I was in Saint John, New Brunswick in mid May 2018. I met up with Caleb Wentzell in the evening for a little... OK, a big chase.
Our target was CN 406, the daily Moncton-Saint John train. It usually heads down to Moncton in the afternoon and returns in the evening. Railfans were excited about this train because it had two leased units, CREX 1505 and CEFX 1011.
On the way down, CREX 1505 was in the lead. Since I was working, I missed that, but I knew it would be returning in the evening. Caleb was in town and wanted to meet up, so we arranged a rendezvous along Rothesay Avenue in Saint John, by the Ocean Steel rebar plant.
This is a good location because it's at the "throat" of Island Yard. All of the yard tracks converge just south (railway west) of the crossing there. When I arrived, I could see CN 2977 on the "bypass" track in the distance. I took this long shot using my 70-200mm lens and cropped in a fair bit.
CN 2977 pushing back in Saint John
As I watched, they pushed back and around the bend, out of sight. I imagine they were pushing the potash cars back onto the back half of their train to make up the whole train.
I knew this would take some time to complete, as they would have to do a full air test before coming back to my location. I ducked out to grab some supper, then returned to the location to wait for the train and wait for Caleb.
Caleb showed up, and we said our hellos. He had a few model train cars for me - part of a trade we made more than a year ago but never actually completed in person. Patience pays off...
Eventually CN 2977 pulled up, followed by the lease units.
CN 2977 with leased locomotives
As they pulled past, I took the opportunity to photograph the leasers.
Leased locomotives in Saint John - CEFX 1011 and CREX 1505
We didn't wait for the whole train to pass. We had discussed shooting it by the Rothesay train station, as Caleb had never shot a train there, and I always like that location. We were traveling in separate cars, because Caleb was going to carry on to Nova Scotia after the chase, and I had to return to Saint John to work the next day.
Rothesay
CN 2977 passing the historic Rothesay train station
Well, that shot worked well.
We arrived several minutes before the train did. Since there was no sun out, we had our choice of angles. I decided to shoot from this angle to include the historic station. Caleb was a little closer with a wider angle.
I shot the other leaser, CREX 1505, as they passed by us.
CREX 1505 on train CN 406
This time, we were trapped by the train, so it was time for a selfie by the train.
Caleb Wentzell and yours truly. He's quite a bit taller than I am!
We discussed our next move, and we decided to get them at Hampton. It's fairly easy to get into from the highway.
Hampton
When we arrived in Hampton, I suggested going to the one lane iron bridge just before town to get an overhead view. We arrived just in time to catch the train snaking around the curve and blasting underneath us.
Overhead view of CN 406 at Hampton
While breathing in those tasty diesel fumes, I grabbed overhead views of the two leased locomotives as well.
Overhead views of CEFX 1011 and CREX 1505
Next up... Norton! I had never been there, but Caleb had, so he led the way.
Norton
CN 406 at Norton
I liked that old building, now used as a recycling depot. I think this location would work well for westbounds as well, because you could include that yellow building seen in the photo below, plus there are a few interesting buildings on the other side of the tracks.
CN 406 rolling through the crossing
The next shot was a grab shot near Apohaqui, by the highway. It was getting pretty dark so the photography was getting challenging.
Apohaqui
Roadside view near Apohaqui
Caleb was showing good shooter form as he photographed CN 406 going away.
Bang bang
Caleb suggested another overhead view just west of Sussex. This was a good choice, as going into Sussex would be challenging to do in time, and we'd have no chance of another shot after that.
Sussex
Overhead CN 406
This would have been nicer with more light, but what can you do? I think the location was good and the photos turned out OK.
CEFX 1011 from above
Our final location was Penobsquis, by the shuttered potash facility.
Penobsquis
Here I elected to shoot video, as I hadn't done any video, and I knew this was the last spot. It's pretty dark and backlit, but here it is.
