Spring Break Railfanning (Guest Post)

This is another guest post by Taylor Woolston... another Winnipeg railfanning tour by bicycle!

On Wednesday March 30th, 2016, it was the third day of Spring Break, and I decided that I would go and railfan the BNSF Manitoba Railway for a bit. BNSF Manitoba is a is a shortline that owns a few miles of tracks in Winnipeg.

They bring cars to and from CP's Westview Yard at "Garbage Hill", and CN's Fort Rouge Yard, and they also serve a few industries, including ADM, which is right beside their engine house. They usually start their operations at around 10 AM.

After waking up and having breakfast, I packed up my equipment and rode off on my bike towards the BNSF. Being around an hour early, I decided to make a stop at St James Junction, which is a short hop from the BNSF. Here, the CN Rivers Subdivision crosses the CP La Rivere Subdivision. When I got to the junction, I noticed something north of the diamond on the La Riviere Subdivision, but I couldn't figure out what it was; however, it was coming my way. Before it could cross, it had to wait for a couple of CN trains to cross the diamond.

Right after the second CN train crossed, the thing on the CP La Riviere Subdivision crossed over, heading south. It turns out it was some kind of self-propelled rail crane, with a couple of flatbeds surrounding it, CP in front and SOO behind.

Once it passed by, I made my way over to Grant Avenue to get set up for BNSF. As I rode past the ADM area, I noticed that they were already active, moving tanks around. I got to Grant Avenue, set up, and waited. Then I noticed something to the north, there was a CP train coming!

As CP came closer and closer, and the BNSF was finishing up and getting ready to go, I wondered which one would pass by first.

In the end, BNSF passed by first with BNSF 1523 (GP28-2) and 7 tanks in tow.

I was very relieved to see that their caboose, BN 12580, was on the tail end to "complete" the train.

The BNSF freight met the CP train a little bit north of here, and just a few minutes later, CP passed by with CP 2304 and 2211 (both GP20C-ECO's) hauling a relatively long train south. This was most likely the train that goes to the Altona, MB area.

Once it finally passed, I packed up and biked north. I crossed the combined rail and foot bridge (which is very useful, and you can get very close to the action!) across the Assiniboine River, looking for a spot to try. After a few minutes, I realized that the BNSF was approaching! I decided to bike back across the bridge, and set up near Wellington Crescent. A couple minutes later, they came into view with the caboose leading mostly tanks heading south.

Immediately after they passed, I packed up and gave chase, which is not easy on a bike! Slowly, bit by bit, I passed them, and I was able to beat them to Taylor Avenue.

I noticed that their signal onto the CN Rivers Subdivision showed Slow-to-Stop (Red over Flashing Yellow), which indicated that they would probably be stopping at Waverley Street, so I gave chase again. Sure enough, BNSF stopped short of Waverley Street. After a little while, a westbound CN train roared past. Once that train passed, BNSF got clearance to Fort Rouge Yard, and they passed by.

After that, I decided to head back north to Wellington Crescent and look around for a shot there. After waiting for awhile for BNSF to return, I could hear some horn blowing coming from the north. It sounded like it was coming from the St James Industrial area.

After thinking for a bit, I decided to take a risk and abandon the BNSF, and ride up north to see if there was anything going on. I went up to Saskatchewan Avenue, which parallels a CP spur that serves a few industries. There is also the ex-CN Oak Point Subdivision, which CP uses a few miles of to serve a few industries.

Most of the CN Oak Point Subdivision was abandoned in 1996, but a few miles in the city survived, which CP now uses as a spur. I didn't see anything at all going on, then I noticed that the switch that leads to the Oak Point was set to go to the former branch line. With the track layout, I knew instantly that there must be something up there!

I rode up a few streets, until reaching the area where King Edward Street (Route 90) crosses under Oak Point and the CP Carberry Subdivision. From there, I was able to see a CP locomotive doing some switching near Brookside Blvd, which is where the track ends.

After awhile, they appeared to be done switching and were heading away from the industries, so I decided to ride away and set up somewhere. While coming up here, I noticed a small wooden bridge where the track crosses over Omands Creek and I decided that I would set up there. When I arrived, they were in view, but still a fair distance away from me. Eventually, they very slowly passed me with CP 4428 (GP38-2) pulling 3 cars at around 5 MPH.

When they passed, I immediately packed up and chased them back to Saskatchewan Ave, where a curve takes them off the Oak Point Spur, and back onto CP's main lead for the area. The CP crew stopped before coming around the curve, which helped allow me to get set up again. After a couple minutes, they came around the curve. Once they came off, they threw the switch back and pushed the cars back towards a siding.

