Trip Planning With Google Maps

I'm heading out to Portage la Prairie tomorrow to do a little railfanning, and also to scout out the area for locations to feature in my upcoming model train layout. I have been using Google Maps to see what's around, and it has proved very useful.

For example, I was looking at the CP Minnedosa subdivision, which starts in Portage and heads northwest, and I found this at Macdonald (mile 9.2).

View Larger Map
It's a modern grain elevator, with a GP15 for a shunter. A must see!

I already know I want to take some shots at CN Bloom, about 9 miles west of Portage on the CN Rivers sub. I've been there before but I didn't get very good shots.

On the CP Carberry sub west of Portage, I want to take some shots of the Simplot facility just outside Portage. This modern potato processing facility was completed in 2003 at a cost of $150 million.


There's a facility a few miles west of Simplot that is intriguing me. It's not an elevator, it's not a siding, but I can't tell what it is from the Street View.

View Larger Map

There is also this elevator just east of Portage on the CP Carberry subdivision that I haven't shot yet.


So, a few sites to investigate tomorrow!

Kenaston Saskatchewan

I found this photo in one of my albums. I took it in early January 2001 while traveling on highway 11 between Chaplin and Saskatoon. It shows three Pool elevators in Kenasoton, Saskatchewan (located here.


Kenaston is notable for having one of the few remaining railway water towers in Saskatchewan (visible in the photo above to the left). It was built in 1910 for use by what became CN. It is a fairly rare structure these days, not only because it is a water tower but because it is an octagonal, tapered tower. The village did some major repairs to the tower in 2009 and now it looks as good as new.

The town is served by CN on its Craik subdivision out of Saskatoon. The Craik sub used to run from Saskatoon to Regina, but now the Last Mountain Railway operates the southern portion from Davidson to Regina. CN's 1986/12/14 timetable shows Kenaston at mile 109.3, with two tracks CK34 and CK35 at 2000 and 1700 feet respectively. The Google map shows a bunch of tracks but the street view seems to show a single siding now.

Hopefully the village will be able to hold on to their elevators and water tower. So many Prairie towns are disappearing.

PS - While browsing around I saw the Google cameras caught a CN high-rail truck while they were there.

More PEI Stations

Inspired by the good feedback to my post about Kensington, I dug into my photo archives and found a few more railway station photos from Prince Edward Island.

Here is the former CN station at Borden, PEI right at the end of the spiffy Confederation Bridge. In fact this is pretty much how you would see it from the bridge, if you were looking as you were coming onto the island.


I understand they now have a caboose there, imported from the Moncton area.


Next is the station at Montague, PEI. Apparently this was redeveloped in 1999. I remember there were some artifacts inside and some signage on the inside of the fence. It was quite pleasant to visit and near the marina in Montague.


Finally, here is the station in Summerside, PEI which is now the Rotary Library. This is a terrible photo. The Google Street View is much nicer.


All of those shots were from September 2003, which may have been the last time I was on PEI.

I also have photos of the Elmira station and railway museum, such as it was. I will have to dig those up as they have photos of the Railway Post Office (RPO) car that was subsequently scrapped.

Kensington PEI

Back in 1998? I toured Prince Edward Island with my future wife. We spent a couple of days driving around and enjoying the beautiful scenery on this island jewel. One of the places we drove through was Kensington, and I was amazed to see the unique station building there.

This station was constructed in 1905, Kensington's third and final station. There is a great history of the station online. The stone on the outside of the station is from New Brunswick, embedded in stucco. They used New Brunswick stone because the PEI sandstone is not durable enough.

The station served passengers from its construction until the end of railway passenger service on the Island on October 25, 1969. The station was designated a National Historic Site in 1978. It was officially closed by CN in 1983 and became the town tourist information centre in 1984. It is currently the home of the Island Stone Pub.

When I visited, MLW RSC-14 CN 1762 and caboose CN 78431 were located a little ways from the station, and looking pretty shabby.

