VIA Rail's Canadian has been notoriously late this winter. At times VIA 1 (westbound) or VIA 2 (eastbound) has been well over 12 hours late and sometimes more than 24 hours late. Today's VIA 1 and VIA 2 were no exception.
VIA 2
VIA 2 was almost 24 hours late today. It was supposed to arrive at Union Station downtown Sunday (yesterday) at 8:45 PM and leave at 10:30 PM.
I was downtown this Monday evening and noted VIA 2 at the station at 6:30 PM. I don't know when it arrived but that was almost 24 hours late.
I parked at the Forks and at 6:35 PM I noted two VIA locomotives zooming east past the station toward the head end of their train. I'm not sure what they were doing but I have a theory.
They were not so late earlier this morning, but they lost a lot of time. Maybe there was a problem with one or both locomotives and they had to swap them out at the Winnipeg Maintenance Centre. Regardless, VIA 6458 and 6454 ran to the switch, then reversed in toward the station. The odd thing was that they didn't immediately couple onto their train.
I just had my iPhone 6 with me so that was my best camera!
I walked around, trying to find an angle to see the two locomotives from VIA 2. The CN track is higher than the land around it so it's hard to find a spot where you aren't looking up a hill at the trains.
I found a spot where I could scramble up a snow-covered hill to get close to level with the tracks. There's a fence here, so I held my phone up to the fence with the lens between the wires.
VIA 6454 (closer) and 6458 in downtown Winnipeg at night
VIA 6454 still has its full "CANADA 150" wrap.
They sat there for a long time... or at least what seemed like a long time. It was pretty cold outside (-22C or -8F) and my fingers and toes were feeling it as I waited for them to couple up.
After 15 minutes, I decided to give up and find some warmth. As I walked under the overpass I spotted VIA 1 rounding the bend by the Shaw baseball park by the Red River.
In the photo below, notice the signals at the extreme left of the photo. That's probably why they stopped there.
VIA 6409 in Winnipeg
Note former "CANADA 150" locomotive VIA 6437 trailing. This locomotive still has the giant yellow VIA wrap but the red "CANADA 150" has been removed... at least everything but the "15"...
VIA 6437 in Winnipeg
They started to head into the station tracks as VIA 1's two locomotives finally backed toward their train. Maybe they lingered there for the crew to help line the switches?
VIA 1 arriving in Winnipeg - quite late
I walked under the York Avenue overpass to photograph them from the north side of the tracks.
VIA 1 and VIA 2 Meet
I wanted to get the two trains meeting, with the Museum of Human Rights behind as the background.. that would have been magic.
Yes, it sure would have.
Too bad my phone's battery died in the cold.
sigh
I'll just have to tell you what happened. VIA 2's locomotives backed onto the baggage car until it bumped, but they didn't couple. VIA 1 pulled up to overlap VIA 2's locomotives slightly, and one of the crew dismounted to line a switch to go into the station one track north of VIA 2.
It looked like a very tight squeeze to me, down on the road below, but I'm sure there was more clearance between the two trains than I saw. Regardless, VIA 1 pulled into the station very gingerly. No scraping noises!
Interlude
I had had enough of the cold and headed inside to warm my extremities and charge my phone.
As I walked away, I heard a "ding, ding, ding" of an engine bell. I turned and saw CCGX 4206 and CEMR 4002 - of the Central Manitoba Railway - running light to the east, exercising their running rights over CN as they returned to their yard in North Transcona.
VIA 2 left shortly after 7 PM, apparently as soon as they could after VIA 1 got in.
VIA 1 at the Station
Once my phone's battery charged up over 50%, I went over to photograph VIA 1 at the station.
VIA 1 at the Winnipeg, Manitoba station
That was it for me. I left the downtown at 8 PM and I saw on VIA's tracking site that VIA 1 left at 9:30 PM, only 9.5 hours late... so far.
I hope VIA can find a way to get the Canadian closer to schedule. The cold is not helping but I think it's CN's congestion that is really hurting VIA. I'm not sure what the short term solution for that is.
PS I caught a late VIA 1 two weeks ago at the station, also in bitter cold... I think the photo below is slightly better than tonight's. Better spotting by the crew for photography ;)
VIA 6459 and 6437 in Winnipeg, January 15, 2018
I wish I had managed to photograph the two trains at the Winnipeg station together - a very rare occurrence - but at least I saw it.