Afterwards, I decided to head home. I rode south down Empress Street, when I heard a train horn. From the north. You might think it was just the local freight I just saw, but the horn was completely different, it was a horn only used on GP20C-ECO's. At Omands Creek, I took a look, and sure enough a train was coming south on the CP La Riviere Subdivision. I setup on a nearby foot bridge, and captured CP 2317 (GP20C-ECO) and 3068 (GP38-2) leading a local made up of hoppers and a few tanks.

That was the end of a great day of railfanning, made up of lots of branchline action, some caboose action, and even a little mainline action!

Thanks for the guest post, Taylor! You can see Taylor's other guest post here and please go visit his YouTube channel.

The Greater Winnipeg Railfanning Adventure (Guest Post)

Local railfan Taylor Woolston provided this narrative of a recent railfan adventure he had in the greater Winnipeg area... via bicycle!


Railfanning can sometimes be boring, with a lack of good or interesting power, and sometimes a lack of trains in general. Hoping that my luck might change for the better, I went railfanning on Monday, May 30th 2016. OH BOY. In my opinion, this was one of my best railfanning days ever from an overall point of view (Not just because of 1 train). Let's start from the beginning.

Every second school day, I switch between half days and full days. Today was a half day and I hadn't railfanned for awhile, so I decided to bring my railfanning equipment to school and go out right after school at lunch. I decided to head northeast, into the St Boniface area of Winnipeg.

I checked out the Greater Winnipeg Water District (GWWD) rail yard along Dawson Road, and noticed that the gate for the road into the yard by Messier Street was open. With that, I thought there might be a possibility of seeing the GWWD operating. They have 2 MLW RS23's, and seeing them operate is always a treat, but they aren't easy to catch.

After checking out the yard, I continued on and ended up going to an area where the GWWD crosses CN's "X Tracks", which takes trains in and out of CN's big and busy Symington Yard with 3 tracks to work with. The GWWD crossing creates a triple diamond across CN's tracks. There is a hill that parallels CN's tracks, which is where I set up.

After waiting for a while, CN 347 showed up and crawled out of the yard on track X3 and stopped short of the diamonds. Their power was CN 8921 (SD70M-2) and 2408 (C40-8M).

Shortly after, a GP38-Slug-Slug-GP38 set pulled across the diamond with a string of cars and stopped, then pushed hard back into Symington and disappeared.


After waiting for a while, a CN van (no, not like a caboose) came up to the head end and dropped off the conductor. Shortly after, CN 347 took off heading west.

After they passed, I waited for a while with nothing going on. Suddenly, I got word that the Central Manitoba Railway (CEMR) wanted to enter Symington. I decided, with almost no chance of seeing the GWWD, to ride up to Dugald Road, where an overpass crosses over the CN X tracks, to make absolutely sure that no other trains block my view of CEMR, and to get a different perspective.

I packed up, rode up to the nearby street, Lagimodiere Blvd, and went towards the overpass. However as I crossed the GWWD, I saw something that made me slam on the brakes..... TRAIN! A GWWD train returning from the Deacon Water Treatment Plant!

I turned around and went back to the triple diamond and set up faster than a cheetah on steroids! (are there railfan cheetahs? - Ed)


Unsurprisingly, they had to stop before crossing over CN. I decided to go back onto the hill and set up there.

As I was doing so, I heard something - the unmistakable sound of a GP9RM working hard. At first I thought it was the CEMR train, but it turns out it was a CN local bringing some cars into Symington. CN 281 (Yard Slug) and 7214 (GP9RM) led the freight into the yard.


Just a few minutes after the local cleared, the GWWD got their signal crawled across the diamond towards their yard with 3 tanks in tow. The unit they were using today was #202.


The last time I saw this operation, I learned that they drop off the tanks from Deacon onto their interchange track with CN, and pick up ones that CN has left for them. Knowing this, and the fact that they don't exactly go very fast through here, I decided to wait a few minutes for CEMR to hopefully arrive.

Sure enough, a few minutes later the CEMR train rolled into Symington with CEMR 4002 and 4000 (a pair of GP9RM's) in charge.


After the CEMR roared past, I started what should have been an easy chase of the GWWD, but my rear tire picked the perfect time to burst on me, meaning I was now stuck on foot, rolling my bike around. I zigzagged through a couple of side streets before getting to where the GWWD crosses Dugald Road, with a couple minutes to spare.