Once the train went by, we took a few photos of the potash facility... and its lonely locomotive.
PotashCorp plant in Penobsquis
Their locomotive is an EMD SW900, originally CN 7253.
Penobsquis switcher locomotive
The angle wasn't great but it was all that was available.
I said my goodbyes to Caleb and I headed back to Saint John. It was great to see him again, and I look forward to railfanning with him again!
Running Extra
NB Southern's yard in Saint John
I didn't do much railfanning the next evening, but I did take this photo of NB Southern's yard and shops from the nearby overpass. You can see their passenger equipment on the left edge, a few tracks in. A GP38 and a blue MP15 are at the shops, with a GP38/slug set on the side, and a few locomotives in storage at the back.
In Fredericton, I bought the latest book by Owen Laukkanen, noted Canadian mystery writer (and railfan!), Gale Force. It's a thriller based around a salvage tug and its crew. If you like thrillers by Clive Cussler, you'll love this book.
I had a very early flight and I intended to sleep on either the Saint John-Montreal leg or the Montreal-Winnipeg leg, but this book is such a page turner that I read it straight through with nary a yawn. Highly recommended. BUY THE BOOK
In a span of about a week in April, I made a point of getting out and photographing trains. I ended up shooting trains on April 14, 16, 17, 18 and 19, and I am going to share each outing in a separate post.
Tuesday, April 17th
On Tuesday evening, after washing the dishes and other post-supper activities, I decided to try some sunset rail photography. I headed out to a familiar location, CN Diamond just west of Winnipeg. Here the two-track CN Rivers subdivision provides plenty of rail action.
First up was an eastbound train, led by CN 2167, 2629 and 5413. It's a little harder to photograph eastbound trains at sunset because you're shooting into the sun. I positioned myself on the north side of the track to capture the "glint" / side light on the train.
Let's try black and white
"Glint" shots lend themselves well to black and white photography, because they tend to lose a lot of colour compared to a photo with the sun behind the photographer. I wish I hadn't shot at that particular moment with the shrub obscuring the pilot on the locomotive, but it'll have to do.
I took video of that train.
After that train passed, I decided to head west along the tracks to see if another train was following this one. Sure enough, there was CN 8019 dragging a long string of containers behind it.
CN 8019 under that big prairie sky
I processed this one pretty heavily to bring out the sky and foreground. Is anyone interested in seeing my editing process? Leave a comment!
I had stopped by a pile of old ties to incorporate them into the photo. I thought they might add some interest... I'm not sure if it was really successful. I did a little pan as the locomotive went by, then hit the road to get the train again.
8 blank 19
As I chased them toward Diamond, I saw the headlights of a westbound freight coming on the south track. There was no way I was going to catch the meet of the head end locomotives, but I decided to catch as much as I could. I set up my video camera and started recording the eastbound intermodal train, and waited for the westbound to arrive.
As the westbound came up to me, things happened very fast.
First, CN 2272 and its reflection.
CN 2272 on the move
Next, the tail end of the intermodal train, CN 8010, was coming up. I looked at the two trains and did a little sprint to get in position to catch both locomotives, side by side.
I hoped for the best, and fired off a 5 shot burst.
Number 4 was the winner.
Side by side
I'm quite happy with that shot!
If you're interested, here are the 5 photos of the burst in a row. Click on the image to embiggen it.
5 shot burst
I spun to the left to capture the 3 locomotives of CN 2272 West.
CN 4797 and friends
It was interesting to see a Geep on a mainline train. I guess it was being transferred to a yard somewhere to the west.
Here's the video I took.
Once the two trains were gone, I decided to head home. I drove along Wilkes Avenue and found myself overtaking CN 8019 East... again! I decided to grab it one more time.
Silhouette of CN 8019
It was starting to get dark... but as CN 8019 passed, I noticed a green signal at Carman Junction facing east.
You always have time for one more train!
I decided to wait at Carman Junction aka Fairmont Road.
