A Different Perspective

"It is a narrow mind which cannot look at a subject from various points of view." - George Eliot, "Middlemarch"

I've photographed VIA Rail's Canadian in Winnipeg many times... 131 times at the time of writing. That's a lot!

I've shot the eastbound Canadian, at many locations along its route out of Winnipeg, but there are a couple that I have shot at many times.

St. James Junction

VIA 1 passing a CN container train

When I first moved to Winnipeg I often photographed it at or near St. James Junction, because that was close to my office and I could spend my lunch time trackside catching VIA 1 and whatever else came by.

It was great because it was close and also because you could also see BNSF and CP there at times.

Diamond

The Canadian approaching Diamond

Once I started working from home, that became less convenient and I opted to shoot VIA 1 at or near Diamond, just west of Winnipeg on the Rivers subdivision.

I've written about Diamond a lot (even recently) and it is certainly my "go to" location.

Scratching the Itch

This past Thursday, I had the itch to try something different. I feel a bit stuck in a rut, creatively speaking, so I wanted to go to a new location that I'd never tried before. I pulled up Google Maps and looked at the route of the Canadian from Union Station downtown through Winnipeg and out past Diamond.

Route of the westbound Canadian through Winnipeg

The Canadian leaves Union Station at top right and rolls along the Red River, past Fort Rouge yard and the VIA Maintenance Centre, through Portage Junction, then past St. James Junction and Carman Junction out of the city. Around mile 10 (where they pass under the Perimeter Highway) they usually put the hammer down and accelerate up to 60+ MPH and pass Diamond and hurtle westward to Vancouver.

I feel I've covered that stretch from Diamond east to Portage Junction very well - maybe too well. There is a little bit between Waverley Street and Portage Junction that I haven't photographed much, but honestly I have tried it and I am not really that impressed by the possibilities there. 

A New Hope

How about here??

I did notice an intriguing section of track just south of Union Station that I had never photographed at before.

There is a walking path between the tracks and the Red River that seemed to come pretty close to the tracks, and it would be on the east side of the tracks for morning photography.

I asked on the RailsMBSK Facebook group and people seemed to think it was an OK location, but I was warned that there is a fence between the walking path and the tracks. 

Sunlight... Camera.. Action

On Thursday I arrived behind the Mulvey Flea Market off Osborne Street at about 11:15 AM. I parked, grabbed my camera bag, and walked down the path to check out the view.

There was indeed a chain-link fence between the trail and the track. It has a gate and it was wide open. I believe that fuel trucks use that gate to refuel locomotives here. I didn't go in.

I had prepared for this eventuality. I went back to my car and fetched a stepladder out of the trunk, then set it up by the fence and waited.

I had a few odd looks from the passing joggers and walkers, but that was it. As a railfan, I'm used to that.

It took about half an hour, but the first train was a big one. CN 3025 was leading what may have been CN 111.

CN 3025 approaching Subway in Winnipeg

I like the going away shot too.

CN 3025 approaching the Osborne Street bus rapid transit station

As I watched the containers roll by, there was time for a selfie.

There's always time for a selfie, right? ;)

I'm not quite sure what podcast I was listening to at that time....


The train had a mid-train locomotive, CN 2856.

CN 2856 in Winnipeg as mid-train power

Finally the end of the train came in sight, with a third locomotive pushing hard.

CN 2821 passing under the signal bridge

So that was exciting!

I picked up my stepladder and did a little more scouting, looking for different angles or better locations. I strongly considered a location further east, across from the apartment building visible above, but in the end I ruled it out. It wasn't bad but it didn't "feel" right.

Not quite

I went back to where I shot the CN train and waited for VIA.

I didn't bring my scanner - I hardly ever do - and so I was reduced to listening for locomotive noise and obsessively checking VIA's web site to see if the departure time for VIA 1 had been updated.

In the end my listening was what alerted me to the approaching Canadian, as VIA's web site wasn't updated in time.

VIA 1 leaving Winnipeg

Just a bit of fence in the shot...

I was being adventurous and recording video with my iPhone while snapping photos with my camera. I've tried doing both before, with mediocre results, but I felt confident that day for some reason.

I shot every car as it went by, to record the consist, and you can see my phone-holding hand in a few shots..

Taking video

Here's the video:


Like most Canadian photos, the going-away shot is just as good as the approach. Nothing like a PARK car to finish off a train!

Glacier Park on the rear

That was all of the time I could spend there, but I was pleased with the location and pleased with my photos. It's definitely a spot I could return to!

If you're interested, I posted some photos of the Manitoba Mega Train Show on one of my other blogs... lots of model trains and a great show!

Stunning Drone Video of Salmon River Trestle

François Foulem has produced this video of the impressive Salmon River Trestle - with a train on it! - near New Denmark, New Brunswick. Check it out.