After having dropped off the tanks from Deacon and picking up the tanks from CN, they now had 5 tanks with them, and brought them towards the yard. In order to get the tanks into the yard correctly, they have to stop short of the yard, and use a siding to run the locomotive to the other side of the cars.


Without even fully retracting the tripod, I ran with the bike as quickly as possible to where the GWWD crosses Dawson Road and Messier Street. The Dawson Road crossing is incredibly shallow, with the rails being in the road for almost 54 metres (176.5'). Compare that to the Messier Street crossing, where the rails are in the road for only 15 metres (50').

By the time I got to the crossings, covered in sweat as it was a hot day, they had coupled the locomotive to the other side, and the conductor was walking up towards the road to manually activate the crossing, protect it and ride the tanks into the yard.


As the conductor rode across, he asked me how I was doing, and I gave him a big thumbs up! Once they dropped the tanks in the yard, the conductor deactivated the crossing, and they ran the unit back to the engine house, ending another hard day of work.


Once I was done worrying about the GWWD, I now had to worry about getting home. I was around 5 km (3.1 miles) away from home, and was on foot with a bike in bad order, and that's just the direct distance. I have a cellphone, so I could have called my dad to get the car bike rack out and give me a lift, but I decided to brave it out and go home on foot.

As I crossed the nearby CP Emerson Subdivision, I saw a northbound freight coming, and it was not far away at all! I had just a minute or two for setting up a shot. It wasn't very good, but oh well.

It was a fairly standard freight with nothing special on it.... until the end that is. On the end, there was a HERZOG tie train attached. The head-end of it was HZGX 187.


Once it very slowly crawled past, I made my way home after a great day of railfanning, even with the epic tire failure.


Thanks for the great guest post, Taylor! He also recorded video of many of these trains:


I encourage you visit Taylor's YouTube channel and subscribe!

CP and CN for the Holidays

Both CN and CP ran special trains for the holiday season in Winnipeg in the past few days. CP ran its Holiday Train again (for the 17th season) and it was in Winnipeg on Friday December 4th. CN ran its employee special train over three days, beginning on the 4th - so on Friday we had both railways running Christmas holiday trains. I only saw the CP Holiday Train but other railfans saw the CN trains.

The CP Holiday Train in Meadows, MB by Jack Hykaway

The 2015 CP Holiday Train

It was a mild but windy night on Friday night, and I was out early to catch the train coming to its parking spot by Panet Road. I decided to shoot it just east of the highway 59 overpass. I parked close to the scheduled stopping point and walked to the overpass. I looked around a bit and decided to go up on the "shoulder" of the overpass to get a bit of height.

I set up my tripod and started fussing with my camera to lock in the focus in the dark. As I was doing that, my tripod blew over!

I guess it was good that I didn't have my camera on it yet.

I lowered the tripod and kept my leg against it to stabilize it. I was using my 50mm f/1.8 lens because it's the most light sensitive lens I have. I put the lens in manual focus - since it's a prime lens you can't zoom anyway - and the camera in manual mode.

Soon the train came into view and rolled on past my lens.

The 2015 CP Holiday Train

Once it passed, I walked back to the main scene. There was quite a large crowd and the performers sounded great. I dropped off my donations to Winnipeg Harvest (a great organization my family and I support) and took some photos.

Here I was using my tripod like a "selfie stick", holding it up over the crowd after setting off the 2 second timer and hoping for the best.

The performers were Devin Cuddy and Kelly Prescott.

Canadian Pacific Holiday Train

There were quite a few people up at the head end, and as usual it was difficult to get a clear shot. The CP Police and other CP personnel were very much in evidence, keeping people from standing between the rails and unfortunately also standing in the shots. I didn't fret too much about it this year.

CP 2323 and the Holiday Train in Winnipeg

Jack Hykaway caught it both before and after Winnipeg - in Whitemouth as it rolled on by, and by the Meadows grain elevator Saturday as it headed toward Portage la Prairie. Check out Jack's YouTube videos!


So that was CP. The consist (courtesy of Jesse McLaughlin) was:

1. CP 2323 (GP20C-ECO)
2. CP Box Car 220305 Lettering Light Car (Canadian)
3. CP Box Car 220009 Lettering Light Car (Pacific)
4. CP Box Car 220592 Lettering Light Car (Holiday)
5. CP Box Car 220219 Lettering Light Car (Train)
6. CP Box Car 220127 Decoration Light Design Car
7. CP Box Car 220300 Decoration Light Design Car
8. CP Converted Box Car (Generator) 220458 Decoration Light Design Car
9. CP Box Car 220508 Decoration Light Design Car
10. CP Stage Car 42901 
11. Dominion (ex-CN/VIA Coach)
12. Banffshire (Stateroom)
13. Killarney (Dining / Observation)
14. Van Horne (Lounge / Observation)

The CN Christmas Train

The CN Christmas train ran from Symington Yard to Waverley Street and back, twice a night at 5 and 7 PM. I didn't get out to see it but Taylor Woolston did, and took some great video of the train at several locations.


