I still can hear the whisper of the summer night It echoes in the corners of my heart The night we stood and waited for the desert train All the words we meant to say All the chances swept away Still remain on the road to the dune
- "Desert Moon", Dennis DeYoung
After a successful evening of sunset Sprague subdivision railfanning, I went out again the following evening, hoping for some more good photos. This time I didn't take my son along, so it was a solo outing... kind of like Dennis DeYoung's first solo album, "Desert Moon".
I elected to start on the CN Rivers subdivision, since it has the highest rail traffic of any rail line around Winnipeg. When I arrived "on scene", there was an eastbound freight train rolling by, with another east-facing train sitting at mile 10. I chose to chase.
CN 2421 East
Too much train on my hands
CN 2421 and IC 2465 were powering that eastbound grain train. I elected to photograph them at Harstone Road, which is a crossing just west of one of my usual spots, Carman Junction.
I chose this location because I could get on the north side of the tracks, where the sun was. Since it was an eastbound train in the evening, the light wasn't great so I had to make the best of it.
IC 2465 - not a "Blue Devil"
These Illinois Central (IC) 2400 units (C40-8W locomotives) were originally owned by GE's Locomotive Management Services (LMS) and were leased to Conrail and painted blue. Eventually 12 of them became IC 2455-2466 and were dubbed "blue devils" by railfans. I like seeing them.
Sadly, IC 2465 was repainted sometime between 2013 and 2015 and is no longer blue. This was actually the first time I saw this unit, so I never saw it as a "blue devil".
Eric Gagnon has a great article on CN leasers between 1994 and 1998 that includes the "blue devils" when they were still LMS units.
Someone had dropped a pizza box in the middle of the road, so I had to include that in a photo.
MGLX 397044 and pizza
Note the ex Saskatchewan Grain Car Corporation car... now MGLX (Mobil Grain). It's one of several hundred purchased from the province.
About 15 minutes later, a westbound train came. As I drove west to find a spot to catch it, I found that CN 8899 East was still sitting at mile 10 on the north track. I pulled off the road and I was able to catch the meet.
CN 8800 West, Meet CN 8899 East
East meets west
I like how someone has cleared the grime off the reporting mark on CN 8800.
PRLX 250 returns
Note the unit in second position - PRLX 250 again! I saw that the previous night coming into Winnipeg, so here it was, continuing westward out of the city.
I definitely had to chase this train!
I headed west, past Diamond, to mile 15. There I set my old Canon T1i up on a tripod to record video, then shot the train as it went by.
Little potash train on the prairie
Those locomotives and the pink potash cars looked pretty sweet in the sunset light.
Another shot of PRLX 250? Why not?
PRLX 250 redux
The third unit was CN 2225, for those keeping score at home.
Here's the video...
I didn't feel like there were going to be any more CN trains for a while, so I decided to take a quick trip north to the CP Carberry subdivision and see if I could catch a train there before I had to head for home.
Luck was with me, because as I arrived trackside, I could see a headlight in Rosser, several miles to the west of me.
I found a crossing and setup for video and still photography. As the train approached, I could see it was an oil train. The sunset sure looked nice shining off all of those tank cars!
CP 9668 East
Shot of the day
I took a number of photos as the train approached. Say what you will about unit trains, to me they look very nice stretched out across the Canadian prairie... especially with some sweet sunset light on the side. This was truly "the best of times", in my opinion.
As the train passed, I pivoted to get the "going away" view as they approached a set of signals.
Highball!
Sunset snake...
Sunset snake
The tail end had another locomotive on it, and as the end approached, I saw it was a BNSF locomotive, BNSF 7413. I photographed them passing the signals, then I threw my gear in the car and gave chase, hoping for another photo of the BNSF unit.
BNSF 7413 splits the signals
Here's the video...
I wasn't really able to catch up to the train, but I grabbed this long distance photo of BNSF 7413 and the buffer car on the rear of the oil train before giving up and heading home.
The Grand Finale
As I turned onto St. Mary's Road, I spotted this sunset scene and had to pull over to capture it. That's the Investors Group Field stadium on the left, home of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers (arch-nemesis of my beloved Saskatchewan Roughriders).
Styx!