Here's the link if you can't view it as an embedded video.

I featured one of his videos before, of the VIA Rail Ocean near Bathurst.

Check out François' other videos - he's been all over New Brunswick with his drone.

More about CN's impressive Salmon River trestle by reading these posts:

• The bridges of Victoria County
• The Salmon River Trestle in Winter

Fantastic Compilation Video

There was a railway Slide Night this past Tuesday at the University of Manitoba, organized by Mark Perry and Jeff Keddy. There were some great presentations by Mark, Jeff, Steve from the Winnipeg Streetcar 356 group, and Isaac R. I was super impressed by this compilation video from Jack Hykaway. This video could easily be on a DVD for sale - the narration is great, the video quality is excellent, and the editing is top notch. Give it a view... it's worth 17 minutes of your time.

After that, go to Jack's YouTube channel and view the full-length videos that went into this compilation! Thanks should go to Jack for allowing me to embed this.

Railfanning on the NS-NB Border, by John Morris

John Morris posted a video of his chase of CN 407 (?) as he was heading to Bathurst. John is a professional photographer at Lens Make a Picture. He caught it at Fort Lawrence (near Amherst, NS) and Dorchester, NB but missed it at Scoudouc.

Give it a view! The video is well put together, with some sound issues at some points.


I've shot at Fort Lawrence a few times - it's a good location in both directions and easily accessible from the highway. The iron bridge that used to be there has been replaced, sadly. That old bridge was quite a relic!

In my VIA 15 video from November 2004, I shot at both Fort Lawrence and Dorchester. The links are queued up to the right spot in the video for both locations. I didn't try past Dorchester as it was dark by that time!

How to Use a Radio Scanner

I decided to record a video on how to use a radio scanner. I hope you find it useful.

I have a Uniden Bearcat BC72XLT scanner, which is not sold new any more. The equivalent is the Uniden BC75XLT scanner (Amazon). You can shop around and get it for about Cdn $130 plus shipping (e.g. from Durham Radio in Ontario, or The Source), or $160 from Amazon with free shipping.

The Uniden Bearcat BC125AT (Amazon) is a step up with alpha tagging (meaning you can enter a name for a frequency) and it can interface with your computer for setup. It doesn't cost a lot more, so I'd be tempted to get this if I were in the market for a scanner.

My Amazon links are affiliate links, meaning I get a small commission if you buy something from Amazon after following the link, at no extra cost to you.

Chaleur Video Available!

I am pleased to announce that I have a video available, The Chaleur: Canada's Passenger Train to the Gaspé Peninsula. Here's a preview of the contents:

The video is available in two lengths:

• Full length (65 minutes), over 20 locations
• Highlights (32 minutes)

The Chaleur is/was a train that runs between Montreal and Gaspé, Quebec via Matapédia. The last train to Gaspé was on December 10, 2011 and the last train to New Carlisle was August 13, 2013. VIA Rail continued to operate bus service to Gaspé until September 17, 2013 when all VIA Rail service on the Gaspé peninsula ceased. Track conditions were the major reason for terminating service. There is hope that service will return but for now there is no rail passenger service on the Gaspé other than the l'Amiral tourist train.

Scenes include stops at Matapédia, New Richmond, New Carlisle, and Chandler as well as numerous bridge crossings and scenic locations like Pabos Beach and Douglastown. The Ocean is also featured between Causapscal, Quebec and Matapédia. The footage was shot in 2007 (see blog post series) and 2009 (see blog post series).

Follow this link to order the video. If you join my mailing list you'll get a code for a 40% discount off the price!

Thank you for your interest!

Survey: Product Development

CN 2845 in Winnipeg, January 15 2015

Could you please help me out by taking a survey? I'm considering some future projects and I'd like your input on what you would like to see. I'm considering videos and eBooks and maybe some online photography training. Your input will help me decide what to focus on first.

I haven't had a lot of products for sale. I had/have my train and grain elevator calendars for sale for a couple of years, and of course I have prints for sale. My store lists both.

Beyond that, I used to sell a VIA in the Maritimes DVD for the New Brunswick Railway Museum but I haven't offered that for years. They may still sell it in their gift shop - I don't know. I tend to shy away from mailing products myself, because I must confess that I am really bad at mailing things. I put them off for some reason and I am frequently late. It's better that someone else handles the mailing!

I'm working on a VIA Rail Chaleur video. I have footage from the 2007 and 2009 chases I did with David Morris and I'll be including maps and some still photos to round it out. I'm just waiting to digitize the rest of the 2009 chase before I can finish it.

In case you're curious, for the 2015 calendars I offered, I sold 8 train calendars and 2 grain elevator calendars for a total profit of US $42.52. The last pair sold on January 19.