I changed my camera settings to ISO 800, f/2.8 and 1/400s shutter speed. I had to push the ISO a bit, and close up the aperture, to compensate for the low light and still have a decent shutter speed.
After less than 10 minutes, CN 3047 West came rolling along with an oil train behind it... and an interesting second unit!
CN 3047 West
I panned to capture the second unit, CREX 1510, as they passed by me.
CREX 1510 passing Carman Junction
A fine looking unit!
I hopped back in my car and headed west toward the Perimeter. I thought I might catch them from the side of the road before I got on the Perimeter Highway and headed home. I did catch up to them but the shots weren't remarkable, although I did like this photo of the tail end buffer car (Wisconsin Central 84934) against the sunset sky.
Oil train buffer car
Soon I will write a blog post about those buffer cars...
So that was it for my April 17 railfanning. We still have April 18 and 19 to go!
I went out early on Sunday, March 18th (2018) to see some trains and grain elevators. I really wanted to photograph a grain elevator at sunrise. It turned out that it was overcast so there really wasn't a sunrise. No worries - the trains still move and the elevators are still there!
I decided to head toward Gregg and Harte on the CN Rivers subdivision. I was considering an overhead shot from the overpass by the Harte grain elevator. I headed out around 6:15 AM, before the sun came up.
Bloom
I drove past Portage la Prairie to Bloom, by the new G3 elevator. I saw there was a train in the 134-car loop track. I pulled off the highway to take a few photos when I noticed a green signal facing west, and a headlight in the distance to the east. I set up my tripod to capture the action.
The sun was still below the horizon, so it was long-exposure time! A 2.5 second exposure captured the gate coming down, the train in the loop track, and the green-over-red signal.
Dropping the gate
21 seconds later, here's the train smearing through the scene. See anything unusual about the signal?
Smeeeeeaarrr
Both the green and red are lit in the top signal! The long exposure captured both the green signal at the start of the photo and the red that came on after the locomotives passed the signal. By the way, the train had CN 2428 and CN 2153 leading, not that you can tell from the photo!
Once the train passed, I spent a few minutes photographing the train and elevator. The train was periodically inching forward to line up the next hatch under the spout. That must be a boring job!
CN 5730 and CN 5667 loading grain at Bloom
Gregg
The ex Manitoba Pool grain elevator at Gregg
I arrived at the Gregg grain elevator after an hour of driving. The ex Manitoba Pool grain elevator looked pretty much the same as when I saw it in May 2014. The equipment off to the side has changed - upgrades, I guess!
I took some photos of the elevator, then wandered around Gregg, photographing the nearby Kerfoot Church, the old school and an old barn. You can see those photos in my guest post on Everybody Has To Be Somewhere - a great blog.
No trains were around, so I headed west along the grid roads toward Harte.
As I drove along, I encountered a north-south railway track.
Petrel Junction
Looking toward Petrel Junction
This was the first road crossing of the CN Carberry subdivision, which branches off from the Rivers subdivision at Petrel Junction. In the photo above, you can see the Rivers sub left-right across the horizon.
The Carberry subdivision runs from here south through its namesake town, Carberry. South of the town, it takes a hard right to head west past CFB Shilo into Brandon where it meets the Cromer subdivision. This branch line serves the McCain plant in Carberry, the extensive Canexus plant in Brandon, and the spur at CFB Shilo.
Petrel
There's a little two track "yard" at Petrel just south of the road I was on. It's a pretty lonely place.
I kept driving west, and as I approached Harte, I saw an eastbound train! I found a north-south road and beat it up to a crossing to capture the approaching intermodal train.
Leaser
Long train on the lonely prairie
There's something about seeing such a big, long train on the open prairie. Even a ten-thousand foot long train looks pretty small when there's nothing around but a few gravel roads, the occasional house, and a whole lot of emptiness.
