One Day, Six Trains

On April 25th, I spent some time trackside around Winnipeg and saw a total of six trains.

VIA 693

I decided to head up to the CN Rivers subdivision to try to catch the Winnipeg-Churchill train departing. This is VIA 693, formerly known as the "Hudson Bay". At times it has had a Park car on the rear but I think they haven't had one for a while.

I got to the track and headed east along Wilkes Avenue. As I passed Carman Junction I saw headlights to the east, which I assumed was VIA. I noticed a CN crew working on the signals at the junction so I parked just west of them on the shoulder. Sure enough, it was VIA 693 approaching at a slow speed.

VIA 6434 leading train 693 out of Winnipeg

The train had VIA 6434 / 6418 for power with baggage car VIA 8606, coaches VIA 8113 and 8122, diner ANNAPOLIS (VIA 8404) and sleeper CHATEAU MONTCALM (VIA 8219).

CHATEAU MONTCALM on VIA 693 leaving Winnipeg

Incidentally, I saw almost exactly the same trainset on April 11th, except on the 11th it had a second baggage car, VIA 8600, for some reason.

CN 8015 East

After that, I headed to just east of Diamond and parked. I got my laptop out and banged away on the keyboard, while glancing up occasionally to look for trains. After about half an hour, I spotted a train in the distance, rounding the corner at mile 16. As they passed Diamond, I got out the "big gun" (my 70-200mm lens) and took some shots of the approaching train.

CN 8015 across the prairie

The approaching train disturbed a group of birds, who briefly swarmed in front of the train.

CN 8015 and a cloud of birds

I dropped my camera and took video with my iPhone, so I didn't take any more stills of the train. It was a general freight with a lot of covered hoppers on the head end, a mid train DPU (CN 2308), and mixed freight on the rear.

The video is at the end of this post.

CN 5641 West

About half an hour later, the next train came rolling along.

CN 5641 near Diamond outside Winnipeg

 It was another general freight, with CN 5641 and CN 2145 for power.

The poor birds were disturbed again...

CN 5641 and the birds

There was nothing particularly interesting on the train... the usual graffiti that I won't share.

I decided that was enough, and headed toward home. However...

CP 2240 East

As I rounded the Perimeter Highway, I thought I spotted a headlight on the CP La Riviere subdivision to the south. I exited and drove toward it a bit, and sure enough, it was a train.

CP 2240 and 3016 were heading north / railway east, coming back from working the entire subdivision. They had a set of CP flatcars on the tail end, empty after depositing their loads of pipe near Morden.

CP 2240 leading the La Riviere wayfreight

Enbridge is replacing the majority of its existing Line 3 pipeline, which runs from Hardisty, AB to Superior, WI. In Manitoba it runs through Cromer, Morden and Gretna. The line was originally built in the 1960s and was running at reduced pressure after a rupture and spill near Pilot Butte outside Regina in 1999. The new pipeline is being build adjacent to the existing line and the existing segments will be taken out of service.

Again I recorded video with my iPhone.

I managed to get some of that sticky Manitoba mud on my shoes. That stuff is a mix of mud and clay and is really hard to get off. Often you end up with an inch or two of it layered to the bottom of your shoes.

Manitoba mud

That was it for train watching for a few hours... until...

CN 8949 East

I took my son to his choir practice in the late afternoon, then headed out toward Transcona. I saw a train leaving Symington Yard through Beach Junction, heading east, so I carried on out toward Dugald to get ahead of them. I knew they would have to slow down through the yard so I was confident I could beat them.

In fact I got to a rural crossing on the way to Dugald and had enough time to set up my Canon S3 as a video camera. I then shot the approaching train with my camera, then dropped that and took video with my iPhone and with the S3 as well. This was my first time recording video with two devices at once, and I've spliced them together in the video at the end of the post.

Here's CN 8949 approaching with 8925 assisting. It's starting to get green here in Manitoba!

CN 8949 with a dark nose

After that train passed, I collected my video camera and headed to Dugald. I sat there for a bit near the elevator until it was time to head back into Winnipeg to pick my son up.

CN 730

However, CN wasn't done with me yet. I saw another eastbound train so I pulled off to the shoulder to photograph it. The long string of Canpotex cars with the 2+1+1 DPU arrangement made it pretty obvious it was CN 730, destined for Saint John, New Brunswick and the potash dock there.

CN 3018 and CN 2959 were the head end power.

A little side pan shot of CN 3018...

CN 3018 from the side

I drove on for a bit and found the mid-train DPU... CN 3112.

CN 3112 in the middle of a potash train

Bringing up the rear was CN 2942. This train had some newer power!