PS - I quoted Dennis DeYoung at the start because I finally saw him in concert, here in Winnipeg, on August 16. Dennis is the former lead singer of Styx. He and his band played at the magnificent Burton Cummings Theatre. I sat in the 4th row and enjoyed the performance of the full album "The Grand Illusion" plus many Styx hits. At 69 he still sounds great, and his band was excellent.
Dennis DeYoung and band in concert
If you get the chance, go see Dennis - or Styx - in concert. Both put on great shows.
Dennis DeYoung, up close and personal!
I don't think I mentioned it here, but I saw STYX on Vancouver Island...
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/
Local railfan Jack Hykaway shared this great railfan adventure. Follow Jack on YouTube! He included so much content and so many photos that I have broken it into two parts.
A Prairie Railfanning Adventure
My family and I headed west through the prairies this past weekend to visit family in Saskatchewan. Our bags were packed and we were out of the house by 8:00 on Friday morning, a little earlier than we would've normally left for this trans-prairie trip. We left with time to spare because somehow I had managed to convince my parents and sister to stop at a well-known railfanning location for a picnic lunch. We made terrible time through rush-hour traffic in the city, then on the highway, construction along the TCH slowed us even more. Construction was constant - huge stretches of highway were being redone, so the normal four-lane 110 KM/H speed limit was reduced to 80, and in some places to as low as 60, and traffic marched westward in a single-file line.
It was almost 11:30 AM by the time we finally reached Brandon, which is normally only a two hour drive from Winnipeg. CN's main line from Winnipeg to PlaP was bustling with activity, but as we sped under the main line at Brandon North, all was quiet. About an hour later, we arrived at my picnic spot, near Arrow River, MB, just as an eastbound was passing through. That construction along the TCH had cost me a train! We lugged our cooler up the hill anyways, and my parents and sister sat down for some lunch while I set up my tripod and hoped to catch another train at this scenic spot.
I was halfway through my chicken sandwich when my dad pointed at the horizon. “Is that a train?” I jumped up and turned my attention to the eastern horizon – sure enough, a flickering light was cresting the hill in the distance. I got ready to capture the train coming past the grain elevator at Quadra, a mile or two away from where I was set up.
CN 347 glides past the Grain Elevator near Arrow River, MB.
The train turned out to be CN 347, with two SD70M-2s easing a solid block of empty centerbeam flatcars through the sweeping curves at Arrow River. This was the only train I saw during my short time trackside.
We were running tight for time, as we still had many hours of driving ahead of us. After packing up and picking off several wood ticks, we continued west to our destination, Wynyard, SK.
Saturday
Saturday morning, I joined my family on an adventure to downtown Wynyard to visit Home Hardware. They don't have any Home Hardware stores in Winnipeg and mom wanted to check out their cool spinning mops and other handy gadgets. Dad was interested in the comfy Adirondack chairs they had in stock, and my sister and I were passing the time trying on some very stylish sunglasses.
We walked along the tracks on the way to the store, so I snapped a few photos of the small CP yard and station in Wynyard.
CP’s yard in Wynyard, SK. A third GP20C-ECO is hiding behind the two others on a farther track
The old CP station in Wynyard sits boarded up
The yard looks healthy, contrary to what we're seeing here in Winnipeg. A few dozen tanks and hoppers sit in the yard while a trio of GP20C-ECO units sit just beyond the cars. CP also built a new yard office in town, and it seems crews have been busy along the Sutherland Sub just west of town. A new crossing, a pair of crossovers and two ribbon-rail mainlines stretch to the horizon out of the west end of town.
Later on that afternoon I had some free time, so I went back down to the tracks to see what I could see. A CP truck was waiting by the station so I figured a train must be close, as most trains stop to change crews here. I was right - in a few moments a light crested the hill and CP 298 rolled into town.
CEFX 1046 leads CP train 298 out of the yard at Wynyard, SK
CEFX 1046 was in charge of train 298 this day. The train did some switching out of the east end of the yard before it continued east. Jack posted a video:
As the train completed its switching and started to depart, my dad and I drove out of town a few miles and searched for a photogenic spot. We checked out a spot in the hamlet of Mozart, but the light wasn't quite right there, and it wasn’t the shot I was after, so we headed back to the highway and we continued east. The pit-stop at Mozart almost cost me the train, as when we arrived at my chosen spot, the train was only a mile or so behind us and it was doing good track speed. We drove down a sandy grid road for a quarter-mile, and I sprung out of the car to set up. The wind was really howling in this part of the prairie, so I used the car as a wind-block to capture a stable shot of the train streaking through the green farmland.