It seemed like kind of a dumb location for them, several hundred feet away from the station. I understand CN 1762 has since been moved up to sit beside the station. I'm not sure if the caboose is there too.


CN 1762 was built as RS-18 CN 3859 in 1960 by the Montreal Locomotive Works company. It was rebuilt as an RSC-14 in 1975 and became CN 1762. It was one of the diesel engines on PEI. It spent a little while sitting in Summerside after its retirement, before being moved to Kensington. There's a great story of the move of 1762 from Summerside to Kensington, over the remaining rails (and even bridging a gap or two).

CN 78431 was originally a Grand Trunk boxcar, 19908, built in December 1911. It Became CN 342608 and was rebuilt into a caboose by the CN Pointe St. Charles shops into CN 78431. It graced the McDonald's in West Royalty, PEI for a short time before being moved to Kensington.

Follow the link for a tremendous amount of interesting PEI railway material.

To finish, here's a photo of CN 1754 (now at the New Brunswick Railway Museum) rolling past Kensington station in 1987, two years before the end of rail operations on PEI.

Whiteout

OK, this is a ridiculous amount of snow. Good thing they don't have to steer!

Meet at Caron

I was browsing through my photo albums and stumbled across a series of photographs I took at Caron, Saskatchewan back in the late 1990s. If I had to guess, it was February 1999 but I could easily be wrong. My railway record-keeping was not very good back then.

Caron is a tiny town (population 120) west of Moose Jaw on the CP main line. It likely used to have the usual grain elevator(s) but now it has nothing but a siding. The nearby town of Caronport is more famous, as one site of the former British Commonwealth Air Training Plan.

I was driving by Caron on the Trans-Canada Highway when I noticed a westbound CP train stopped in the siding. I took the exit and went to investigate.

CP 9015 and 5583 were sitting at the head of an intermodal train in the siding. At that time, pretty much any locomotive was different to me, so I didn't really realize how different the "red barn" 9015 was.


CP 5583 was a run-of-the-mill SD40-2.


As I took these photos, I noticed a train coming from the west. In my inexperienced way I recorded the meet.


Leased unit CEFX 106 was the lead engine on this potash train. There was probably a mid-train unit or two, but apparently I did not record them.


This may have been the first train meet I ever recorded. I remember being pretty excited about it.

CN on Wednesday

I headed home from work Wednesday afternoon, taking the long way along Wilkes to see if I could catch a CN train on the way. As it happens I saw lights in the distance just as I was about to take the Perimeter Highway. It was CN 112 on its way into Winnipeg, with GE ES44DC engine CN 2307 on the point.


The train was all containers, with this CN platform full of wheels.


Surprisingly the only two engines on this long container train were 2307 on the head end and CN 8849 pushing hard on the rear.


Little did I know that VIA 2 was coming. I did hear something about "VIA 2" on the scanner but I thought I misheard it as "CN 1 1 2". In any case I didn't have time to wait around.

Later that day, I went to the Winnipeg slide night. I enjoyed all the presentations, and delivered my own presentation on NB Southern. On my way back home, I noted lights to the east when I crossed the tracks on Shaftesbury Boulevard. I drove west a bit to find a quiet crossing and waited for the train to come. I wanted to try my 50mm lens in the dark. It is quite sensitive to light so I figured it would perform better than the wide angle lens.

As I tweeted, the train (CN 115) had CN 8811 leading, and was 10,702 feet with 156 cars.

The video is shaky, due to the lens' lack of image stabilization, my hand-holding and my shivering! Still, I think the lens is good for night shooting. Next time I'll stand back a bit and put the camera on the tripod.

VIA Rail Interruption

VIA Rail paused service on its transcontinental train, the Canadian, earlier this week due to a problem with a CN freight train that blocked the route of the passenger train.