Think what that money could bring / I'd buy everything
Clean out Vivienne Westwood / In my Galliano gown No, wouldn't just have one hood / A Hollywood mansion if I could Please book me first class to my fancy house in London town
- "Rich Girl", Gwen Stefani featuring Eve
When I was in southern Ontario in early August, I planned my route from the Leamington area to Waterloo and realized I would pass right by London, Ontario. A glance at the VIA Rail schedule showed that there was a good chance of catching at least one VIA train at the time I would be near London - VIA 73 at 14:23.
Not knowing the area at all, I decided to get downtown to the station and see what angles were possible there. The tricky part was that although London is basically right beside the 401 highway, the downtown certainly isn't and it took some time to get downtown.
I found the station without trouble (thank you Apple Maps) but parking was a problem. As I drove around, a VIA train slid into the station from the east. I decided to park in the Impark lot across York Street, paid my fare, and sprinted across to try to get any kind of shot before the train left again.
Richmond Street goes under the tracks, and I grabbed this quick shot to record the engine number if nothing else.
Not my best work
VIA 6457
I was on the "wrong" side of the sun so I jogged under the tracks to get to Bathurst Street on the south side of the tracks. I should mention that it was a hot day and of course I had no water with me.
I felt it was a good thing I did jog, because 6457 pulled ahead about 90 seconds after I took the above photo.
VIA 6457 and friends in London
VIA 6457 had coach VIA 8112 and galley business car 4004 in tow.
"Whew," I thought, "glad I caught them before they left."
I turned my attention to the station platform, where I could see a train with a P42DC "Canada 150" unit was waiting.
From where I was, it was very difficult to get any kind of shot. I should mention that there is a chain link fence between Bathurst Street and the tracks.
There's a train there, somewhere
I took all of these photos by holding my camera up above the fence and shooting more or less blindly in the direction of the tracks.
I shoot in manual almost all the time, so I already had the right exposure, but the focus and composition were a bit "hit and miss". This led to tossing about 40% of my photos and a lot of cropping. You do what you have to do!
As I stood there, wondering whether I should move to a new location or stay where I was, I heard the ding-ding-ding of an engine bell. Here was VIA 6457 coming back... on a different track, I presume.
VIA 4004 leading the way
Note the person in the end of 4004 keeping an eye out.
They headed east, and I never saw them again. I'm not sure where they were going, backwards.. I know there's a wye in town so maybe they were going there to turn the train around.
VIA 905
Right after VIA 6457 and friends rolled by, the "Canada 150" train in the station left. It turned out to be VIA 905 leading, the same locomotive I saw two days earlier at Jeannette's Creek.
VIA 905 in London
In fact 905 had the same cars on the train, too, just in a different order. 905-4007-4006-4110-4113.
I'm pretty sure that was VIA 73.
I told you I was shooting more or less blindly by holding my camera above the fence line. Here's an unmodified photo showing some of the "interesting" compositions I was getting.
A little horizon leveling might be in order
Not my best work.
In less than a minute, they were gone.
Gone, baby, gone
Wrapping Up
I can't 100% explain why VIA 6457 and those two cars were there. My theory is that they came with VIA 905 from Toronto as a "J train" (two trains together) to be prepositioned to be a train to Toronto later in the afternoon.
Any other ideas?
Here's a view of the VIA station from across the street.
Both CN and CP have yards in London but I didn't see any of CP's and very little of CN's. Michael at the Beachburg Sub blog has written threeblogposts on London to date, focusing on CN and CP, so head on over there!
I see London has one model train store, Doug's Trains - or is it Pete's? My model train directory has it as Doug's but the Google Street View shows it as Pete's. Who really owns the store???
This is VIA 905 leading a four-car VIA 78 at Jeannette's Creek, Ontario on August 14th, 2017. This post will explain how I got this shot. I will explain how I planned to catch the train, and how I decided where to catch it. I hope you can get a tip or two to help you improve your own photography.
Planning Ahead of Time
I was working in the Leamington, Ontario area on August 14-16 and I hoped to catch a VIA train passing by one evening. You may remember I was there around the same time in 2012 and caught VIA 78 leaving Windsor. This time I wanted to see a VIA train "en route".
Which Train?
I didn't care too much about which direction the train was going, although I would have preferred a westbound given that I was photographing in the evening. I looked at VIA's schedule page for the Toronto-London-Windsor schedule and the Windsor-London-Toronto schedule.
Here's the eastbound schedule. I could link to the PDF but it'll break soon when they switch to a new schedule.