CEFX 1046 has the short manifest train rolling through the prairies at track speed
A CP toaster brought up the rear of CP 298, and if you look closely directly above the hopper car in front of the DPU, you can barely make out the large grain elevator in Wadena, SK, about 13 miles to the north.
A CP Toaster is shoving hard on the rear end of CP 298
Dad and I were back in Wynyard in time for dinner, and I went to bed satisfied with the shots I had taken.
Sunday
VIA’s cookie-cutter station building
sits beside the impressive CN station,
currently being restored
We headed back toward Winnipeg on Sunday morning, but the railfanning was far from over. My parents agreed to drop me off in Melville so I could catch VIA 2 and take the train back to the city.
I was on the platform at 12:30 PM, which is the train's regular arrival time for Melville.
Unsurprisingly, it was running late. A quick call to VIA's 1-800 number revealed that No. 2 was running a couple hours behind schedule and was estimated in the station at 4:00 PM. A three-and-a-half-hour wait wasn't so bad - CN kept me entertained with train after train through town.
A dash of blue is trailing three CN units
on a westbound Intermodal train.
This train is slowing for a crew
change at the west end of the yard
It was bittersweet seeing those trains, as it was likely that most would end up delaying VIA 2 even further. One train pulled into town from the east and sat on the track nearest to the station for over two hours. A retired CN employee was waiting to catch the VIA with me at the station, and we were discussing different theories as to why the train had been sitting in town for so long. As it was nearing 4:00 PM, the freight train was still blocking the track closest to the station. This is the only track VIA can use to pick up/drop off passengers in Melville – passengers aren’t allowed to cross the tracks here to board the train due to safety concerns.
CN 2500, a C44-9WL is accelerating out of Melville Yard with a long intermodal train in tow
The freight train refused to move, and other trains were going around it on the siding. I called the VIA hotline again, and found out my train had been delayed until 5:30 due to the freight traffic. I conveyed the bad news to my fellow passenger, and I decided to grab some supper at the CO-OP nearby and go for a stroll to see the sights in downtown Melville.
A pair of AC units led a manifest freight into Melville on the mainline. This train was sitting on the mainline for two hours before continuing west.
When I returned to the station with some supper and a few snacks for the train ride, the hiss of air brakes releasing was a welcomed sound. The AC units on the head end of the massive freight train pulled the slack from between the cars, and with a bang, the train was on the move again.
It was nearing 5:30, and even with the track cleared, there was still no sign of VIA. At a quarter to six, I called one last time, and they claimed that VIA No. 2 was still scheduled to arrive at 5:30 in Melville – that shows just how much the folks working at VIA’s call centres know.
Will VIA 2 finally arrive? Was Jack stranded in Melville for days? Find out next time in the exciting conclusion to Jack's Prairie railfanning adventure! Read part 2!
I'm snowblind, can't live without you So fine, I just can't get away Now I'm snowblind, snowblind, snowblind
- Styx (video)
I felt a little snowblind yesterday when I was out railfanning. Tom Sajnovic was in town and we decided to go railfanning on Sunday, which happened to be Valentine's Day.
After getting the OK from my wife to spend the morning chasing trains, I picked Tom up at 8 AM and we headed over to the CP yards to start the morning.
The usual suspects
It was not a promising start. There was the usual array of active and stored units at the shops, with nothing special around except for a peek of blue from a unit in the second row that had no number boards. That might have been DME 6359 aka Mount Rushmore, reported stricken from the roster in January 2016.
We decided to head west to Portage la Prairie and try to catch some action there. I was a bit apprehensive of the weather - relatively mild but with lots of blowing snow - but I decided to give it a try.
We headed out toward Rosser with the intention of following CP to Marquette then continuing on to Portage. Very quickly we spotted a CP freight heading east into Makwa, just west of the Perimeter Highway. We pulled over and got the shot. CP 9717 was the sole engine on the head end.