The eastbound Canadian, VIA 2, normally arrives in Winnipeg on Tuesday night by 8:30 PM. Instead, it was held up near Rivers, Manitoba and spent about 15 hours there. Passengers were provided complimentary meals and made the best of it.

I heard someone on the scanner talking to "VIA 2" on Wednesday afternoon and I was sure I had misheard it, but it was indeed the Canadian coming into Winnipeg well over 12 hours late.

VIA elected to turn the Canadian at Winnipeg to make it the next VIA 1 for Thursday. Passengers were offered the option of flying to Toronto to arrive around the same time they would have if the train had not been delayed, or waiting in Winnipeg for the next eastbound Canadian and staying in free hotels until then. Most took the latter option. Passengers also received a 50 percent travel credit.

Service resumed on Thursday.

I feel VIA made the best of a bad situation and took good care of their passengers. Not every transportation company would have gone so far to "make things right".

Winnipeg Slide Night Reminder

Please accept my apologies for not blogging as often as normal. I have been preparing my NB Southern presentation for tonight's Winnipeg Slide Night.

I think I'm going first, and then I get to sit back and enjoy the other three. All of them sound appealing. Jeff Keddy is going to present on RDCs, Felix Lesiuk on one of my favourite trains, VIA's Hudson Bay in 1995, and Ross Harrison on "Ottawa, Montreal, Ontario in the 1990s".

I have 145 PowerPoint slides... that should be enough!

Three Trains, One Lunch

Train observers know there is an ebb and flow to train traffic. Each railway and each location have their own daily rhythm, determined by when trains are scheduled to run and when they actually do run. Things are often busy on CN here in Winnipeg around noon... which is convenient for train watchers like me.

Yesterday (February 28) I heard there were a couple of westbound freights getting ready to roll in Winnipeg, CN 111 and CN 115. I went up to the CN Rivers sub just before noon to try to catch one or both, and of course VIA's Canadian.

I arrived at the CN main line and picked my spot, just east of Diamond. I parked the car and ate my lunch while keeping an eye out. CN 111 was the first to pass by, with CN 2220 and ex-BC Rail unit BCOL 4601 on the head end.

Nice to see some ex-BC Rail units are still in their old paint scheme.

CN 8844 was a DPU engine in the middle and CN 8886 was pushing on the end.


Shortly after that, I heard CN 314 was starting to move at Diamond just west of me. I worried that they would get in the way of the Canadian, whose horn I could hear to the east of me. Fortunately the Canadian came first, and they were on the south track anyway. They had two refurbished engines, VIA 6406 and 6452.

They slowed as they approached Diamond, waiting for the signal to change.

I hopped in the car to go shoot CN 314. The Canadian rolled out of sight and CN 314's two engines worked hard to bring the train up to speed.

Train 314 had IC 2712 and CN 2657 for power.

I then drove back east to get a shot at a crossing. I went for something a bit more "arty".

I knew CN 115 was coming soon, probably followed by "CN 525" aka the CEMR train to the Carman subdivision, but I was out of time.

As usual, the day's sightings are in the database.

Elevators at Domain and McTavish

Roger Workman was kind enough to send along these photos he took of the elevators at Domain and McTavish, both on the CP La Riviere subdivision.

The photos above and below are of the elevator in Domain.


This is the elevator at McTavish.


Thanks, Roger!

Winnipeg Slide Night

The next Winnipeg slide night is coming up fast - March 2 at 6:30 PM.

At present there are three presenters lined up:

• Felix Lesiuk - VIA's HUDSON BAY in 1995 (slides)
• Ross Harrison - Ottawa, Montreal, Ontario in the 1990s (slides)
• Steve Boyko - NB Southern Railway (digital)

Hopefully a fourth presenter will be found soon.

Next Wednesday's show is in room B126 in the north campus of the Canadian Mennonite University at the corner of Grant Avenue and Shaftesbury Boulevard - here.  The H-shaped building housing the day-care is the building that B126 is in.