CN wins on the power department with E9A CN 103 accompanying CN 5755 and the four VIA coaches (8139, 8144, 8118 and 8116 I'm told). It also had a caboose, Operation Lifesaver CN 77014.

The CN train was only for employees. I understand the CN train is only going to a few locations - Saskatoon and Edmonton, maybe? It is also raising money for charity. Last year it was for the Christmas Cheer Board, an organization my family supports.

Did you get a chance to see the CP or CN holiday trains?

Extra: Check out this super cool drone video of the US Holiday Train.

Further reading:

• CN Christmas train in 2014
• CP Holiday Train in 2014
• Combined US-Canadian Holiday Train in 2014
• CP Holiday Train in 2011

The 2014 CP Holiday Train

I saw the Canadian Pacific Holiday Train in Winnipeg last night. You might remember I saw the combined Canadian-US train in mid-November. CP 2246 was the leader then and it was the leader of the Canadian portion last night.

I arrived at the site off Molson Street just after 8:30 PM and it was already very busy there. I parked a block away and walked down to the west side of the "parking area" to video the train arriving. There was a pretty good crowd there but they thinned out as the train approached. I must say the volunteers weren't really keeping people off the tracks as well as past years. Here's the train arriving:
Once the train stopped, most people went to watch the show. I set up to photograph the tail end but I had to wait a bit for people to move before I could get the shot... the theme of the night.

For those who are interested, I locked the camera to ISO 100 to get the best quality then adjusted the shutter speed to suit. This particular photo was a 2 second exposure that ended up being f/4.5.

I changed my camera battery, as the first one succumbed to the -20C temperatures. Batteries don't last long in the cold!

After photographing this end, I walked up past the show to the head end. Here's a really bad photo of the stage... I held my camera up by the tripod to get it above the crowd, with the timer set to fire after a few seconds.

Recall that the stage folds down - this is what it looked like when it was closed in mid November:

Here's a few views of the head end.

I really need to watch out for over exposure and the above photo was a bit over exposed. You notice it at night when the number boards on the loco are too bright and become fuzzy.

I had to hop in front of the camera for a shot. Here I used a flash to light me up and you can see how it light up the "CP" wreath on the front of the locomotive.

Another view with the flash lighting up the CP on the nose.

I chatted with a few local railfans (hi Mark, Larry, Morgan) at the head end while trying to stay warm waiting for the train to leave.

I set up on the other side of the street to video the train leaving. Here's the video... sadly the battery on my camera gave up the ghost and it stopped recording midway through the train.

Here's a video taken by +Taylor Woolston on the other side of the train. I didn't even know he was there!

The train was in Portage la Prairie late this afternoon and is continuing west to Vancouver on December 18. Here's the schedule.

PS - My friend +Lauri Novak discovered that the US version of the Holiday Train was passing near her and got out to see it.  Check out this rear view!

The CN Christmas Train

I mentioned that CN was running a Christmas train in Winnipeg this year. Well, here it is.

This train was organized by local CN people and will visit Winnipeg, Saskatoon and Edmonton to carry CN employees and their families. Funds raised will benefit local charities. The Winnipeg runs raised $11,000 for the Christmas Cheer Board!

Mark Perry posted some photos in the RailsMBSK Facebook group. You have to be a Facebook member to see them.

The train had E9 CN 103 providing head-end power, four rented VIA coaches, and CN 8925 did the heavy lifting.

I almost missed this train. It was scheduled to run from Symington Yard in Winnipeg out to Diamond on the CN Rivers subdivision and back, twice a night. I went up to Carman Junction to wait for the train. Fortunately I had my scanner with me and I heard CN 8925 mention they were at Waverley - a few miles east of my location. I hotfooted it (OK, drove) over to Waverley Street and I found them just west of the road, waiting for CN 315 to pass. They had to wait for 315 because it was crossing over from the south to the north track in front of them. Once 315 went by, they headed west back to Symington and that's where I filmed them.

CN 5735 was the lead engine of 315 and that was the night photo I was processing earlier.

Taylor Woolston also caught the train, a day later than I did.

PS time is running out to buy a train calendar or grain elevator calendar in time for Christmas!