The 2017 CP Holiday Train

Canadian Pacific Railway has run the Holiday Train since 1999, crossing Canada from east to west. The train collects funds and food for local food banks, and puts on a good show too!

In the past I've photographed it in Winnipeg - at night - but this year I decided to see it on Sunday as it traveled from Winnipeg to Portage la Prairie for the show there.

According to the schedule, it was due to arrive in Portage la Prairie at 12:15 and the show would go from 12:30 to 1:00 PM.

My intention was to leave my house around 10 AM, railfan CN toward Portage, then cut over to CP around Poplar Point and catch the train coming in, then go see the train in Portage. I had to be back in Winnipeg shortly after 2 PM so I couldn't linger past 1 PM in Portage.

Why railfan CN instead of CP? Easy.. more trains. I wasn't expecting CP to run any trains around the time the Holiday Train was running, so I thought CN would be the better choice.

I did railfan along the CN Rivers subdivision and it was quite productive, but I'll leave that for another post. I arrived at High Bluff and drove around, looking for a decent spot to photograph the train.

I wanted a spot where I could see the whole train, but I didn't want just open prairie.

I found this barn and decided it needed to be in the photo.

Now.. the waiting game.

This year, CP posted a Holiday Train tracker web site where you can see its position in real time. SO. HANDY.

I was able to determine where the train was, so I didn't have to stand outside my car the whole time waiting for the train.

It was about 11:25 when I took the above photo of the barn. According to the tracker, the train was in Rosser, having just left Winnipeg. I was a little concerned because I couldn't see how the train could make the 50-odd miles remaining between Winnipeg and Portage la Prairie in 50 minutes to be on time.

While I was waiting, and checking the app, two CP freight trains came by. Again, I'll write about them with the other trains I saw that day.

Finally, the Holiday Train passed at 12:10.

That's the shot I wanted.

I took a little video here with my iPhone:

I hopped in the car and carried on toward Portage la Prairie. The train wasn't going terribly fast so I was able to jump out a kilometre or two later to get this photo.

I wanted to get them at Tucker passing the Viterra grain elevator there. I was easily able to beat them there, and one of the two CP freights I had seen was crawling along on the south track.

There was someone already there with a video camera waiting for the train, and somebody else pulled up in a truck to capture the event. I waited for CP 2249 to pass the freight and took a few photos. I liked this one the best:

Here's a bit of a wider view showing the grain elevator as well.

The Holiday Train stopped at the yard entrance to line a switch - I think - and I drove down between the CN and CP lines to capture the train arriving. Here it is with the large crowd waving to the train.

It came to a stop at 12:46 - 36 minutes late - so I didn't have a lot of time to photograph it before I had to leave. I saw Trainboy Productions there and chatted with him for a few minutes - I'll add his video to this post when he posts it.

Here's a whole-train view in Portage la Prairie. As Eric Gagnon said on Facebook, the view is unobstructed by grain elevators (that used to be here). I would have been fine finding shots around grain elevators. ;)

They were on a stub track - maybe the yard lead?

It was 1 PM so I had to go. I didn't see the show but I understand Colin James and Emma-Lee were great.

That was the 2017 CP Holiday Train for me.

See Also

• Holiday Train 2011
• Holiday Train 2014
• Holiday Train 2015
• Holiday Train 2016
• Trainboy Productions video of the 2017 Holiday Train in Manitoba
• Mile Post Productions video of the 2017 Holiday Train in Ontario

Snowblind in Portage la Prairie

Snowblind

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:

Tom's view of CP 8931

Here's my view. Railpictures.NET liked this one.

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!

More "railfanning with Tom":

• A Morning in Portage la Prairie
• 14 Miles and 5 Trains
• A Morning with Tom

A Morning in Portage la Prairie

I am normally a "lone wolf" railfan. I find my time to railfan when I can so it's difficult for me to arrange to meet up with anyone else to see trains, plus when I'm alone I get to decide where to go! So when Thomas Sajnovic messaged me to ask if I was available, I hesitated for a moment and decided "what the heck!" Tom was in town doing some training with CN and we arranged to go out on Sunday, May 3rd. I picked him up at 6 AM and we headed over to the CP yard to start.