After that, the next slide nights are April 6 in room B126, May 4 in room B132, and June 1 in room B126.

Dang It

"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." - Seneca, Roman philosopher

I went out early this afternoon to my local Sobeys to buy a Coke Zero or two to sustain me through the afternoon. I brought my camera bag along, figuring I would take a glance up and down the CP La Riviere subdivision on McGillivray Boulevard here in Winnipeg and see if there were any trains about. I did that, and lo, there was a northbound train approaching.

Congratulating myself for thinking to bring the camera, I parked, grabbed the camera, and got into position to video them crossing the road. As they started to blow their horn for the crossing, I turned my T1i on and... something was wrong. Lens cap? Check. Camera ON? Check. What was this door doing open on the camera body?

My memory card was at home, stuck in my computer.

I had opportunity, but obviously not enough preparation. Oh sure, I had a spare card in my camera bag (don't you?) but there was no time to go and get it.

I let the camera hang around my neck and watched the train roll on by. CP 3028 and 1128 led 26 grain and tank cars.

Ah well. Next time. For now, imagine the train was like this one... shot a year and a day ago and a mile or so north of where I was today, with the same engines.

Wheels on the Hump

I mentioned back on February 11 that I shot a few pictures from the Fermor overpass at the south end of CN's Symington Yard. When I was there, a hump power set was pushing an interesting train up the hump.

The train had an assortment of train and track parts in it... loose wheels in gondolas, wheel sets on flatcars, and pieces of pre-fabricated track. It looked like a model railroader's scrap box, on a train.

Note the snow around the tracks, except for the clear switch to the right. Aren't switch heaters great?

As I said, there were loose wheels in gondolas. These would be fun to model.

Also, wheels ON cars.

Here's the tail end of the train going by, and another set of power coming forward. Note the flashing light on the top of CN 7522 indicating remote operation.

The Herzog Multipurpose Machine

Following my visit to Carman Junction on February 17, I was heading back along Sterling Lyon Boulevard when I saw a really different sight.

This is a Herzog Multi-Purpose Machine. This is a self-propelled track unit designed for general maintenance of way (MOW) work like tie pickup and drop-off, ditching, grading and so forth. The Komatsu crane on the top of the cars rolls back and forth, and has changeable "grabbers" for various tasks.

The unit was on the former Winnipeg Intermodal Terminal spur near where IKEA is being built.
The front end of the machine is HZGX 185, the power unit.

The unit is designed to be operated by one person. The operator in the crane cab can roll the entire train back and forth as required.

There are a few stencils on the train: "REAR END OF TRAIN MOVEMENT ONLY", "DO NOT HUMP", and "WARNING: REMOTE CONTROL EQUIPMENT".

I took one shot of the rear of the unit before heading out.

Action at Carman Junction

Last Thursday (February 17) I went up to Wilkes Avenue to shoot the Canadian at noon. I shuttled around for a bit, trying to decide where to shoot it, and settled on Carman Junction. I hadn't shot right at the junction before.

Carman Junction is one of the many junctions in Winnipeg. This one is the junction between the CN Rivers subdivision and the CEMR Carman Subdivision. The CEMR line used to be a CN subdivision but was acquired by CEMR. In actuality the first 0.2 miles (the actual junction and the track across Wilkes Avenue) are still a CN subdivision and the rest is CEMR.

I set up just west of the CEMR track and waited for the Canadian to roll in. Here it is on the north track just passing through the signals at the junction.

VIA 6419 and refurb unit 6442 were pulling the usual winter consist of nine cars.

I had my old Canon S3 on the tripod for video.


I heard that CN 111 was going to be following VIA, so I waited around a bit for them to show up. They rolled by 10 minutes later at 12:31.

111 had CN 2253 leading and 8861 trailing, with 8803 as a DPU unit.

Sadly the batteries on the S3 didn't like the cold and were not cooperating for this train.

I like that spot!

