Anticipation

Back on February 23 (I told you I have a backlog) I found CN 8847 heading west out of Winnipeg late in the afternoon. This was after seeing CN 106 and the Canadian at noon on the same day. The train approached Diamond and slowed to a halt. Clearly they were meeting another train.


I headed west past Diamond and spotted this train. Here they are approaching the bend west of Diamond.

I love this moment... the train is in sight, not quite "in range" for photography... fire off a test shot to make sure all the settings are right... and wait for "the moment".

Here they came around the bend.


Note how CN 5508 does not have the white-painted numbers above the cab windows like most CN SD60s do, or like trailing engine CN 5538 has.


I hit the road to shoot the meet. I saw that 8847 had started creeping forward in anticipation of 5508's passing. I stopped at the Route 334 crossing just east of Diamond, jumped out, and here is the meet.


I was out of time, so I headed for home. The funny thing is... there was another train behind 8847 West, led by two more SD60s, CN 5536 and CN 5549. Unfortunately I did not have time to get a shot of them!

CN Buying New Power

Reuters is reporting that CN will purchase 65 new and 96 used locomotives to handle "heavier traffic". The new locomotives, for delivery in 2013-2014, are to be:

• 35 GE ES44AC
• 30 GM SD70ACe

This is remarkable because these will be the first locomotives CN has purchased with AC traction motors. Traditionally CN has used direct-current (DC) traction motors in its entire fleet. Canadian Pacific has used AC locomotives for years but their traffic tends to be more bulk hauling than intermodal.

AC traction motors are better suited for low speed, heavy hauling like coal, sulphur, and other big, heavy unit trains. DC units have a lower purchase cost and easier to maintain. See this EMD presentation to see the merits of AC traction.

CN's news release says that CN will purchase the following used locomotives this year:

• 42 GE Dash 8-40C
• 11 GE Dash 8-40C that were leased (ex-LMS, see above photo for an example)
• 43 EMD SD60 (rumoured to be ex-GMTX)

I shot IC 2458 a couple of days ago and it should be one of the 11 Dash-840Cs to be purchased from lease. See Trackside Treasure's excellent article on CN leased locomotives for more information on these and others.

So... new locomotive types on CN in 2013 and 2014. Something to look forward to!

SD60s in the Snow

First off, I must apologize for not blogging as much recently. I have a little back problem these days and I'm trying to limit my computer time a bit, so the blogging suffers. Hopefully things will improve soon.

I have been seeing trains, and I wanted to share this one from February 16. I went to St. James Junction to see if I could see a train, and sure enough a freight was visible to the west through the falling snow. A CN crew were looking at the diamond, and after saying hello to me they took up positions on both sides to inspect the train.

The lead unit was CN 5538, followed by CN 2727, then another SD60, CN 5508.


I was idly standing by, doing my own rollby inspection, when this car came rolling by. I managed to take a few snaps of this artwork.


IC 799789 appeared to be bearing a likeness of Willie Nelson. I don't know a lot about railway, but this one was done by "Theory" from the FR80PHILE gang.

Near the end of the train, there was a series of shiny new TILX tank cars. They appear to have been built around April 2011 so they are pretty new. These cars were carrying some kind of combustible liquid, according to the 1993 placard. It's a class 3 flammable liquid which means it has a fairly low flash point = easy to ignite.


There were also a few Interstate Asphalt cars, carrying... asphalt. Interstate Asphalt supplies the Chicago area with asphalt, so these cars had a fair distance yet to go. Maybe they came from the tar sands area in Alberta?

February 5

We spent last weekend in Fargo, North Dakota doing some shopping. I did not have any time for railfanning while in Fargo, which is too bad because Fargo has a lot of BNSF action. I did see one BNSF caboose... woo. ;)

On the way home, though, I saw one BNSF train, led by BNSF 4901 and BNSF 4151. It was between Fargo and Grand Forks.

Once we passed through Canadian Customs (a 35 minute wait) we were on the road for home... until about 3 minutes later when I spotted CN 532 approaching the border. I pulled over and took a series of shots as the train rolled past. SD60 CN 5503 led the train with ex-BNSF CN 2145 trailing.


