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.

Recent Videos

Here are a few recent YouTube videos I saw and wanted to share with you.

Kevin Gaudet posted this video of CN 120 at Memramcook. The train had CN 8949 (shiny new SD70M-2), IC 1036, and CN 2666.


I can't get used to CN 120 having all this non-container junk in the train. CN 120/121 used to be pure container trains, but with the loss of most of the freight trains in the Maritimes, 120 and 121 get to carry the junk. Some of this would have gone on CN 148 and 149 but they do not run any more.

RailFanJon shot an empty coal train growling by on the CP Shuswap subdivision in British Columbia. Lots of good noise from the engines as they throttle up.


VanBilly1 caught two CEMR engines going into the BNSF yard here in Winnipeg. This was a great catch. On Monday, March 14, BNSF had put their engine on the ground (or, as we say it, derailed) around 14:00 and the CEMR engines were coming to help out while BNSF tried to get their engines back on the rails.

VanBilly1

One of the subscribers to my YouTube videos is a young man who goes by VanBilly1. He lives in Manitoba and has been shooting videos in the Winnipeg area. I thought I'd post a few of his videos. I like the commentary and the little toy van at the beginning of every video. He could certainly use a tripod :) but I like the enthusiasm.

The first video shows a CN westbound container train (CN 199?) at the St. James diamond. CN 8024 and 2309 crossed over from the south to north track just east of the diamond.


This is a CP train at Point Douglas. The leader is CP 9837 but the trailing unit is CP 9010, a SD40-2F "red barn".


Keep up the good work!