Well Met at Lorette

On February 11 I was running errands in Winnipeg. Afterward, I went over to CN's Symington Yard to see what was going on. The yard slugs were working the humpyard, and a CN freight was rolling out onto the Sprague subdivision. I shot a few photos and a bit of video from the Fermor overpass, then headed out to try to get the CN freight.

I pursued it for a bit and was able to overtake it shortly before the Lorette siding at mile 138.2. There was a train in the siding, waiting for the eastbound freight to pass. The waiting freight was CN 343, with engines 2572, 2539, 5677 and 2225.

First, the oncoming freight: CN 438 with engines 2244, 5775, and ex-UP unit 2111.

CN 343's crew was on the ground, waiting to give 438 an inspection. Here one of 343's crew gives a wave.

It's still a bit unusual to see those ex-UP Dash-8s... but I'm getting used to it.

The crew diligently watched the train, looking for stuck brakes, dragging equipment, and the like.

There were a group of potash cars near the end of the train.

With their job done, the crew of 343 went back to their train and headed into Symington.

"CN 343, diverging to clear signal at Lorette".

Grab Shot

We've all done them. You see a train, you don't have any time to set up, so you grab the camera, point it at the engines and shoot, hoping for something half decent. Much of the time, the shot is "meh", maybe a quarter of the time it is awful, but occasionally you get a great one. You can be the judge of this one.

I was driving around with the kids on January 2, 2011 looking for trains. I drove by the CN Symington yard, not seeing much of interest. At the CN Transcona yard, there was a train parked with a pair of engines being backed onto the west end. CN 5747 was the lead engine, and the conductor was riding BCOL 4604 as it was shoved onto the consist.

That wasn't the grab shot. I took a bunch of photos from Dugald Road and then moved on.

Next I went up to North Transcona to see what was up around CEMR and CP. There was nothing happening on the CP Keewatin subdivision. Multimark GP9 CP 8251 was parked in CP's North Transcona yard but it was not in a very photogenic location. The usual dog's breakfast of old units were parked behind CEMR.

I drove back down to the CN Reddit sub in Transcona, and for whatever reason decided to head east to Dugald to see if I could catch a train there. I can't remember if I heard something on the scanner or did it on a whim. Anyway, I went to Dugald and didn't see anything, so I took a photo of the elevator and then, just as I was walking back to the car, I saw a headlight to the east. TRAIN!

I didn't have much time, so I raced the car to the crossing and parked in front of the gates. As they came down and the lights were flashing, I ran over to try to get a head on shot of the train. This was my grab shot.

What do you think?

CP in Manitoba

I've put a lot of data on Canadian Pacific in Manitoba up on my web site. I believe the subdivision data is up to date but I would appreciate corrections. The map is a bit out of date (2008) but it is pretty close to reality. Let me know if you find it useful!

Viewer Video: GEVO Central

Matt aka saintjohnrailfan posted a video of CN 406 featuring two shiny new GEVO units, and our mutual friend Luc D at the controls!

The video was shot near mile 61, which is near Moosehorn a little south of Norton.

Regrets

The CBC is reporting that a man was struck and killed by a train at the CN Waverley street crossing early this morning around 4 AM. The article reported that the CN main line (Rivers subdivision) was shut down for almost 8 hours afterward.

The Winnipeg Free Press reports that it was 3:41 AM, and the police were investigating behind the car wash just a few hundred feet east of St. James Junction. This is right where the BNSF line joins the CN main line - here.

There are a lot of people who cross the tracks at or near St. James Junction. I feel bad for the person who was killed, his family and friends, and for the crew of the train that hit him.

EDIT: It appears the victim was Ian Larson. Rest in peace.

Video: The Pas - Churchill by train

I stumbled across this video featuring the Hudson Bay (VIA 693) from The Pas to Churchill. It features F units on the front end, and was filmed in October 1997. Most of the video is onboard, from a Park car. Great shots.