CN 2942 on the rear of a Canpotex potash train

No video for this one!

The same train was through Drummondville, Quebec at 09:09 Eastern on Friday, and out of Joffre, Quebec at 17:30. It arrived in Saint John, NB Saturday morning around 10:30 AM.

The Video

So I've been talking up this video all through the post. Here it is, with CN 8015 East, CP 2240 East and CN 8949 East.

I did some editing to cut out a lot of the "watching train cars go by" monotony. I understand some people like to see the whole train, but I don't.. and the CP one in particular was going so slowly that it would really draaaaag the video out. I hope you like the editing - please let me know what you think!

See Also

• Seven Train Day
• Busy Times in Winnipeg
• 14 Miles and 5 Trains

Trains, Trains and More Trains

See part 1 for the first part of my grain/train-fanning day of November 9th.

After photographing some grain elevators, I was heading home. I had just passed Glossop when I saw a train heading east, the same direction that I was. I overtook them and photographed them east of Newdale.

I was surprised to see CP 8756 again. Clearly trains don't move fast on the CP Bredenbury subdivision...

Since highway 16 parallels the tracks, I was able to get ahead of them one more time before they descended into Minnedosa.

You probably can't see it here but the conductor is grinning at this crazy railfan.

I had never been in Minnedosa so I decided to head in to see the station and maybe catch 8756 one more time. I followed a road in and found myself in downtown Minnedosa. I spotted the station.. with a little surprise in the yard!

That's CP 3020 at the head of CP's TEC (Track Evaluation Car) train.

Nice to see the TEC train again! The last time I saw a TEC train was in New Brunswick in 2007. CP has two TEC trains as far as I know.

It wasn't long before I heard CP 8756 blowing for a crossing. Soon they rolled past the boarded-up station.

After they passed by, I went over to photograph the TEC train.. from the public road, of course.

The train had CP 3020, CP 424994, CP 65 and CP 64.

Here's the Minnedosa station, by the way. It's a nice looking structure!

Apparently CP still owns it. Earlier this year a local group was negotiating with CP to purchase it but that fell through. I don't know the current status.

I spent a moment photographing the display train consisting of a wooden caboose, CP 431970, and FP7 CP 4038.

Then it was off for home! I didn't see any trains on the Minnedosa subdivision. GMTX 407 was still parked by the Dundonald Pioneer grain elevator.

I spotted a pair of CN trains passing each other by East Tower in Portage la Prairie. I barely got ahead of the eastbound train at Oakville.

After it passed, I carried on toward Winnipeg. I cut up to Diamond and photographed CN 5784 East splitting the signals there. I though that would be my last photo of the day.

However... notice the green signal in the above photo? It turns that that the Hudson Bay VIA 693 was rolling along on the other track. I took this terrible photo to document the power (VIA 6456/6449) but there was no opportunity to chase it to get a better photo.

I hope you enjoyed this extended grain/train excursion. Remember to read part 1 if you haven't already!

For other grain elevator tours, please view:

• Grain Elevators of the Glenboro subdivision
• A Grain Elevator Loop, part 1 and part 2
• A Wee Grain Elevator Trip
• In Search of Grain Elevators, part 1 and part 2
• Grain Elevators of the Letellier subdivision
• Elevators of the Carman subdivision

Hudson Bay Railway to Re-Open

HBRY 3001 in Thompson, Manitoba

After a derailment on June 3, the Hudson Bay Railway closed the rail line between Gillam and Churchill. Omnitrax, the owner-operator of the line (and the port of Churchill), said that permafrost had damaged the line and they were making repairs and hope to re-open within the first week of July. They had briefly re-opened the line to freight service but had to suspend it again.

VIA Rail in Thompson, Manitoba

VIA Rail last sent a train to Churchill on May 30. The company said they will not send VIA 692/693 over the line until they are satisfied that it is safe for passengers. In the meantime, passengers intending to use the train have had to find alternate arrangements (aka "fly").

This closure has really impacted the people of Churchill, as they depend on the railway for the majority of shipments into the town. The only alternative is to fly fuel, food and other supplies in at a greatly increased cost. Hopefully the line will be re-opened when Omnitrax says it will.

This might really make people question whether they should still be considering shipping oil by rail.

UPDATE: OmnitraxNorth.ca has posted an update.

VIA 693 Derailment in Saskatchewan

VIA train 693, the Winnipeg-Churchill passenger train, derailed near Togo, Saskatchewan around 6 PM on Sunday night. There was a washout, likely due to spring runoff, and the track was undermined. There is a highly distorted but dramatic photo in the CBC article showing a coach hanging in mid-air with only one truck on the ground. Fortunately noone was injured beyond "a few scratches". The seven (7) passengers were taken to a nearby lodge in Duck Mountain Provincial Park for the night and presumably other arrangements have been made for the rest of their journey. Reports say the track may be out of service for two days.