The sunset colours were pretty good. I spotted the moon over the tracks and grabbed this shot of the engines under the moon.

January 3

I'm way behind in posting this, but better late than never, right? Right?

On January 3 I went to St. James Junction in Winnipeg to try to shoot the Hudson Bay, er, I mean VIA's "Winnipeg-Churchill train" VIA 693. What a dull name!

There were two other railfans there already, VanBilly and another gentleman whose name I never got. Nothing much was going on so we chatted for a bit. Soon the CEMR train came along, heading west toward their Carman subdivision. CEMR 4002 and CCGX 5232 were the power.


Here's VanBilly's video.


Soon after that, the BNSF transfer train came back from Fort Rouge. New-to-Winnipeg engine BNSF 2968 was on the point.


Here's VanBilly's video of the same train. I think you might see my shadow in the shot at one point.


Right after that, a CN freight came rolling east. I think it was CN 404 but I could be wrong. It had an interesting consist on the front end. CN 8892 was the lead unit, a fairly boring SD70M-2, very common these days.


There was a bit of an editorial comment on the frame of CN 8892...


The second unit was one of my favourites, an SD60, CN 5526, in "sergeant stripes".


The real catch was the third unit, an SD40, CN 6008, in CN North America livery!


I had to leave after that, so I never did see the Hudson Bay. I don't know why they were so late!

EDIT: Added VanBilly1's videos.

CN 532 With Three Engines

I caught the daily Winnipeg-Emerson train this afternoon, pretty much by accident. I'm glad I did, because the train had three engines, the most I've ever seen on train 532. Normally CN 532 runs with only one engine, but on some occasions it has two.

I saw them slowly crossing Bishop Grandin, so I went south down Pembina Highway to try to get ahead of them. I went to the Markham Road crossing and had only a few seconds to check my camera settings before I had to shoot. The shots are ISO 500-640 so they have a bit of grain to them.

Modern SD70M-2 CN 8862 was the leader, followed by elderly SD60 CN 5524 as the middle unit.


Illinois Central SD70 IC 1020 brought up the rear.


The train was fairly long but it didn't seem long enough to warrant three engines. Maybe they were expecting a long train from Emerson?

October 16

I was out and about in Winnipeg on Sunday, October 16. I think the kids were with me because my wife was working. I had tried to catch VIA 693 but we left our house too late to get it. We ended up doing a few things together and I ended up near the CP yard. I saw an interesting consist at the east end of the yard and had to take a few photos of it. It's not often you see an AC4400, a blocked off SD40-2, and a "red barn" SD40-2F together. Old friend CP 6078 with the blocked-out windows was second, and "red barn" SD40-2F CP 9023 was on the end, a new engine to me.CP 1530 and CP 8205 were in the yard, switching.

We drove around a bit then headed home on the Perimeter. I knew CN 532 was heading out and I figured I could get a shot of them south of the city. I exited at Pembina and headed south on highway 75 through St. Norbert. I easily got ahead of them and waited just south of the community in the first wide open space. I arranged things so we were parked on a service road paralleling the highway, figuring there might be a chance to take some stills then jump in the car and leapfrog ahead to get another shot.

I should mention it was very windy. The radio said it was 50-60 km/h gusting to 70-80.

Here's the first shot, with CN 5528 on the point.

After taking a few more as the train approached, I sprinted for the car and peeled out. I figure the train was only going 25 MPH so it was easy to get ahead of them, as I had a few kilometres of side road. I parked at the end and took video as the train passed. Pardon the wind noise!

SD60 Central

I always like seeing the "older" power on CN trains. On June 4 I saw two different trains with "old" EMD SD60 units leading.

First I saw this train heading into Winnipeg. I shot CN 5506 just east of the mile 10 hotbox detector. My son and I were out of the car, giving it a rollby inspection on the south side.


The engineer gave us a wave and a toot as they rolled by.