VIA schedule Windsor to Toronto
Looking at this schedule, the only train that passes between Windsor and Chatham in the evening is VIA 78.
What about westbounds?
VIA schedule Toronto to Windsor
There were two westbound evening trains, VIA 75 and 79. Clearly VIA 79 is too late for photography - it would be dark - and VIA 75 would be pushing the light as it would be after 9 PM.
VIA 78 was my best bet.
Now Where?
I did a fair bit of work with Google Maps looking for a location. I considered the area between Tecumseh and Chatham as a reasonable area to reach after work and before VIA 78 went through.
The railway skirts the south edge of Lake St. Clair. That looked very attractive to me - a lakeside train photo? Yes please!
However, a lot of Street View viewing showed me that the railway isn't actually next to the lake, and there always seems to be a row of houses and/or trees between the railway and the lake. Not so attractive.
On a previous visit, I had tried to catch VIA at Belle River just NW of Saint Joachim on the above map, but missed the train by "that much". I didn't really like the location so I didn't want to return there.
After poking around on the map, I kept coming back to Jeannette's Creek.
The circled areas were of particular interest, mostly because of their proximity to water.
So, the decision was made... Jeannette's Creek.
When?
VIA 78 was scheduled to leave Windsor at 17:45 and arrive in Chatham at 18:32. I looked at where Jeannette's Creek was in relation to those two, and it's about 60% of the way to Chatham. A little math says it should pass through at around 18:13... assuming a constant speed between the two cities. Good enough.
Planning in Real Time
After work, I booted it up through Tilbury on highway 1 to its termination at highway 2, then headed right into the tiny town of Jeannette's Creek. I decided to get trackside ASAP and start checking locations in person.
Location 1 - Mile 75.39
I was trackside at 17:35 at mile 75.39 of the VIA Chatham subdivision, on the Jeannette's Creek Road crossing - the third green oval from the left in the map above.
Here's the view to the east at the crossing.
I didn't take a photo toward the west. The sun was right in the way and I could tell right away that shooting an eastbound train here would not be good.
I did notice that the east-facing signal had a blinking yellow signal over red.
That's... maybe... Advance Clear to Stop? Rule 415?
I'm sure someone will correct me.
Anyway, it didn't tell me anything I didn't know. A train was coming... sometime soon.
I decided to try the marina crossing - the second green oval from the left on the map above.
Location 2 - Mile 76.2
This one was really problematic.
From the Google Map view, it looked good as it had a bridge over the Thames River tributary and could be interesting. However, in person there were several problems.
First, the area around the crossing was clearly marked as private property, so I couldn't get anything but a head on shot without trespassing.
Second, the more-or-less head-on east-facing shot above was directly into the sun. The photo above looks OK but that is an HDR shot, combining three photos into one to get the most range without any blown pixels or really dark shadows. You can't do HDR photos of a moving train.
Without HDR, the best I could have done would be something like this.
That has deep shadows and the train would be mostly shadowed. Not good.
I even went around to the crossing at the other end of the bridge to look at the going-away photo, and it wasn't any better.
That's a big nope.
Location 3 - The Keeper
I went to the third location, where the track crosses highway 1 - and the creek - just east of Jeannette's Creek. I arrived at 18:07... time was getting short!! I had to set up quickly.
The biggest plus of this location was that I could get a side photo of the train. There isn't much room on the road bridge so I didn't want to stand there. This perspective has a lot of "foreground clutter", so I walked down the bank a bit and set up there.
Better.
All right.. tripod set up with phone on it.. check. Camera settings.. check. Test shot.. check. Ready at 18:14.
Planning Pays Off
The crossing bell started ringing at 18:18. I started the video recording on my phone, and scrambled up to the bridge deck to get into position. I fired off another test shot as the gates came down, then VIA 78 rocketed into view.
Oooh! A Canada 150 wrap!
I banged off a couple of shots as the train zoomed through the crossing.
Here's a bit of a closeup of VIA 905 with the "Canada 150" wrap... my first wrapped P42.
Next shot was the lead shot in this blog post, then I snapped a photo of each of the four cars in the consist:
VIA 4007 (VIA 1 business car)
VIA 4006 (VIA 1 business car)
VIA 4113 (economy coach)
VIA 4110 (economy coach)
Here's the last two:
Keep in mind that the train was zooming along at a good pace. The time between the first photo (the train approaching the crossing) - and the one above (with the last two on the bridge) - was 9 seconds. The VIA Rail tracking app said the train was going 124 km/hr!
