Railfanning the Brooks Sub, Again

After photographing the Carseland local train, Jeff Keddy and I continued along the CP Brooks subdivision outside Calgary. We drove past Gleichen and stumbled across this grain elevator just southeast of the town.


This is the Paterson Long Plain elevator. It is shiny new, having opened on June 28 2012. It has a storage capacity of over 42,000 mt and includes a 130 car loop track, so unit trains can be loaded without breaking them into pieces. It's so new that if you look at the area in Google Maps, it is just a field.

After burying myself up to the knees in snow to get that shot, I made my way back to the car and we went back to the Trans-Canada Highway to continue east. After about five minutes we saw a westbound general freight train. We decided to turn around and chase it into Calgary. It became apparent that we could easily get back to the grain elevator before the train, so we took highway 901 and set up near the crossing to get the train. Jeff was going to get the shot around the bend, and I had three photo opportunities: the "coming" shot at the crossing, a side shot with the grain elevator just ahead of the train, and a "going away" shot.

I managed to screw that up quite nicely.

Here's the coming shot, out of focus.


The side shot was a total disaster, way out of focus and I was too late and the train obstructed the elevator.

At least the going away shot was OK.


We hit the road and went around Gleichen on highway 901, arriving at the next crossing well ahead of the train. We set up and soon enough CP 9767 came rolling along.

CP 9767 near Gleichen, Alberta

I was pleased with that one.

I tried to shoot it with the signal, and it turned out OK, I think.


We carried on toward Calgary. I figured we could easily get to the overpass at Indus and get an overhead shot of the train. We parked off the overpass. As we walked up the overpass, there were headlights visible coming from Calgary. We hurried up to the top of the overpass in time to catch CP 9517 leading a container train.


They must have met at Dalemead. After a while, CP 9767 rolled into view with the Calgary East grain elevator in the background.


We went into Calgary to see what was up with the CN and CP yards after that.

P.S. The last time I saw CP 9767, it was a mid-train engine on a potash train near Banff. Times change!

P.P.S. I put "again" in the title because I used Railfanning the Brooks Subdivision already for a blog post in June 2010.

Waiting For The Rocky Mountaineer

After my Morant's Curve adventure, I decided to get up early in the morning of August 8 to shoot the Rocky Mountaineer as it made a stop in Banff.

The Rocky Mountaineer was due to pick up passengers at 8:20 AM. I didn't think I had enough time to run out to Morant's Curve afterward and still be back at my campsite by 10, so I elected to stay near Banff to get the shots.

I got up at 5 AM, showered, then hit the road to Banff East to wait for the westbound Rocky Mountaineer. I knew that was too early but better early than miss the shot!

At 6:05 AM a westbound potash train came rolling past with an abundance of power. CP "toasters" (AC4400 engines) 9764 and 9720 were on the head end, with CP 9767 in the middle and CP 8602 bringing up the rear.

I brightened this shot quite a bit. Those unit trains of Canpotex cars were getting familiar by now. I heard they were to proceed to the siding at Massive to wait for an eastbound.

Since I wasn't going to get the Rocky Mountaineer at Morant's Curve, I needed to look for a spot to shoot them west of Banff. I did a little driving on highway 1A and found a spot I liked. I then decided to find Massive and sure enough, I did find it. It's a little ways off the highway but accessible via a trail.

As I parked my car and prepared to walk down the trail, I heard the eastbound train they were meeting. I sprinted down the trail only to find that the waiting train was blocking the shot! :P I did a quick grab shot of CP 9767 then ran back uphill to my car.


I beat them to the 1A / Trans-Canada Highway ramp and pulled over to shoot the train there. I pointed my camera and... the flash popped up. Much cursing ensued. My camera decided the light was too low and, even in Sports mode, decided to try a flash. The train flashed by and I jumped back into the car and gave pursuit.

I finally caught up with them at Banff East and shot them at 07:20. The train was an intermodal eastbound with CP 9559 and CP 9500 leading, and CP 9575 mid-train.

This was shot from the shoulder of the highway.

I checked in at the Banff station and there was no sign of the Rocky Mountaineer yet. I hadn't heard them clear Canmore so I knew they were nowhere near Banff.

In the meantime, I caught CP 8858 East at Banff East at 08:20. This was a big intermodal with 8858 and CP 9722 on the head end, CP 8844 and CP 9827 spread singly in the train, and finally CP 8749 pushing on the rear.


Still no Rocky Mountaineer! What was going on?

Read on!