Clearly I'm not making enough money to quit my day job!

One might wonder whether it is worth the effort but I like doing it to review my photos and also because people do ask for the calendars. I have the grain elevator calendar on my office wall.

If you have a few minutes, please take the survey. I appreciate it!

Aerial View of VIA's Ocean Outside Bathurst

Check out this really cool drone video of VIA 15 aka the Ocean crossing the Tetagouche River south of Bathurst, New Brunswick. François Foulem does some really good camera work with his drone - steady, clear video. Nice job!

A Spiritual Moment

This summer we drove from Winnipeg to Banff to spend a week in the Rockies. We stopped in the Regina area going west and going east, and I took the opportunity to go see some trains while we were there. This post is from July 14. We were staying near Pense, SK about halfway between Regina and Moose Jaw.

I set my alarm for "bright and early" because I wanted to maximize my time before I had to be back for other activities during the day. I stepped outside just after sunrise and the combination of the fog and the sun on the horizon made me get my camera out and start shooting before I even left the driveway. This is my favourite of the shots.

Not bad, eh? If you like it, you can buy a print.

I decided I wanted to shoot the grain elevators at Mortlach and Parkbeg, west of Moose Jaw, so I headed out on the Trans-Canada. At Belle Plaine one can sometimes see a train waiting for a meet, and sure enough there was CP 9719 and CP 5959 waiting in the fog.


I didn't hang around. I carried on past Moose Jaw, pausing to photograph this modern Cargill grain elevator just west of the city. The canola was in fine form this year.


After some more driving, I arrived in the small town of Mortlach. As Prairie towns go, it was quite nice, with two intersecting main streets and a few local businesses in the town.

I found what I was looking for, the Paterson grain elevator. Unfortunately I missed the Saskatchewan Pool elevator, which was demolished in September 2011.

The elevator had a few beat-up gondolas beside it.


I found a big puddle from the rain the night before to use for a reflection. I took a number of photos and after about 10 minutes, I heard a horn in the distance. Soon CP 8773 East came rolling through.

Link to buy the print

Canadian Tire on the move...


The mid-train engine was CP 8778.


I have to share. That was a transcendent moment for me. Everything just lined up so nicely and I was so pleased with the photographs. I'm not a religious person but that was... spiritual.

Oh, here's the video.
All right. After that, I decided to keep heading west to Parkbeg to shoot the elevator there... read on!

Just a little meet

On June 21 I witnessed a little meet between a CN train and the VIA Rail Canadian. I was out on the CN Rivers subdivision around mile 7 or so. First came VIA on the south track with VIA 6449 leading.


That's the HDR version. Below is the non-HDR version. I was using a circular polarizer to make the sky nice and blue.


Lovely sky and light on that day!



They met the CN train down the track from me. I did shoot it but it was too far to get a decent photo of the meet. Soon enough CN 5736, CN 2152 and CN 2343 passed my position.


CN 2152 was the second unit... shot because it's "new" to CN.



Just a little meet...

August 1

On August 1 I had some good luck catching trains. I headed out to work earlier than usual in the morning so I could see if any trains came by. I went out to Diamond and parked. The first train came along at 7:23 AM, CN 302.


Nice light on the nose of this eastbound train.
The engineer gave me a nice two-finger wave as he passed by.


CN 302 was met by CN 403, which came by my location 20 minutes later. I shot them coming through the signals at Diamond. As you can see, it is challenging to shoot a westbound train early in the morning!


Note the interesting cargo on one of the flatcars. Progressive Waste Solutions owns BFI and a couple of other waste disposal companies.



The video works better than the still photo, I think.


Here's my video camera, duly recording the train going by. My scanner is on the ground under the tripod.


On my way along Wilkes Avenue, I saw CCGX 5232 and CEMR 4001 parked with a short train at the end of the Carman subdivision. I'm pretty sure that train sat there idling for a whole day before it finally carried on to CEMR's yard.

Later in the day, I went home via Wilkes Avenue and I managed to catch CN 314 at Hall Road just west of the Perimeter Highway, pretty much exactly where I shot the previous train.




I knew CN 314 was being followed by CN 114, so I went a bit west to Diamond to get 114. I was surprised to see how much "junk" was on the head end of this supposedly intermodal train.



You can see I was pretty near the CP tracks crossing CN at Diamond. I didn't have time to record the entire train but I captured the "gist" of it.

What a fun day!

NBSR Oil Train With CP Power

Several New Brunswick railfans caught the NBSR unit oil train coming into New Brunswick on NB Southern Railway tracks on July 2. The great thing about this train was that it used run-through Canadian Pacific Railway power... with a great leader.

Jody Robinson was first up with these great shots of the train at McAdam.