There is no word on damage to the train, except that there was a fire under one of the engines, presumably from a punctured fuel tank. The news reports say the fire was quickly extinguished. The plume of smoke was visible from a CN freight train over a dozen miles away.

In case you are wondering why the train was in Saskatchewan, the CN Togo subdivision that VIA 692/693 takes does cross into Saskatchewan and the Hudson Bay is in Saskatchewan for about 4 hours before returning to Manitoba for the long trip north to Churchill. (VIA timetable - PDF)

The Transportation Safety Board has dispatched a team to the location to investigate.

Other References: Winnipeg Free Press article

EDIT: Added paragraph about engine fire.
EDIT: Added TSB comment.

TSB Incident Report on VIA 692

VIA 693 meets CN safely in Winnipeg in 2009

I guess I will be posting one more VIA-related item. You may recall that on October 29, 2011 there was a near miss between VIA 692 (the Hudson Bay returning from Churchill) and CN 853. I noticed a small update two months ago.

The Transportation Safety Board has issued their findings. You can go read it - I encourage you to, it is quite readable - but the gist of the findings is that the VIA crew forgot they were supposed to take the siding at Meharry to meet CN 853 and instead carried on until the CN crew saw VIA 692's headlights and called them on the radio to stop. That was a close call.

The CN Togo subdivision is Occupancy Control System (OCS) territory, commonly known as "dark" territory because there are no signals. The TSB report emphasizes that crews must remember their orders and use visual cues like mileboards, station calls on the radio, etc. to recall special orders like the meet with CN 853 that was specified in their train orders. Clearly the VIA crew did not remember and the close call was the result.

What a Contrast

Here are two VIA trains from this week, and what a contrast between them!

First up was VIA 693 aka the Hudson Bay on Tuesday. We have some pretty nice autumn colours this year, and you can see them as VIA 6452 approached Shaftesbury Boulevard on its way out of town.


There was a brush fire a bit south of the tracks and the VIA crew were warned about the lack of visibility. The fire had been burning for a few days and Tuesday's high winds were not helping.


Fast forward to Thursday noon and it was snowing! The whole day was miserable with mixed snow and rain. I only shot the Canadian because I had to go out for an errand.


What a difference two days made.


Epilogue: The Grey Cup train was in Portage la Prairie today and hopefully the weather was a bit nicer there. John at the CP Rail Manitoba and Minnesota Sub blog caught the train in Minnedosa, and I plan on seeing it Saturday morning.

VIA 693 and VIA 1

Here are VIA 693 from Tuesday and VIA 1 from Thursday.

VIA 693, ex-Hudson Bay, first. I waited just west of Carman Junction for the train in the bright sunshine. I had brought along my Canon S3 to use as a video camera, but when I went to set up I realized I forgot the tripod. I didn't even have my GorillaPod with me so there was no place to set the camera down and take decent video. Oh well.

I mentioned previously that shooting the Hudson Bay is a bit dull, so I figured I would try a little blur shot. I set the shutter speed on my T1i to 1/30s and took this shot.


I'm fairly pleased with the outcome. The engine nose could be a bit sharper. I shot each car as it went by and then got the David Morris Going-Away Shot™.


Note the bit of yellow behind the train, canola in a far-away field. I have to find a place to shoot trains with canola in the foreground!

I went out on June 28 (Thursday) to shoot the Canadian. I waited a little west of Shaftesbury Boulevard for VIA 1 and it came along on time.


This time I remembered the tripod. Here's the video from my Canon S3.


As soon as the Canadian went by, I took off in pursuit. I was hoping for a stop signal at Diamond or at least a Limited to slow it down enough for me to catch up. I was held up by a slow driver on Wilkes so I didn't draw abreast of the train until after the hotbox detector at mile 10. Unfortunately VIA called out "Clear to Diamond" so there would be no chance to get ahead. I pointed my camera out the side window of the car and took a few pacing shots totally blind. I was quite pleased with how this one turned out.


I didn't even have to level the horizon!

After that I slowed and the Canadian disappeared in the distance. I turned around and headed back east... only to.... well, that's another post.

Recent VIAs

Here are a few recent VIA trains that I've seen.

On April 23 I shot the Canadian rocketing out of Winnipeg. I was near Diamond but I didn't have a lot of time to get ready. I got this shot of VIA 1 but did not get the full consist, since the train was zooming along at 60+ MPH.

That was fast!