Camera Settings
I'll interrupt here to talk about camera settings. I knew the train was going to be fast, so I wanted to ensure a high shutter speed to freeze the action. Given the lighting conditions, I ended up picking 1/800s for the shutter speed, an aperture of f/6.3 and ISO 200.
Normally I want to shoot at the lowest ISO possible for my camera, ISO 100, but that would have meant either slowing the shutter down or opening the aperture up and losing some depth of field. So I compromised and used ISO 200, which doesn't have much noise.
I normally use an aperture of f/8.0 when photographing trains to get good depth of field. I knew I'd be shooting mostly side-on, so depth of field wasn't as important as it would be when shooting a long train stretching off into the distance, so f/6.3 was a good compromise.
The End
There really wasn't a good "going away" opportunity here. There's a lot of shrubbery along the right-of-way and this is the kind of shot you get.
You must return here with a shrubbery or else you will never pass through this wood alive!
I did get a "whole train" going away shot but it was really far away.
Just a little bit obscured
That was it - 24 seconds from first sighting to disappearing in the distance. ZOOM!
I walked down to my phone on the tripod and shut it off. Here's the video - very brief!
I was very pleased with how the shoot turned out. My advance planning and the scouting around for the best location worked out.
After that, I went back to Leamington for the evening. I walked along the beautiful waterfront - it's been really nicely done - and took a photo of the lovely sunset.
You may recall I was planning the shoot a while ago. The train was scheduled to be on display in Winnipeg on August 4th from 5 PM to 8 PM at the Southdale Community Centre in Winnipeg, on the CP Emerson subdivision.
I listed five opportunities to shoot the train. After negotiations with my wife, I was able to capture it at the community centre (and departing), and in the morning of August 5th as it left Winnipeg.
The Train at Southdale
Canada 150 train on display at Southdale
Honestly, CP couldn't have picked a better spot to showcase this train. The four units and part of the train were easily visible from the west, well lit by the setting sun, and easily accessible from any direction. Thank you, CP!
I arrived on site shortly after 6 PM. The show had already started but I bypassed that at the start to get some photos of the train while the light was still good. The sun was out but there were some clouds threatening to block the sunshine, plus there are some trees to the west that were going to cast shadows on the train. Shoot while you can!
I met up with a few local railfans who were up by the head end (nice to see you, Jeff, Ken, David and Chad!), took a few photos and chatted for a bit. I decided to walk up the train on the sun / west side and take some photos along the way.
CP 4107 in Winnipeg
CP 1900 - not a lot of "B" units around these days!
CP 4106 was a late addition
Walking the Train
I wanted to photograph every car, since the train was so pretty. I have seen some of these cars before on the Holiday Train but not so up close and personal. Many of these cars are part of the Royal Canadian Pacific collection, used for some very expensive trips!
There were some private security people posted all along the train, but as I found out, they were there to keep people from crossing under / through the train and to keep people from vandalizing the train.
I chatted with a couple of them and they were very nice.
The lead car behind CP 4106 was CP 95, a former baggage car that is now a generator car. It has the Royal Canadian Pacific shield on it.
Following CP 95 was MOUNT ROYAL / CP 93, then KILLARNEY / CP 71 and BANFFSHIRE / CP 85. The first two are superficially similar - both 83' passenger cars with an end platform - but MOUNT ROYAL weighs 15 tons more than KILLARNEY (102 tons versus 87 tons). I wonder why?
After BANFFSHIRE were two special cars for this train - the "Spirit of Tomorrow" car and the stage car.
The Spirit of Tomorrow
CP 102 - the SPIRIT OF TOMORROW car
The "Spirit of Tomorrow" car has over 8,000 "pixels" on the car. Each "pixel" is a card that a child has written their hopes for "tomorrow's" Canada on it. I think it's a really neat idea.
The finished car will be part of the 2017 Holiday Train.
CP 102 is the ERNEST "SMOKY" SMITH car underneath. Ernest Smith was the last living Canadian Victoria Cross recipient. He received his VC for tremendous courage at an action in northern Italy in 1944. This railcar was dedicated to him in 2003, less than two years before his death.
Next is the stage car, boxcar CP 42901. This is one of the two stage cars used in the CP Holiday Train and features a wide stage that drops down to host the performers at each stop.
CP 42901, the stage car
The car was repainted with a giant Canadian flag replacing the Holiday Train logo, and it had panels added on each side, with the Canada 150 logo on one and the CP Beaver shield on the other.