Later in the day, we were heading back home when I spotted CN 532 heading south on the CN Letellier subdivision. A quick exit at Pembina Highway and we were ready to shoot. Here is CN 5553 passing under the Perimeter Highway.


CN's SD60F units were built by GM's Electromotive Division (EMD) in two lots, four in 1985 and the rest in 1989. I may be wrong but I think they were the last CN units built with the "Draper taper" to enhance rearward visibility. The first four units were initially called SD50AF and numbered CN 9900-9903, but were renumbered to CN 5500-5503 in 1988. The units built in 1989 were numbered 5504-5563. The cab is slightly different on the later units, and the later engines weigh about 6 tons less.

They are equipped with a 16-cylinder 710 engine, a departure from the 645 engine used in the SD40s and SD50s. The 710 has been upgraded several times over the past 26 years and is powering the new SD70M-2 units.

Out of the 63 surviving units (CN 5514 was lost in 1993), I have seen 27 of them. I often saw them in Saint John on CN 305, and occasionally on CN 308 such as this shot from Deersdale, NB.


I find it interesting that some of them still have the road number painted above the front windows. All of them now have number boards on the nose, under the classification lights. I wonder why the number boards weren't mounted above the windows? Maybe there wasn't enough room for the lights and the number boards.


Let's hope these old Draper Tapers keep working for many years to come.

More Rocky Mountaineer Cars

I had a tip that Thursday's Canadian would have a couple of Rocky Mountaineer cars, so I went out at noon to see them. It was another beautiful but cold day. When I arrived at Wilkes Avenue I saw an eastbound freight train stopped a little west of St. James Junction. The power was SD60 CN 5506 and Dash-8 BCOL 4618. Old power!

BCOL 4618 has been repainted in CN colours.

BCOL 4618 in Winnipeg

The number sounded familiar, so I looked it up after and I realized I shot this unit in her BC Rail colours back on August 21, 2009.

BCOL 4618 still in BC Rail colours

I went over to the Junction and waited with another railfan for the Canadian. It was about 10-15 minutes late.

VIA Rail with Rocky Mountaineer cars

The lead Rocky Mountaineer car was RMR 9523, a dome car built by Colorado Railcar.

RMR 9523, Rocky Mountaineer

Trailing that was Rocky Mountaineer 5506, a former CN/VIA Dayniter.

Rocky Mountaineer #5506

That was fun!

VIA Rail "going away"

Shortly after the Canadian left, the freight started rolling. It turns out it was CN train 852.

CN 5506 in Winnipeg

While it was rolling by, CN 101 passed on the north track. CN 852 had to stop because 101 was crossing over from the south to the north track in front of 852.

Another nice day for photos and video.

See Also

• VIA Rail with Rocky Mountaineer car
• More Rocky Mountaineer cars

CN 102 Today

I caught CN 102 coming into Winnipeg on a bright, sunny day. I was at the Perimeter on Wilkes Avenue waiting for VIA's Canadian when I noticed 102 coming in from the west. I shot them as they passed the MOW siding just before mile 10. Rare SD60 CN 5558 was leading, with SD75 CN 5655 trailing.

Lots of bright green Evergreen containers.

As it happens, the Canadian is quite late today and only came into Winnipeg around 1:30 PM (5.5 hours late). While I was waiting, CEMR went onto the Carman subdivision with #4000 leading. I saw it and another GP9 take a cut of a dozen or so cars across the highway to Oak Bluff.

The last time I saw CN 5655 was also on train 102! (on September 22, 2009).

EXTRA: No one has commented on my switching from 640x480 pictures to 800x600, so I assume this is not causing any problems!

Chasing on the Sprague Subdivision

Back on July 3, I was driving east along the south Perimeter Highway outside Winnipeg. The kids and I were going to Spare Time Hobbies, via Symington Yard of course. As we came up to the intersection to get onto Fermor, we saw a trailing engine roll southward across the Floodway. What the heck, I decided, let's chase it!

We exited onto the Trans-Canada and gave chase. The train wasn't going especially fast, but we were hampered by the construction on the highway, making it single-lane each way at 80 km/hr with no passing. The traffic was heavy but steady so we slowly gained ground.