Visibility Poor
The mid train DPU was CP 8574 - photograph by Tom Sajnovic.
Mid train by Tom Sajnovic
Tom's camera batteries died when he tried to get the approach shot, but he managed to resuscitate it to grab the mid-train DPU.
With that train in the bag, I decided not to continue along the CP as the highway was drifting pretty badly. We turned around and headed back to the Perimeter Highway to head to Headingley and the Trans-Canada Highway. After stopping at a gas station to get more batteries for Tom, we headed west.
The highway itself was OK, with some drifting snow in the passing lane but in general it was clear. The visibility was pretty bad and I don't think we reached the speed limit at all en route to Portage. We kept an eye toward the CN line to our left but we couldn't see it most of the time, so if trains were passing, we didn't see them. The weather cleared up a bit as we approached Portage.
We arrived in Portage la Prairie and headed to the area between the CN and CP tracks, just east of the stations and the Tupper Street overpass. Shortly thereafter, a CN eastbound rolled into view, with CN 2571 and CN 2008.
The train had a few of these blue NOKL Dynastack cars on them, a car I haven't seen before. The blue really stands out.
After that train passed, Tom needed to go to Shoppers Drug Mart to pick something up, so we headed over and parked in front of the store. As we were getting out of the car, Tom heard a horn... so we hopped back in and drove over the Tupper St. overpass, spotting an eastbound CN train to the west, and went to the VIA station to capture CN 5477 East.
Here's Tom capturing 5477.
Tom getting the shot
... and here's Tom's viewpoint.
CN 5477 East, by Tom Sajnovic
I was a little behind Tom and a bit closer to the tracks. Here's my view.
Wedgie shot
I think I like his viewpoint better!
Poor tired CN 5513 was the trailing unit on the train. I was surprised to find out this was the first time I'd photographed 5513. I thought I'd probably grabbed all of the extant SD60Fs but I guess not!
Worn CN 5513
After we gave that train the roll-by inspection, we headed back to Shoppers Drug Mart again. We parked in front of the store, got out... and both of us heard a horn this time.
Back in the car... back to the tracks, for the third CN eastbound train in a row, CN 8935 East with a blue IC unit trailing.
CN 8935
IC 2459 was the trailing unit, with a door open in the hood for some reason. I suppose railfans call this a "blue devil" or "blue meanie" or whatever. I don't want to refer to it by its nickname because, chances are, I'll get it "wrong". I learned my lesson when trying to refer to a "toaster". Railfans... so picky. ;)
IC 2459 in Portage la Prairie
This train had mixed freight on the head end, with containers on the rear. Maybe it was CN 198? In any case, it had one of CN's distributed braking containers, CNSU0007, in the middle of the freight cars.
Distributed Braking Container CNSU0007
After that train passed, we headed back to Shoppers for the third time and parked. This time someone was blowing snow off the sidewalks with a leaf blower, so there was no way we were going to hear any train horns! Tom bought what he needed, and as we drove back to the tracks we saw a fourth CN eastbound train rolling by. I didn't know it was parade day on CN!
After the containers finished rolling by, we went over the Tupper Street overpass and noted a green signal on CP indicating a CP eastbound was coming. We parked by the Canadian Pacific Railway Heritage Park and Interpretive Centre aka the old CP station.
Tom elected to stay on the station side of the tracks and I went over to the other side to capture the station in the shot. Here's Tom's view:
CP 8931 passes the former CP station in Portage la Prairie
It was time for me to go home, so we headed back along the Trans-Canada Highway. There was a westbound CP intermodal over at Tupper by the Viterra elevator but we had no time to catch it. We ducked into Oakville but there was no action there, so we came back out and proceeded into Winnipeg. On the way we saw the intermodal train we missed, dimly and in the distance.
I elected to come in along Wilkes and we spotted CN 8935 East again with the IC unit trailing. I overtook it before Shaftesbury and we bailed out to capture the other side of the train. I'm quite happy with this photo, showing IC 2459 with a little bit of CN red.
IC 2459 with a CN air conditioner
That was our day of railfanning between Winnipeg and Portage la Prairie. Thanks to Tom for inspiring me to get out and shoot some trains!
