A Little Bird Told Me

Back in July I mentioned a trio of Twitter accounts set up to tweet about blocked crossings in Winnipeg. I speculated that a railfan might be able use these tweets to find out when trains were approaching. Well, I put that to practice on Friday the 4th of September.

I was sitting at home with the kids, idly checking my Twitter account @stevetraingeek when I saw these tweets from @TRAINFOWPG3:

The Bison-Pembina crossing is south of the McGillivray-Pembina crossing, so if the Bison crossing is tweeted afterward, that means a southbound train (CN 532) is on its way to Emerson. If the order is reversed, it's CN 533 coming back from Emerson.

I saw those tweets and decided to go chase 532 for a bit. I bundled the kids in the car and headed over to Pembina, fully expecting to have to overtake the train south of St. Norbert. I should mention that a big storm had come through shortly before this.

I didn't see any train through St. Norbert, nor did I see one south of St. Norbert all the way to St. Adolphe. I knew I should have caught up to the train by then so I guessed it was going slow and I just had to wait. I decided to shoot the new St. Adolphe grain elevator being built by the CWB, soon to be known as G3 Canada Ltd.

Do you like that giant cloud? Welcome to prairie storms!

The wind was up and the clouds were moving quickly. It wasn't long before some blue started showing up in the evening sky.

I turned to look back at the car, and... oooh!

I love rainbows. In fact, I blogged about them before.

The sun finally lit the elevator so I could get a decent long-range shot. It looks almost complete from the outside.

The sun was setting, so I grabbed a few silhouette shots, still wondering where the train was.

Finally I gave up, figuring the Twitter account was on crack or something. We headed back into St. Norbert, and just as I approached the river crossing, I saw headlights heading south on the CN Letellier subdivision. There it was.

I turned around and headed back to grab it against the sunset sky. I shot it at one location and got this..

OK but not quite what I wanted. The train wasn't going very fast at all so it was easy to jump ahead to try again.

That's more like it.

With a wave from the friendly conductor, CN 2675 and BCOL 4611 ground their way south while I headed home with the kids.

I still can't explain what happened with the Twitter feed. Maybe a hi-rail truck went through first?

Here's the whole timeline:

• 6:41 PM - crossing at McGillivray blocked
• 7:01 PM - crossing at Bison blocked
• 7:30 PM - crossing at McGillivray blocked (again?)
• 7:33 PM - I arrived in St. Adolphe
• 7:51 PM - crossing at Bison blocked
• 7:59 PM - I left St. Adophe
• 8:12 PM - I shot the train in St. Norbert the first time
• 8:16 PM - I shot the train in St. Norbert the second time

PS if you're on Twitter, please feel free to follow me at @stevetraingeek, and if your feed has trains in it, I'll probably follow you back!

Tracking Trains by Twitter

We live in magical times. Technology has advanced railfanning so much compared to just 10 years ago. The widespread availability of quality digital cameras, email lists, Facebook groups, instant messaging and so forth allow railfans unparalleled access to near real-time images and information. Is a CN business train on the move? You'll find out... in time to go see it.

Now a company is bringing real-time train information to Twitter. Winnipeg-based MORR Transportation Consulting is using Twitter to broadcast when certain railway crossings are blocked in Winnipeg. This provides useful information to drivers planning their route so they can avoid congested railway crossings, which may be blocked for a long time. However, this information is useful for railfans too!

MORR has set up three Twitter accounts to broadcast crossing blockages:

1. @TrainInfoWPG tracks the Marion-Archibald and Cottonwood-Archibald crossings (CP Emerson subdivision mile 1.55 and ~3.17)
2. @TrainInfoWPG2 tracks the Shaftesbury-Sterling Lyon crossing (CN Rivers subdivision mile 6.27)
3. @TrainInfoWPG3 tracks the Bison-Pembina and McGillivray-Pembina crossings (CN Letellier subdivision ~mile 1.5 and ~2.8)

I trust you can see the usefulness of these tweets to railfans. The links above take you to the Twitter accounts, to Google Street Views of the crossings, and to my subdivision pages.

I watch #3 the most because it gives intelligence about when CN 532/533 are moving. If I see a tweet about a crossing of McGillivray, followed by a Bison crossing, I know it's CN 532 heading south to Emerson. However, if there is a McGillivray crossing but no Bison crossing, it's the Fort Garry local.

The original (aka #1) Twitter feed should give similar information for trains heading to Emerson. A Marion crossing followed by a Cottonwood crossing means the train is likely going to keep going all the way down to Emerson.

#2 really only says that there is a train on the Rivers subdivision (a direction would be nice!) but hey, if you're out at Diamond that would be useful information.

Their tweets keep saying "New information coming soon" so hopefully we railfans will get even more information!

UPDATE: As of November 10 2015 all three Twitter accounts have been deleted for unknown reasons.

Being Social

The Rocky Mountaineer in Kamloops, BC

Hi, just a quick update on my social networking scene. In general I am active on Facebook and Instagram, somewhat active on Google+, barely active on Twitter and I have a pulse on Flickr. I used to be a lot more active on G+ but I've found the interaction has diminished there somewhat. Facebook is great for railfan groups.

I'm really enjoying the train photos on Instagram. My post on Instagram for railfans is one of the most popular posts ever on my blog, amazingly enough!

I think Facebook has really taken over from the railfan mailing lists of yore. The RailsNB mailing list was deleted a few months ago because the Facebook group has become so popular.

Here are my statistics:

• Facebook page: 196 followers (hoping for 200 by the end of the month! Like me! :)
• Instagram: 328 followers (read more about Instagram)
• Google+: 21,759 followers (not a true measure of active followers)
• Twitter: 175 followers
• Flickr: 158 followers (go follow George Pitarys!)

I have a tumblr account as well but I'm not on there very much at all.

Here's a little secret. I'm not on Flickr or tumblr much but I post there all the time. How? I use the IFTTT service. This is a great service that basically allows you to create actions based on other actions you take. I have recipes there that repost my Instagram photos onto Flickr and tumblr, so they get updated with new photos with no additional effort on my part. Magic!

I suppose I also have accounts on tsū and ello but I hardly ever look at them, to be honest. Those social networks haven't really taken off.

So... where are you social? Comment below!

PS - notice the photo in this post, a sneak peek of upcoming content!

PPS - want to know how to get Instagram followers, ethically?