Next was MAJOR ROGERS / CP 103, ROYAL WENTWORTH / CP 78, and CRAIGELLACHIE / CP 84.
Craigellachie... I'll be visiting you soon!
Following that was MOUNT STEPHEN / CP 74 and ASSINIBOINE / CP 70. Those two had their platforms facing each other.
Platform to platform
Someone was out making a phone call, but didn't really want to be photographed. :)
Up next was NR CRUMP / CP 79, STRATHCONA / CP 82, VAN HORNE / CP 77, gym car CP 104, business car CP 2, and finally theatre car SANDFORD FLEMING / CP 1.
SANDFORD FLEMING
What a beautiful train!
In the weeds...
The Show
The show at the CP Canada 150 train
There were several performers travelling with the train, including:
Canadian band Eagle and Hawk (Edmonton and Winnipeg only)
By the time I got around to the stage, Dean Brody was performing... and he was putting on a good show!
Dean Brody in Winnipeg
Now, country music isn't really my thing.. to say the least.. but I enjoyed Dean's songs. He was performing with a lot of enthusiasm, interacting with the audience, and the band sounded great.
Dean Brody, #ConnectingCanada
I had a look at the SPIRIT OF TOMORROW car on this side. I liked a lot of the messages here. Click on the image to expand.
SPIRIT OF TOMORROW
I didn't take many photos of the dark side of the train. They would have been awful. I did take a lot of photos of Dean and a few of the crowd. The light wasn't great, but you work with what you have.
As I was walking away toward the head end, he launched into his signature song, Bring Down the House. That one I knew!
Head and Tail
Back at the head end, I met up with photographer Kevin Siemens and chatted for a bit. He and I met at the destruction of the Meadows grain elevator... something I will write about soon. Too many posts in the queue already...
Anyway, we waited patiently to get a head-on shot of CP 1401. It took a while to get a gap with no people in it - and you know patience isn't my strong suit - but eventually the opportunity came.
CP 1401 head on
This is a combination of 3 shots using Adobe Lightroom's HDR (High Dynamic Range) feature. I did that because I was shooting toward the sun and I didn't think I could get enough range without blowing out the sky or having the locomotive's nose be too dark.
The train was scheduled to depart at 8 PM to go back to the CP downtown yard. There was a rumour that the train would be heading south to Grande Pointe to meet a northbound train. That would have been exciting... but the engineer of the train came along and a quick conversation confirmed that the train was just backing up to the yard.
The engineer - another Steve - was very friendly and I had a good conversation with him. He was quite happy to be driving the train and considered it an honour to be able to run an F unit.
Just before 8, I walked back to the rear of the train to record its departure. There were a few other railfans there as well as some "muggles" aka casual onlookers. At 8 sharp the train started backing up and off it went. I took video of its departure.
I went home after that.
The Next Day
The train was due to leave Winnipeg at 9 AM. I decided to catch it crossing the Floodway as it headed east on the CP Keewatin subdivision.
I wanted to shoot it from the east side of the Floodway, facing east. Since it was leaving in the morning the light would be on the nose - great.
Unfortunately, I had never tried to photograph from that area before. I drove up Deacon Road / highway 207 then turned left right after the tracks. I photographed the CP Holiday Train in 2016 right at the intersection, but I had never been near the Floodway.
The departure of the CP 150 train
I couldn't find any way to get from the Springfield Road 63N to anywhere near the Floodway bridge. There is a little private crossing above the "K" in the map above, but it is nowhere near the bridge.
Time was running short, so I decided to head for the west side of the bridge. There's a walking trail along the Floodway. I parked at the public lot at the end of Gunn Road and walked the kilometre up the trail to the tracks.
I set up there and the train made its appearance at 09:07, right on time.
CP 1401 and the Canada 150 train leaving Winnipeg
It looked glorious in the early morning light, and sounded great too!
Bye bye, F units!
Here's the video of its departure.
Love those maroon cars!
Off to Ontario
So that was that.
A Bonus Train
As I was halfway back to my car, I heard a horn to the north. Another train! I quickly trotted back a ways and set up to record CP 8850 dragging a grain train west across the bridge.
CP 8850 and the Floodway Bridge
There was nothing really remarkable about this train, but it was nice to catch it nevertheless.
Thanks
Thanks to Canadian Pacific for organizing this train and show, and travelling across most of Canada so Canadians can experience a train and a great show for themselves. Thanks to engineer Steve for chatting with me, and thanks to certain anonymous railfans for detailed information on the train and its schedule.