The train had Iowa, Chicago and Eastern engine ICE 6450 on the head end. ICE 6450 is an SD40-2 built in September 1979 as Oneida and Western OWTX 9956. It became a BC Rail BCOL 749 and then ICE 6450, "City of Welcome". I don't know if the engine refers to Welcome, Minnesota or Welcome, North Carolina!

What a rare sight in New Brunswick!

Behind ICE 6450 was CP 5926 and CP 5928, two more SD40-2 engines. I've never seen CP 5926 but I did see CP 5928 once, trailing on a train through Pense, Saskatchewan back in 2008.

It sure is nice to see Canadian Pacific Railway engines in McAdam again.

The fourth engine was an MMA engine, MMA 3603, a GE C30-7 built as ATSF 8016 in 1977.


Now on to the videos. Gary Lee shot a handheld video of the train leaving McAdam.


Next up was Brian Barchard shooting the train through Harvey. His video combines three NBSR trains, two from June 30 and the July 2 oil train starting at 5:17.


Matt aka saintjohnrailfan shot it at Welsford at the first highway crossing. Nice wave from the engineer! I noticed that there were several doors open on the MM&A engine; maybe it was having mechanical issues.


Dave Dineen aka nbsrfan was also at Welsford and shot it there, at my favourite spot in Grand Bay, and entering the yard in Saint John. Here they all are in one video.


Great shots all around for a great train. Thanks to Jody, Gary, Brian, Matt and Dave for the photos and video. Well done.

Canadian Foodgrains Bank

I was contacted by the Canadian Foodgrains Bank for permission to use a video of mine to illustrate how much food they provided last year to help end world hunger. I agreed, and here it is.


Visit their website to learn more about what they do.

NB Southern Maintenance of Way Video

J.D. Irving produced this video demonstrating the type of remediation work that will be done in Northern Maine using the TIGER II funding. If you've ever been curious about what the various pieces of MOW equipment do... watch this video. It's quite good.


Some have suggested that this was filmed in Welsford. I'm not certain but it sure looks like it.

New David Othen Videos

David Othen has two new videos for sale... "CB&CNS on Mainland Nova Scotia" and "Urban Rail in Chicago & Seattle September 2011".

Here's a clip from the CB&CNS video.

I regret that I never railfanned the CB&CNS, not even once. I suppose there is still time but it is hard when you're a few thousand kilometres away!

Here's a clip from the Chicago and Seattle video.


Now, Metra... that I did railfan, once. This is one of my videos.


Please go to David's video page to order either of the videos, or any of the others that he has for sale.

Makeshift Tripod

When I was getting ready to record the Canadian on June 11, I realized that I had forgotten to bring my tripod with me. I wanted to shoot stills and video, and you can't do that with just two hands... so what to do?



No worries! Just use the van as a tripod, with a bit of paper to level it!



What have you used to hold your video camera when you haven't had a tripod?

Rail Innovations

Good news... Greg Scholl Video Productions has acquired the titles of Rail Innovations, a former Canadian video company. Rail Innovations produced a number of unique Canadian videos and Greg Scholl has reworked 10 of them.

I have a few Rail Innovations videos and the content is great and so is the production quality.

Greg put new menus on the DVDs but the content is basically the same. The prices range from $19.95 to $24.95. These are the titles:

• The Legendary Canadian
• Steam Memories of Ontario
• Manitoba Steam in the 50's
• A Last Look at Steam
• CPR 2816, Part 1
• CPR 2816 Part 2
• Six Motor Alcos
• CP's Rogers Pass
• Superior Railroading
• Prairie Rails

They are running a special for June where you get a break on shipping in June. Purchase one of the above videos and one more, and get free shipping in the USA or $5 off for Canadian addresses. You must mention "JUNE FREE SHIPPING OFFER", in the COMMENTS box of the shopping cart when you order

Visit Greg's web site

Incredible Washout Video

This video was shot near Stackpool, Ontario on April 14 and shows a sizeable washout, as it happens. I believe the footage was shot by a CN employee with their phone.

Viewer Video: KatimaRailfan1

After I asked for the videos you're proud of, Ian stepped up and offered this one of his. It's a nice pacing video of a CP train. It looks like CP 8707 was leading and two other big units were trailing. I especially liked the conductor waving near the end!

Check out all his videos!

Video Query

I like to feature neat train videos taken by other people. However, I don't have much time to look through my subscriptions on YouTube and I miss a lot of good video.

If you think I've missed a good one of yours, here's your chance to get it shown here. Please comment on this post, or email me at steve@theboykos.com, and tell me what video(s) you are especially proud of that you would like more exposure for. I'll put them in the queue to be posted and your great work will get a tiny bit more exposure. :)

For example, here's a nice video of the Chaleur at Caplan, Quebec on August 16, 2010 that I missed.