My youngest son and I went out railfanning on the evening of May 26, 2018 along the CN Sprague subdivision.
I live in southeast Winnipeg, so when I head out to see some main line action, I have two choices - head east to see the CN Sprague subdivision or the CN Redditt subdivision, or head west to see the CN Rivers subdivision or the CP Carberry subdivision. On that day, I chose to head east to the Sprague.
CN 5791 West
I found a westbound freight between Deacon's Corner and Dufresne, and I took the shot at a rural crossing. Westbounds in the evening are nice because you get that sweet nose light.
CN 5791 West
That second unit... another "warbonnet" leaser!
PRLX 250 on CN
The train had a lot of general freight on the head end, then a long string of tank cars.
Tank cars as far as the eye can see
That was nice. I took video with my older Canon T1i on a tripod, with a 50mm lens. I like the sound of the tank cars whooshing by.
We carried on to Dufresne to the grain elevator there. I was hoping for another westbound to get them with the nice sunset light on the elevator.
I set up just west of the elevator and waited... and waited...
I've written about how I am not a patient person. At least this time, I was with my son, so we could chat about Super Smash Brothers or Pokemon or whatever while we waited.
After about 50 minutes of waiting, a train did come along. It was a westbound!
CN 2242 West
CN 2242 by the Dufresne grain elevator
I can't decide which photo I like best - the one above or the one below. What do you think? Leave a comment!
CN 2242, a grain elevator, and the moon
"Death star" IC 1000 was the second unit, and there was a CAT backhoe on a flatcar two cars back.
Here's the video. I should have had the camera a bit farther back, I think.
So that was nice.
I waited twenty more minutes to see if another westbound was following, but nothing came along. I packed everything up and we headed back toward Winnipeg.
In the distance, I saw a headlight...
CN 3086 East
Sweet, sweet sunset light
This was unexpected, but this shot was my favourite of the evening. I just love that gorgeous sunset light.
It's funny how the light can change so much just by the angle you shoot it at. Contrast the photo above with the one below, taken seconds later as the train passed by us.
CN 3086
It's like it was a totally different day.
I didn't have time to set up for video for this one.
This train was a solid intermodal (container) train. I know a lot of people don't like the container trains, as they are basically just a wall of containers, but I like the symmetry... and they look nice at sunset.
Containers at sunset
Summary
It was a lovely evening for railfanning. I'm not sure my son would agree :) but I enjoyed it.
As a little extra, here's a freight car I saw earlier in the day when I was in downtown Winnipeg. These Reading and Northern cars show up now and then on CN.
Reading and Northern RBMN 8173
Thanks for reading!
Coming up... the next evening, May 27, when PRLX 250 makes another appearance...
Recently someone asked me about the status of a caboose near La Rivière, Manitoba. This caboose was at the Archibald Museum, which is located northeast of the town. The museum closed in 2016 but it's not clear what happened to the collection. Time for a road trip!
I convinced my family that this was a good idea. My wife always wants some kind of destination, so we decided to have supper at GG's Drive Inn in Somerset. I read the reviews and it sounded like a good place.
Heading South
We hit the road after lunch on May 20th (a Sunday). This is the route we took.
Naturally I planned to return home by a different route. There were grain elevators to see!
I took a photo of the Pioneer grain elevator near Brunkild, because I had seen some work being done to it the last time I passed through. I think it was just track work but it's always good to document when you can!
Pioneer grain elevator near Brunkild
As we passed through Carman, I took a few photos of the yard area near Linear Grain. Linear's elevator is behind these two Cando / CEMR gondolas.
Cando gondolas in Carman, Manitoba
After we left Carman, we passed by Jordan's elevator en route to Morden and Manitou. I stopped in Manitou to take some photos of Boundary Trail's two GP9 locomotives, ex GT 4625 and ex CP 8208.
Boundary Trail locomotives in Manitou, MB
We carried on to La Rivière and immediately headed north. We headed north on route 242, which is a gravel road. The former museum is located a few kilometres outside town, basically in the middle of nowhere.
The Archibald Museum
I knew the museum was closed. My intention was to see what was left - from the grid roads around it - and see if I could spot the caboose.
I stopped by the former entrance and photographed a monument there. It documents the Wallcraft Homestead, founded in 1878.
As I finished doing that, one of the property owners drove up. I introduced myself and told her why I was there. I understand they are very concerned about vandalism and theft and I assured her I would be taking my photos from the road. We had a brief conversation and she left.
I didn't see the caboose, but I did take this long distance photo of the former La Rivière train station, which was moved here.
The former La Rivière train station
This station is fairly unique. It was built in 1898 and is the last Canadian Pacific plan #3 station remaining in Manitoba. Its mansard roof is a unique characteristic.
It's a shame it's not open to the public, but that's the choice of the owners.
I mentioned that the town of Snowflake was pretty close. My wife was agreeable, so we turned south and drove there.
Snowflake
The grain elevators of Snowflake, Manitoba
Snowflake is my favourite Manitoba ghost town. It has two grain elevators and several interesting abandoned buildings. The Federal grain elevator is pretty special.
It isn't exactly a real ghost town, because there are a few houses still occupied. In fact, there was a sign on the highway directing people here for "FARM FRESH HONEY AND EGGS". I thought I heard music coming from this building.
Regardless, nobody was visible when we visited here.
The town has several old businesses along the main street, which is fairly unusual as these tend to get torn down as prairie towns decline.
A few of the buildings have prominent NO TRESPASSING signs on them.
After the CP Snowflake subdivision was abandoned in 1977, the town declined. The school closed in 1992 and the United Church closed in 1994. There is still a community centre building but I am not sure if it is still used.
There are markers for the church and school in the town, and the bell from the school is mounted on a stand. My children were happy to pose by it.
The Snowflake school bell
The stars of the town, from my point of view, are the two grain elevators.
Grain elevators in Snowflake, Manitoba
Note the spout on the silver elevator, hanging in mid-air.
I don't know what happened to the top of that bin!
The Federal elevator is looking a little worse than it did when I visited in 2014.
As we drove north from Snowflake, we passed this little barn? elevator? which is located in a field near the highway.
It's looking a lot worse than it did in 2014.
Somerset
Somerset grain elevator complex
The two steel grain elevators at Somerset are looking good. These elevators are owned by Delmar Commodities, who moved one of these elevators from La Rivière to here when the CP La Rivière branch was being abandoned. At that time, Somerset was served by the Southern Manitoba Railway, but unfortunately the SMR folded and now Somerset has no rail service.
The elevator still has the La Rivière name on it.
There was a Delmar Commodities truck trailer near the elevators.
Delmar Commodities trailer
We went to GG's Drive Inn and had a great meal. I had this tasty burger and we shared some onion rings.
After our meal, we headed north to Rathwell, then headed east along highway 3 to Winnipeg. Along the way, I photographed the elevators in Elm Creek, Culross, Fannystelle and Starbuck in the sweet evening light.
Cargill grain elevator in Elm Creek, Manitoba
Paterson grain elevator in Culross, Manitoba
There was some work being done to the Culross elevator.
Note the small elevator to the left of the Viterra elevator, below.
That was our trip to La Rivière and Snowflake. I like these trips... and we're taking another one in a few days to Boissevain. More grain elevator photos to come! ;)
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/