There was a westbound train stopped in the siding at Lorette (mile 138.2). We hoped we would be able to get it on the way back!

My oldest son had my Canon T1i and was blasting away as we overtook the train. Here's his shot of ex-BC Rail BCOL 4652, the second unit on the train.

Not bad for shooting from a moving vehicle, through a window, in the rain, eh?

Once we finally got ahead of the train around mile 130, I pulled over onto the shoulder and shot it as it passed us. CN 8834 and the aforementioned BCOL 4652 were on the head end.

As you can see in the background, the canola is in bloom now.

CN 2694 brought up the markers at the end of the train.


After it passed, we did a quick U-turn and headed back to try to catch the eastbound before it got into Symington Yard. We caught up with it by Tinkertown around mile 145 just before the end of the Sprague subdivision. I pulled into Symington Road by Grand Prix Amusements and shot them as they rolled slowly by.

The light wasn't good for the lead unit CN 5740 but it was for the trailing unit, rare SD60 CN 5522.

It felt great to actually chase a train again! :)

Norfolk Southern Coal Train

I shot a Norfolk Southern (NS) coal train in Harmar, Pennsylvania near Pittsburgh on November 30, 2005. It had SD60 6710 and NS 8664 leading about 70-80 loaded coal cars.


I originally blogged about it here.

An Afternoon on the Napadogan

I decided to take the afternoon and make a trip to Napadogan (pronounced Napa-DOG-an, not Napa-dough-gan like I keep saying it). Why? I've never been, and I wanted to see the old roundhouse. I knew there was a thunderstorm watch but, hey, it was beautiful at noon. What could happen?

I left Fredericton just before 14:00 and headed north on highway 8, leaving at Taymouth to take the back way since there's construction on highway 107. After I passed through Stanley and approached Cross Creek, I got this bright idea to go to Maple Grove Station to see if there is anything there. According to my Back Roads of New Brunswick book, it is on the CN line. As I got further into the sticks, the sky became very dark and the wind started blowing hard. The rain started falling as I left pavement and started driving through gravel roads in the woods. After a few minutes of that I decided to turn around before a) I got lost, and b) the road washed out. Back to Cross Creek.

As I was driving west on highway 107 in the pouring rain and occasional lightning, I was thinking I must be the stupidest railfan ever for going out during a thunderstorm watch.

I arrived at Napadogan at 15:00. The place was.. underwhelming. There are about six or seven houses there, half of which are abandoned. The roundhouse is still standing but has a bunch of tin shacks appended to it.



I figured I might as well proceed on to Deersdale, since it is not far away. After stopping to check on a stranded motorist, I made good time. The weather cleared as I approached Deersdale, and this sign showed me where to go.

After a short trip through the woods and over a narrow bridge, I was face to face with Irving's Deersdale facility at 15:30. There were trucks everywhere, the CN main line with a siding, and two tracks going into the plant with woodchip cars on them.


The siding ends past the woodchip cars, and there is a signal there. Note the green over red signal, and the bridge past it.


Since the signal was green, I knew an eastbound was coming.. sometime. I set my video camera on my tripod on the north side of the tracks, lined everything up, and waited. After a while the sun came out, so I put sunscreen (and bug spray) on. Cars and trucks shuttled in and out, and eventually Irving security came over. He was quite friendly, and mentioned that in the storm they had some trees come down just outside their plant. After he left, I read my new Canadian Railway Modeler and noted they have a link to my web site in there. Thanks!

After over an hour, I heard the distant thrum of diesel engines and got ready for the train. At 16:41, CN 308* came around the bend. CN 5519, CN 5368, CN 5375, and old friend CN 6021 with a whopping 148 cars of various types. Many of those cars were visibly empty.




* I assume it was 308 based on the composition of the train.



I packed up and headed back to Napadogan again. Since the weather was nice, I decided to walk the line east to the end of the siding and look at the signals there. It is quite a walk! The signals were red over red facing west and dark facing east, so nothing was coming. I left at 17:46 and was back in Fredericton in 56 minutes.