A Carseland Local

I was in Calgary this weekend with my wife. She was attending a conference, and while she was there, I was railfanning! On Saturday morning I met up with Jeff Keddy and we ended up following the CP Brooks subdivision out of the city. We saw the Viterra Calgary East elevator near Indus, Alberta first.


We continued railway east and came to Carseland, Alberta next. I was here in October 2010. There is an Agrium facility as well as two grain elevators, a concrete Cargill elevator and a Richardson Pioneer elevator. We noticed a local freight working the Pioneer elevator, so we went to the nearest crossing and watched it.


The train had three GP-38s, CP 3102, CP 3068 and CP 3074. While we watched, they pulled back until the tail end was clear.


The conductor then rode the tail end as they pushed into the siding.


As they were pushing back, a freight appeared from the west, heading toward Calgary. We were not sure if our local was going to block the view of this freight or not, so I backed away from the tracks to get a long-distance view of the train.


The local was not quite clear of the crossing, so this was the best I could capture for the meet.


I was surprised to see a mid-train engine, CP 9514, on this train. It's not often that I see DPU engines on non-container trains. I saw 9514 back in July 2009.


After the freight passed, they dropped one cut of cars and then pushed back until the whole train was there.


At this point we decided to continue on the Brooks subdivision... another post.

"New" NB Southern Units Imminent

Three GATX GP38s are about to arrive at New Brunswick Southern Railway's doorstep. The three were spotted in Portland, Maine on the Pan Am Railway property on Monday morning, and on the move through Waterville, Maine Tuesday afternoon.

The three units are GMTX 2639, 2645 and 2666, all in bright blue paint with white lettering. GMTX 2639 in particular spent some time on the Quebec and Gatineau Railway a few years ago.

Hat tip to Chuck and SteveO for the information.

Inside the Dever Road Shops

I was in New Brunswick last week and I had the opportunity for a quick tour of NB Southern's Dever Road shops.

Outside the shops, HLCX 6315 was parked with NBSR 3703 parked on an adjacent track giving it a boost.


The battery cables were a bit larger than what you would use for your car! I was in 6315's cab for a few minutes and I have never seen such a bare-bones cab. It had the control stand and two chairs and that was it. No desk, no hot plate, no fridge, and no electronics of any sort other than a speedometer. Amazingly, 6315 led the westbound freight the next evening after some frantic equipment installation!

There was only one engine inside the shops, Maine Northern 9801.


This was the first time I've seen it in its Maine Northern lettering.


The shop has two tracks for working on the engines, and the rest is devoted to repairing MOW equipment and car repair.

Once NBSR is finished leasing engines, they should have 28 engines. With only two tracks for servicing they are going to be tight for space! Maybe it's time to look at expanding the building?

Here's a view of the rest of the shops with a Kershaw brush cutter in the building.


Here are some locomotive trucks being rebuilt.


Behind the shop there are a variety of old boxcars being used for storage. The CP Rail is starting to show through on this old car.


NB Southern's sole Jordan spreader #402896 is parked back there, as well as caboose 79624.


Back at the shops, ex-UP engine HLCX 911 was beside the shop with NBSR 3702. NB Southern refuels its engines there, right beside the shop. This was my first view of 911.


I appreciated the opportunity to go inside the shop and hopefully I'll get a chance to do so again.

New BNSF Engine in Winnipeg

I honestly thought I had posted about this earlier, but I guess I had just sent it to MB-SKRails and not here.

BNSF 2322 is the new BNSF Manitoba engine in Winnipeg. I shot it on March 22 in their yard.

BNSF 2322 is a GP38-2 built in December 1976. It started life as SLSF 467, becoming BN 2322 shortly after the Frisco's merger with Burlington Northern on 1980, and finally BNSF 2322.



Here's the list of BNSF engines I've seen in Winnipeg, from earliest at top to latest at bottom.

• BNSF 1685
• BNSF 2743
• BNSF 2886
• BNSF 2001
• BNSF 2978
• BNSF 3028
• BNSF 2756
• BNSF 2968
• BNSF 2322

I don't think I've missed any since BNSF 2743.

Meeting Place

Late in the afternoon of February 29, I was rolling down Wilkes Avenue in Winnipeg to see if there were any trains about. As it happened, I overtook a westbound freight train (CN 301) with CN 5761 on the head end. I got ahead of them and shot them coming around the bend at Carman Junction.


Note the yellow-over-red Clear to Stop signal (rule 411) on the north track.

I jumped back into my car and headed west, intending to shoot them again somewhere near Diamond. I heard that another train was coming east so I headed to Hall Road just west of the Perimeter Highway. I pulled up near the crossing and jumped out to wait for the trains.

Hall Road is a good place to shoot eastbounds because it is wide open to the west. It is not good for westbounds because there are buildings close to the tracks on the south (sun) side. You have to step pretty close to the tracks to get a shot without all the junk on the right.... not safe when a train is coming! One could always cross the tracks and shoot from the north, but then you are shooting against the sun and that only works on cloudy days.

