Just Barely

It had been a long time since I'd seen a Canadian on the road, so on Thursday I decided to catch it at noon. As luck would have it, I was delayed a few minutes leaving work and ended up sitting at the traffic light by IKEA and watching VIA 1 roll by in the distance. I made up a bit of time on the Sterling Lyon parkway heading west but I was stopped again at a red light at Shaftesbury Boulevard. Darn it!

The road speed limit is 80 km/hr (50 MPH) for several kilometres, while track speed is 35 MPH so it is possible to make up some ground. The road speed limit goes up to 90 km/hr/55 MPH after Elmhurst Road but unfortunately for train chasers, the rail speed limit goes up to 45 MPH at mile 8.3 and 60 MPH (80 MPH for passenger trains!) at mile 9.8 just short of the hotbox detector at mile 10. If VIA has a clear signal, there is no catching them after the hotbox!

Fortunately for me, the VIA crew didn't seem to be in a huge hurry after Carman Junction, so I was able to slowly pull ahead by mile 12. As it happens, they had a CLEAR TO LIMITED signal approaching Diamond. Trains get this signal when they are changing tracks at Diamond. The Diamond interlocking is at mile 14.3 but the important thing is that there is a STOP sign at the intersection of Wilkes and Harris Road. I will not blow through a stop sign so I knew I had to get my shot before then, or there was zero chance of getting anything but stainless in the distance.

So I hastily pulled over a few hundred metres short of the stop sign and jumped out, camera in hand. I grabbed the above shot of the lead engine, VIA 6415, and then started recording the consist using the classic Bill Linley method of photographing every car. The train had 22 cars, including a deadheading WATERTON PARK just behind VIA 6431.

The trailing car was TREMBLANT PARK, with someone taking my photograph!


Here's the "going away" shot as they cross Harris Road and approach Diamond.


I did not make any attempt to pursue, of course!

Fellow railfan Manny Jacob shot the train later on in Portage la Prairie.


Afterword: I have reworked the home page of my site. I'm trying to streamline the navigation and feature my photography more. I'd appreciate your comments, good or bad.

EDIT: Revised the signal indication that VIA would have seen.

The Grey Cup Train Approaches

The Grey Cup train has been heading east for several days. The train has been traveling on Canadian Pacific Railway tracks and therefore had a CPR engine on the head end, CP 8711. The complete consist was:

• CP 8711
• VIA 6445
• VIA 8615
• CP 103
• CP 104
• VIA 8412 Kent
• VIA 8502 Skyline
• VIA 8208 Chateau Dollier

It arrived in Minnedosa, Manitoba on Wednesday, October 3 and John Longhurst was there to record it. His blog entry is here. Here's one photo from his blog entry.

CP 8711 and the Grey Cup train. Photo by John Longhurst.

It carried on to Portage la Prairie on Thursday, October 4 (a very blustery day) and Manny Jacob recorded it in great detail here and here. He got the shot I would have tried to get, the VIA Rail Canadian passing the Grey Cup train.

The Canadian passes the Grey Cup train. Photo by Manny Jacob.

Here's an excellent pacing video of the train between Red Deer and Calgary.

The train is open to the public at Union Station in Winnipeg on Saturday October 6 from 11 AM to 4 PM. I plan on being there for some of the festivities. Here's the complete list of stops. From Winnipeg the train apparently will be going directly to Halifax, Nova Scotia while the Cup will travel to Newfoundland before going to Nova Scotia.

Grey Cup Engine Wrapped

A few pictures have emerged of the engine slated to lead the Grey Cup train. The above shot was at an unveiling event. That's the CFL commissioner, Mark Cohon, with the microphone.

The engine is VIA 6445, newly refurbished and now wrapped for the Grey Cup train. You may remember VIA 6445 was the lead engine for last summer's Coors Light train. This is the first wrap of a refurbished VIA engine.

Here's a photo of the complete 4-car train train from the Grey Cup tour.


Follow this link to see other photos of the train, such as this showing the baggage car. All four cars are decorated. I understand the first and last cars are VIA cars and the middle two are CP cars from their heritage fleet.


There's a beautiful photo of VIA 6445 at Railpictures.ca that I cannot show you because of their inane no-embedding policy.

The consist headed out of Toronto on the Canadian on Thursday August 30, with VIA 6445 behind the two Canadian engines and the four cars behind the Park car. Manny Jacob did an excellent job photographing them at Portage la Prairie and also at Kearns where VIA 1 was stopped to wait for a CN freight train. Check his story out here.