Anyway. CN 3028 was the power on the head end of this train. I assumed there would be another locomotive farther back in the train to provide a little more motive power. I know CN is pretty stingy with locomotives, but it's a lot to ask one locomotive to pull a train like this!
Note the Harte grain elevator at the far left of the photo above.
My trusty vehicle, Railfan Two
My little 2014 Honda Civic has been on a lot of these grid roads. I bought it in February 2014. Later that summer, I said to my wife, only half-jokingly, that more than half of the first 5,000 km on the car was spent on gravel roads.
Soon the mid-train locomotive came into view. I was quite excited to see that it was not a normal CN locomotive.
Not a CN locomotive!
This was one of the recent batch of locomotives leased by CN. This one is CREX 1501, an ES44AC owned by Citicorp Railmark Inc. (Citirail). It's pretty new!
CREX 1501 rolling through the crossing
Harte
Harte grain elevator
After the train passed, I continued on to Harte. There is an ex Manitoba Pool grain elevator here, and a few houses just south of the tracks.
The shots above and below are from the (rare) overpass over the tracks. I am not sure why a middle-of-nowhere place like Harte warrants an overpass where other, more major roads like highway 5 have a grade crossing over the same railway line. It's a mystery.
Guess which track is the main line and which is the siding.
There was no sign of any more trains, and my time was running out, so I headed up to nearby Oberon to visit my favourite grain elevator before starting my trip back to Winnipeg.
I did see this neat old brick house in Harte itself. It looks like it is occupied and well maintained.
Oberon
The Oberon grain elevator
Whenever I'm in the area, I always try to see Oberon. It's my favourite grain elevator in Manitoba.
I carried on down highway 5, and saw a train sitting down by the Gregg elevator... so, back to Gregg.
Gregg, Again
Cooling their heels in the siding at Gregg
CN 8830 West was sitting in the siding. "Death star" IC 1007 was the trailing unit. I like those black Illinois Central locomotives.
IC 1007 in the siding in Gregg
After about 15 minutes, another westbound train came rolling along on the main track. CN 5712 West rolled on past, pulling another couple of miles of containers, while the crew of 8830 were on the ground, giving it a careful rollby inspection.
Side by each
I didn't hang around to watch 8830 leave... time was running out for me.
I headed south on highway 5 to the Trans-Canada Highway, then east toward Winnipeg.
The CP line along the Trans-Canada is usually a disappointment... it sure was when I headed west earlier in the morning, but on the way back, it produced one train.
Near Austin
A really bad photo of CP 9772 West
Unfortunately, they were coming out of the mid-morning sun and I was on the wrong side of the tracks. I pulled over and grabbed a few shots, expecting them to be pretty awful. Look at that sky!
CP 9772 was the lead unit, with UP 7889 in second position and CP 8792 well back in the train. The going away shot was just as bad.
Oh well.
As I approached Winnipeg, I left the highway to travel along the road paralleling the CN main line from about mile 18 to mile 10 of the CN Rivers subdivision. One last chance to get more trains... and CN didn't disappoint.
Another Leaser
Wrapping around the curve
The Rivers sub is pretty straight, but there is a curve around mile 16 that is a favourite for railfans. I caught up to this eastbound and shot it coming around the bend. Cowl unit CN 2421 was leading, but what was that behind it?
GECX 9144 up close and personal
It was GECX 9144, an ex CSX Dash-8. Another leaser... and a lot older than the first one I saw that morning. It was originally built for Conrail as CR 6244 in June 1994. It became CSX 7379 and recently joined the GE rental fleet.
The train was plodding along, so I was able to get ahead of it for a few more shots... and a video.
Clearly ex CSX
Here's the video of the train pounding the diamond at CN Diamond.
That was the end of my railfanning... a great morning of trains and grain elevators.
Speaking of trains and grain elevators, Eric Gagnon's two new books are well under way. Follow their progress at https://trainsandgrains.blogspot.ca/