I saw that the signal facing the eastbound container train was a single flashing yellow light. If I'm correct, this is Advance Clear to Stop (rule 415) meaning the next signal is displaying Clear to Stop. The next signal for that train would be at St. James Junction so they had a few miles before having to stop.

Very soon the container train approached. It turns out this was CN 196, with CN 2264 on the head end.


Fortunately I was close enough to get the meet with my 55-250mm lens. I stepped in to get a few shots then retreated from the crossing before the train was too close.


I took off west to get one more shot of CN 5761 before giving up. As I headed out I saw CN 2335 pushing on the end of train 196, seen in between the cars of train 301.

Here's a closeup of CN 5761 approaching Diamond.


Grubby CN 2629 was the second unit behind 5761, and they had a GP38 as a third unit, CN 4790.

Here you can see they had a red-over-green-over-red signal. This one actually is Limited-to-Clear (rule 416), because there is an "L" plate on the signal mast.

Dark Meeting

I was out fairly early in the morning of October 22, looking for trains before heading to work. It was quite dark, even as it approached 8 AM, so I put the 50mm lens on my camera as it is the most light sensitive lens I have. I say that like I have a lot of lenses - I have 3.

Anyway, I was at Diamond when I noticed a CN eastbound train approaching. I shot CN 5701 East as it approached Diamond, then shot over the engineer's shoulder here as they were about to split the signals right at Diamond.

I tweaked the image a fair bit to get some light into it. It's grainy because it was shot at ISO 1600, shutter speed 1/320, F/1.8. I probably could have lived with a shutter speed of around 1/200 but it would not have made that much difference.

I gave chase. It was an intermodal train but there were no DPU engines as far as I could see. I never did catch the number. I heard CN 545 talking to them and I figured they were going to meet somewhere. I picked a spot on Wilkes Avenue that I thought was likely and I saw headlights approaching from the east. It was 545 with CN 4765 leading CN 4776, both GP38 engines.


I wasn't sure where exactly the meet would occur but it would be very near me. I was worrying that 545 on the south track would block my view of the meet, but I got lucky and managed to capture it.


That was it for that morning!

Regina Sightings

I was in Regina, Saskatchewan a few weeks ago on vacation. I had a chance to get out and see trains a couple of times while I was there. On August 5, I visited the CP yard downtown as well as the CN yard off 1st Avenue. Photography is difficult at the CP yard so my shots are basically through the fence and not worth posting. Since CP's main yard is in Moose Jaw, the Regina yard is pretty small and doesn't have a lot of engines hanging around. There was a collection of GP9s, GP38s and an SD40 there, as well as an American crane.

Things were a little more interesting as I approached the CN yard. I was heading north on Winnipeg Street when I saw a four engine CN set at 1st Avenue. CN 2200, CN 5640, CN 4792 and CN 4797 were by themselves there. In retrospect I think they ran light from the CN yard and turned on the wye. I saw them heading for the CN yard so I gave chase. Fortunately they were running slowly and I got ahead of them, and shot this video as they crossed Broad Street.


I went to my favourite viewing spot, atop the berm at the north end of Connaught Street. I drew it in dark gray in the map.

Standing on top of the berm, you usually can see the whole yard. Unfortunately, a large string of grain cars was blocking the view the first time I was there. I returned later and got some decent shots from the berm.

One of my favourite engine types was present, with GMD1 CN 1439 parked near the crew building.


Two GP38s were also present, CN 4795 and 4790.


Old black caboose CN 79543 was there as well. I saw the graffiti "artists" have been vandalizing it.


I last saw this caboose in August 2008.

I'll post more about my Regina sightings later, including some interesting industrial engines.

"New" NB Southern Power

The NB Southern Railway will be leasing four GP38-3 engines from Helm Financial. Since NBSR will be operating the Northern Maine lines, it will need more power. The units are HLCX 906, 909, 913 and 917. They are all ex Union Pacific units. Apparently one of those was a GP40 but was rebuilt into a GP38-3.

NB Southern has leased locomotives before, but it has been a number of years.

The rumour mill says they will arrive in New Brunswick before mid June. They are currently in UP yellow but will be repainted to NBSR green after they arrive.

I look forward to seeing pictures from out East soon!

More Humpyard Dogs

Steve Vallis was out shooting at CN's Symington Yard here in Winnipeg last week and took some photos of CN's GP38 humpyard units (see previous post about humpyard dogs).

On the 11th he caught CN 7530 and 7513 (with slugs) working the yard. CN 7530 is definitely looking grubby.


CN 7513, on the other hand, is looking nice and shiny.


While he was there, he saw a train come off the Sprague subdivision. Here it is at CN Navin, with CN 5600 (SD75) and CN 2433 (Dash-8). You can see the shiny new signals on the right, installed when they extended the switching lead through Navin.


Gotta love those Dash-8s!


On the 17th, Steve caught one of the newly painted GP38s with the "15 Years" emblem, CN 7505. They are celebrating the 15 years since CN was privatized.


It was part of a set with CN 7522 and slugs 511 and 502.


Great shots, Steve!