On May 5 I had a busy day of railfanning (to be detailed in another post) and I made sure to see the Canadian first. This time I was at St. James Junction.


Nice to see the big summer trains again.


Here's the video. I shot it with my Canon S3 mounted on my GorillaPod so it's pretty low to the ground.


Finally, I shot the Hudson Bay VIA 693 leaving Winnipeg on June 20. This was taken just west of Shaftesbury Boulevard. This is a very typical 693 with two engines, a baggage car, two coaches, a diner, and a Chateau car.


The going-away shot... notice the large backup light on the end for the long backup move into Thompson.



It's been a while since I've shot VIA 693! I'm much more interested in the Canadian because A) it's much longer, and B) the equipment varies. The Winnipeg-Churchill train tends to have two units and exactly the same type of cars on it every time. Not quite as interesting but hey, it's a train, it's all good!

The Shot

Sometimes on a train-watching outing, I get some decent photographs but nothing really special. Sometimes I get nothing but duds. Occasionally... I get a shot I'm really pleased with... The Shot.

On Saturday afternoon I went out with the kids to run a few errands and shoot a few trains. I headed toward my usual spot near Diamond to try to catch VIA 692 aka the Hudson Bay returning from its long journey from Churchill.

I had a little detour, though, because when I drove over Pembina Highway I saw the headlights of CN 532 to the north. I did a quick turnaround and went into St. Norbert to wait for 532 to roll by. I didn't want to go too far south so I set up at the crossing of Avenue Ducharme to get them. I did not have to wait long. In fact, I was still slapping the tripod up when CN 532 came around the bend. Faded SD75I CN 5628 and shiny ex-BNSF C40-8W CN 2199 were the power for the long train.




After they passed, I continued on my way up to Diamond. There were quite a few CN maintenance vehicles around and a foreman had a block from mile 10 (the hotbox detector) out to mile 17 or so. This meant that all trains had to call the foreman for permission to pass through his block, so I could get some advance warning.

I was not there long before I heard VIA 692 call through loud and clear to acknowledge that the foreman had given them permission to pass through on the north track at 30 MPH. I set up the tripod with the Canon S3 on it for video, and waited for the train.

I should mention that the outside temperature was -11C according to the hotbox, but the wind was howling. My hands were almost completely numb after VIA passed. I think I need to toss some light gloves into the camera bag!

Anyway, here's VIA 6455 leading the usual consist of two engines, baggage car, two coaches, diner and one Chateau sleeper car.




Here's my video. Note that my tripod is a little broken and the wind of the passing train twisted the head around a bit!


VanBilly1 shot the same train at St. James Junction a few miles east of me.

That was all well and good. I heard CN 117 calling for permission to go through the block, so I shot them coming the other way. I had already packed up my tripod, and I didn't feel like standing in the cold cold wind again anyway, so I just shot stills.


Dash-9 IC 2724 and ES44DC CN 2292 were the power for this intermodal train. You can see by the light that the sun was getting close to the horizon. This was at 5 minutes to 5 PM.

Yes, yes, Steve, all good, but where is this "shot" you are talking about?

I figured there were not going to be any more trains on CN for a while, and with darkness approaching I thought I'd try my luck on the CP mainline 10 minutes north. I drove up to the elevator at Makwa and saw that the west-facing lights had a green light on them.

In fact it was red over green over red by the elevator at Makwa, which is Canadian Rail Operating Rules rule 416, "Limited to Clear"... "Proceed, LIMITED speed passing signal and through turnouts." From Makwa (mile 11.1 of the CP Carberry subdivision) there are two main tracks east to the yard at mile 1.7, so the eastbound train would be switching to the other main track, hence the LIMITED speed.

This was good! It meant there was probably a train coming soon. I headed west toward Rosser village, straining to see a headlight in the falling dark. I passed through Rosser and continued west toward the grain elevator at Meadows, figuring if nothing else I might get a bit of sunset on the side of the elevator. As I was on the straightaway approaching the elevator, I saw headlights on the track on the other side of the elevator. I was hoping that I could get there in time to get the train passing the elevator.

Well, you might have guessed that I did get there in time. Here's the Shot.


I mean, seriously, look at that sky! I could not have asked for a nicer colour.

The train rolled on by and I gave pursuit. It was going a good 55-60 MPH (speed limit 60) so I did not pass the head end until near Makwa where they had to slow to that LIMITED speed. By this time I had my "nifty fifty" 50mm prime lens on to try to grab what little light there was. I did this panning shot of CEFX 1050 as it rolled on by, and the engineer gave me a few toots.


I was super pleased with myself for getting that elevator shot, and I think I need to try some more sunset shots!

You can view the complete consists in my sightings database, as always.