The usual collection of old Geeps were by the shops.

CP 8231 and company in Winnipeg

CP 8231 and several other GP9s are for sale, "as is where is".

We stood and watched for a few minutes. I spotted a BNSF unit over by the now-closed Rugby Tower. I took this poor shot and then we hopped in the car to try to get a better angle. Of course, by the time we drove around, two CP locomotives had hooked onto it and were pushing it into the shop area as I tried to stop to photograph it. No picture for you!

BNSF 8235 in Winnipeg

We consoled ourselves with photographing a pair of switchers in the nice sunrise light.

Big stacks on those locomotives!

After that, we headed over to the Prairie Dog Central to get a couple of shots before proceeding to Portage la Prairie.

The PDC had all three of its diesels out.

The Prairie Dog Central fleet

BNSF 1685 is the last Burlington Northern Manitoba Limited locomotive (ex BNML 2). It was donated to the PDC in July 2010. The green loco is 4138 which has been with the PDC for quite a while. The new arrival is 5232, the striped locomotive on the right.

Ex CN, ex CCGX 5232

Long time readers of the blog will recognize this as ex CCGX 5232, which worked for the Central Manitoba Railway (CEMR) for several years. I first spotted 5232 in September 2009 when she was still lettered as ANY 5232, ex Athabasca Northern. I've written about 5232 many times.

A volunteer who was around at this early hour told me that 5232 was acquired to work on the PDC's car storage business. This six axle power will pull a lot more than the Geeps!

The volunteer - sorry, I can't recall his name - invited us to have a look at #3, the PDC's steam engine. It was still warm from a run the previous night.

Being in the shade, it was a little difficult to photograph. I did the best I could.

A couple of CP westbound trains rolled by while we were chatting. 

Once we were done at the PDC, we hit the road for Meadows and beyond. I had to pause briefly at Meadows to shoot yet another photo of the grain elevator...

Then we carried on to Marquette - no grain elevator there any more, of course - and on toward Portage la Prairie. While traveling the back roads near Poplar Point, I spotted this grain elevator at a (Mennonite?) colony.

I spotted this nice barn near there too.

Anyway, we finally made it to Portage la Prairie. Tom spotted a rail grinder moving on the CP tracks, so we made our way over there and found LIMX 3411 tying up.

Sadly LIMX 3411 derailmed in Portage the day after we saw it.

While admiring this magnificent piece of equipment, I spotted movement on the CP... and I spotted yellow UP engines! We sprinted for the tracks to capture UP 3556 and UP 3645 leading CP 9562 and a grain train.

While we were admiring that train, Tom spotted movement on the CN side, so over we went! This was CN 2679 leading an intermodal train east.

CN 8877 was about 3/4 of the train back, providing DPU power.

That's the best part of railfanning Portage - action on both tracks!

That train finished going past us at 09:02. We decided to go see the CP station. After we arrived there, we spotted a westbound train on the CN at 09:15. CN 2200 led 8838 and 8901 past the station.

The station is looking good! A big shout out to everyone working to restore the station.

I like the ex Manitoba Hydro locomotive.

I'm guessing it was nicknamed "Snoopy".

CP 3111 was the resident switcher in the CP yard.

After those three trains in Portage, there was a lull. We decided to head back to Winnipeg via the Trans-Canada, which meant there was a potential for CN action... and there was! To be continued...

Other Portage la Prairie posts

In Search of Grain Elevators, Part 2

The Oberon grain elevator. Buy this print!

In part 1 of my May 31 grain elevator tour, I visited Elie, Tucker, Katrime (new), Steele Bridge (new), Gladstone, Helston (new), and Arden (new), and saw two CN and one CP trains... not bad!

After Arden, I headed west to Neepawa for some gas, then south on highway 5. I intended to visit Mentmore first, followed by Brookdale and Oberon, but my GPS had other ideas and it took me to the Oberon grain elevator first. No complaints!

As you can see, the Oberon elevator is quite weathered. The town of Oberon has basically disappeared, with the school closing a couple of decades ago and the elevator falling into disuse.

I carried on west on highway 353 to Brookdale. There is one elevator left here, the former Manitoba Pool elevator. The UGG elevator came down quite recently but I missed it.