Grunt Work

After Saturday's catch of an ex-UP Dash-8, I thought my day was complete. I headed back down to the CP main in Ogden to wait until my wife was done with her conference for the day, expecting the usual AC4400 "toasters" and perhaps a few switching moves.

After a few minutes, I heard the familiar rumble of engines. Behind the fence in Ogden I saw the silhouette of a couple of units moving. Was one of them in MAROON?

Sure enough, after a few minutes, maroon CP 3084 and red CP 3101 came out towing a gondola.



You can see that it attracted other railfans. There were two others that I saw.

CP 3084 is painted in the heritage CP maroon scheme for use on the Royal Canadian Pacific train. Normally CP 4106 and 4107 are leaders but 3084 seems to lead the train now and then.

They went back and forth a few times, bringing out gondolas and taking others back. I believe this is where CN interchanges with CP in Calgary.

It was a little surprising to see such a lovely unit being used for grunt work. I guess since the Royal Canadian Pacific is shut down for the season, CP might as well get some use out of 3084.

Railfanning The Brooks Subdivision

I was in the Calgary area again late last week. In the early evening I was southeast of Calgary, heading back in, and I saw a few trains on Canadian Pacific Railway's Brooks subdivision on my way.

The first train was a local switching an industry at Carseland. Three GP38s were shunting cars. They were a bit of an odd triplet, with modern block lettered CP 3078 leading, CP 3131 with the beaver emblem in the middle, and CP 3074 complete with multimark trailing.




I noticed a CP train stopped on the mainline, near the Viterra elevator in Carseland. I figured they were meeting another train, until I got closer and realized there was no crew in the train. CP 8715 and CP 8561 were just short of a rural crossing.

Looking down the track, I could see the end of the train was still on the mainline while the head end was well into the siding. I guess they couldn't fit the train in the siding without blocking a crossing, so they fouled the main.

I headed toward Calgary, but it wasn't long before I decided to head off the road to Dalemead. This place appears in the CP timetable so I figured there must be a siding there. After about 4 km of gravel road, I arrived at the tiny community of Dalemead. There is indeed a siding there, as well as some stored freight cars. Looking toward Calgary, I saw the signals were lit red.

Now, CP generally uses approach lit signals, meaning they only show lights if there is a train near them. The red lights told me that A) there was nothing going toward Calgary (I knew that anyway because of the train fouling the main at Carseland), and B) there was a train approaching from Calgary. I waited and sure enough a general freight rolled slowly into view with CP 9826 and CP 9504.


After that, it was clear sailing into Calgary. But that was not the end of my railfanning that evening. Oh no, not at all...

Halifax and the TEST Train

I'm in Halifax for the week, my first trip back to the right coast since I moved to Winnipeg this summer. After my plane landed on Sunday (November 1), I drove into the city and found myself driving to the CN Rockingham yard. Imagine that. I saw a few units at the yard office, notably including CN 9639 and the two-car TEST train. I shot this in the fading light around 5 PM.

The TEST train is CN's Track Evaluation SysTem, which does exactly what it says. They run it along the line and it reports defects in the rails.

Geoff Doane reported that it came into Halifax today as CN train 482. They ran out to Autoport on the end of the Dartmouth subdivision, then backed up to Windsor Junction, then ran to the end of the Bedford subdivision at Halterm (HOT) by the VIA station and turned on the loop track there, before testing the transfer track to Millview and backing to Rockingham.

I took video as it left at 18:50 but I'm not sure how well it will turn out. Night video is tricky and I wasn't really ready.

Also in the yard were CN 4805 and 4725, power for the locals.


At about 19:00 the power for CN 121 came up from Fairview, with CN 5710, CN 5296, CN 2249 and CN 5609. It was too dark to take photos by that time.

I didn't hang around, since I had not had supper yet and I had to check in. I did chat with a couple of AtlanticRails members, Bruce and Doug, before heading out.

I don't know how much time I will have for railfanning while in Halifax... we'll see.

CP 3106

On my way south on Kenaston Boulevard, I spotted a CP train switching just west of Kenaston. I stopped to take a few shots. CP 3106 was just finishing assembling a small train at 18:51. About 2 minutes later, they crossed Kenaston on their way north to St. James Junction and on to Rugby Yard.

CP Local

After 8 days in a row of seeing and photographing trains, I took a break on Sunday. But I was back at it again today.

As I mentioned before, I saw a CP local this afternoon. It was waiting to cross Kenaston Boulevard on the La Riviere subdivision just before 5 PM. CP 3120 and CP 1532 were the engines and they had about 8-9 tank cars behind them.

Both 3120 and 1532 are old friends. I saw 3120 twice in Portage la Prairie, on July 27 2004 and also on December 27 2007. I've seen 1532 doing odd jobs in Winnipeg twice in the last 6 years.

A Slow Mover

I was rolling along the Perimeter Highway again today around noon, and I saw a headlight to the north on CP's La Riviere subdivision. I pulled off the road and set up to wait for the train to come. It took longer than I thought it would, but finally CP 3090 showed up pulling a little train. 3090 was poking along at just a bit faster than walking speed!

I guess the speed limit at that location is 10 MPH!