917 throwing up snow

I waited another 20 minutes but CEMR wasn't moving and there was no more CN traffic visible, so we headed home.

It was a great 1.5 hours of railfanning. I managed to capture CN, CP, VIA and CEMR. A nice early Christmas present. :)

PS - Railpictures even liked my VIA 1 and CN 8917 shots. :)

Chasing Down the Glenboro

In early September I found myself out at Diamond, looking for a little train action. When I arrived there at 11:15 AM I found a CP train waiting to go south on the CP Glenboro subdivision.

CP 8610 waiting at Diamond

The train, as it were, was two CP locomotives and zero cars. CP 8610 and 8917 were patiently waiting for their turn to cross the diamond. They waited... and waited...

Half an hour later, a westbound CN train rolled into view, led by CN 2302 and CN 5656.

CN 2302 at Diamond

The CN train rattled and banged across the diamond. I tried my timing to capture the CP train between two freight cars. After numerous photos I did manage to get it.

You can see that the CP crew had opened the front door by this point, maybe to let a bit of air in.

After the CN train passed, the CP crew got the light to cross the diamond and they did so just after noon.

CP 8610 and 8917 crossing highway 427

The chase was on!

I decided to continue west on 427 then head south on 424 to meet up with highway 2. The track crosses 424 near the community of Springstein. At one time there was a CP siding in Springstein, together with a post office, school and church. It still has a church but otherwise it is a collection of houses.

I was able to get there ahead of the pair of "toasters" to capture them approaching the highway crossing.

Toasters in Springstein, MB

After that, it was a simple matter of getting on highway 2 west toward Starbuck. I arrived well before them and had a quick look around. There were no cars at the Pioneer grain elevator so I knew they weren't going to stop there. I decided to try to incorporate the two model grain elevators into the shot so I walked around a bit to get the right angle. Soon the locomotives rolled into town.

As it happened, they stopped at the highway 332 crossing for the conductor to flag them through, so I had time to grab a quick shot of the locomotives and the elevator before getting back to my planned shot.

Here's the shot I had planned.

Back in the car, and off to the next spot...

I couldn't resist trying to grab the locomotives on the curve out of town, with the elevator behind them. In retrospect I should have gone just a bit farther so the elevator and the engines were closer together.

The next spot was Fannystelle. Again I arrived well before they did, so I had a few minutes to decide what to incorporate into the shot. I decided to try to include the Stevens Lumber building. Here's my attempt.

I'm sure the crew were sick of seeing me by this time!

Here they are passing the Viterra elevator in Fannystelle. Notice that there are railway cars spotted near the elevator. I believe there were 4 or 5 BNSF grain cars there, but the CP locomotives carried on without stopping.

I decided to grab them between Fannystelle and Culross, and I framed up the handy hay bale to include in the shot.

That might be my favourite.

I wanted to get the locomotives with that nice white Paterson elevator in Culross. My 18-55mm lens was not quite wide enough but I did manage to fit the whole elevator in. Barely.

The problem here is that the highway was right at my back so I couldn't go back farther without standing in the road, and that's not terribly safe!

Elm Creek was next. Surely they were stopping at the Cargill elevator there!

Nope... they rolled right past the giant fire hydrant in Elm Creek and through the town.

The Elm Creek fire hydrant really is that big

I guess they were going all the way to Rathwell. I gave up the chase at this point (13:05) and photographed the new-to-me Cargill switcher in Elm Creek.

Cargill switcher and grain elevator

That green structure to the left of the elevator proper was added recently, and I believe a track or two were also added.

CRGX 602 is an SD38, originally a Penn Central unit.

CRGX 602 in Elm Creek, MB

It's new to Elm Creek, presumably acquired after the expansion of the Cargill facility there.

That was the end of my chase. Here's the map showing where I chased. For most of the trip, highway 2 runs very close to the Glenboro subdivision.

That was fun! :)