The Brookdale grain elevator

Oberon and Brookdale were both on the CP Varcoe subdivision, which closed in 1978, I believe.

There is an old "horizontal grain elevator" in Brookdale that I failed to photograph. Before grain elevators, grain was stored in warehouses. Few have survived but this one has.

After photographing Brookdale, I headed north on a dirt road to Mentmore. The elevator is off in a field, so I parked on the side of the road and walked over to photograph it.

The Mentmore grain elevator

After circling the elevator to take my photos, I walked back down the driveway to my car. Just as I was opening my door, a pickup truck pulled up.

"Looking for something?"

I explained that I was touring the province, photographing grain elevators.

"Ever been in a grain elevator?"
"No, never."
"Do you want to see one?"

Heck, YES.

It turns out that he was the owner of the Mentmore elevator and noticed I was walking around. We went down to the elevator and spent the next 45 minutes or so touring the elevator. He explained how the elevator worked and operated the leg to show the little buckets zipping up. We peeked in a few bins and looked at the truck scale and the scale that was used to weigh outbound grain. We also visited the office visible in the right of the photo above. It was fascinating.

Visit my page on the Mentmore grain elevator for more photos and information, including a photo of a Fairbanks-Morse scale!

I really appreciated the chance to tour the elevator. I'm sending him a print of his elevator as thanks for the time he spent.

After that excitement, it was time to move on. The last two elevators I had on my list of targets were Harte and Gregg. Both of these are on the CN Rivers subdivision so I was hoping for trains!

The Harte grain elevator

The Harte grain elevator is an active elevator, owned by a nearby farm. There are prominent NO TRESPASSING signs so I did not get very close to it.

Note the nearby overpass. That would be a great place to photograph westbound trains from in the afternoon and evening!

The Gregg grain elevator is just down the line to the east.

Gregg Grain Elevator

Sadly, no trains came along while I was photographing these two elevators.

I headed south to the Trans-Canada and headed east back toward Winnipeg. I had a little time, so I decided I would stop in at Austin and photograph the elevator there again. I photographed it (and a CP train) back in July 2010 in pouring rain, so it was time for a few shots in nicer weather.

As I was driving past the elevator to get to the sun side, I spotted a headlight off to the east. TRAIN! I parked and sprinted to get a decent location to shoot the oncoming stack train.

CP 8806 in Austin, Manitoba

CP train at the Austin grain elevator

That was exciting!

After the train passed, I continued on east on the Trans-Canada. As I approached Portage la Prairie, I spotted CN 405 heading out on the CN Gladstone subdivision. I hurried as much as I safely could to get the shot near West Tower before the power disappeared from view.

CN 405 in Portage la Prairie. That's the CP Carberry subdivision in the foreground.

There was an interesting freight car on this train, carrying some parts for CN's 1:1 scale train set.

1:1 scale track

I grabbed a late lunch at A&W and continued on toward the Portage downtown. As I approached, I spotted another CN train. This was CN 101.

CN 2671 leading train 101 in Portage la Prairie

Another Dash-9, CN 2692, was pushing on the rear. You can see I was near West Tower, this time on the east side of it.

CN 2692 near West Tower in Portage la Prairie, MB

I drove around Portage a little bit, and a CP train came rolling west but I was not in a good position to capture it. It had CP 8542 and CP 8904.

I knew VIA 1 should be rolling along any time, but I was running short on time so I elected to head out and try to catch them somewhere on the way. As it turned out, I spotted them crossing under the TCH approaching East Tower. I quickly pulled over after the crossing, ran back over, and took position as the lights went on and the gates came down.

VIA 6438 near Portage la Prairie Manitoba

Nice to see the Canadian again.

I headed out onto the TCH and drove back to Winnipeg. I took a quick shot of the former Oakville elevator, now on a farm, from the highway but I hope to get back to photograph it better. I also spotted an elevator north of Elie, in a Hutterite colony I believe. Another one to investigate further...

I decided to leave the TCH before Headingley and cut up to the CN Rivers subdivision on the off chance I could squeeze one more train in. I was lucky and got this one around mile 17 or so.

CN 5760 near Winnipeg

Lots of grain elevators and lots of trains... a great combination!