We Will Remember Them

They shall grow not old,as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them,nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sunand in the morning
We will remember them.
 - the Act of Remembrance


Thank you to all veterans, alive and not, for their service to Canada and to all of us, for protecting us and keeping our way of life safe. Thank you to our current service members for defending freedom here and abroad, and for their sacrifices in Afghanistan. Thank you. We will remember them.

Book Review: Everyone Loves a Veteran

It seemed fitting to review this book for Remembrance Day.

In November 2005, VIA Rail ran a special train from Halifax to Ottawa and back again to carry veterans and family members to the Remembrance Day ceremonies on Parliament Hill. This train was organized by Ron Jackson and many others. It was a remarkable event, never done before and likely never to be done again.

Everyone Loves a Veteran was written by Ron Jackson and covers the genesis of the train, the planning leading up to the event, and the event itself. This is a great book to cover the once-in-a-lifetime event.

Throughout the book, Ron says that their goal was to "keep the focus on the veterans" and it is clear that the team did just that. The book starts with the initial planning beginning in February 2005, through the assembly of the team that organized the event, and on to the detailed planning leading up to the day the train left Halifax. It continues with a detailed account of each day on the train with the veterans, and concludes with some thoughts followed by letters from veterans, family members, and others who were involved with the train.

Ron even threw a bone to railfans with Chapter 4 - "The Train (For Rail Buffs)" with the consist of both trains, two photos by Geoff Doane, and even the URL for my own blog post about the train.

This is a fantastic book and I think Ron "did it right" and paid proper homage to the veterans and to everyone who worked so hard to make the Remembrance Day Train a success.

If you would like to buy the book, the order form is here.It is $14.95/book plus tax and postage, or $21.20 for a single book shipped within Canada. It is well worth it.

Photo Backups, Revisited

Back in January I briefly talked about photo backups and linked to a Pixiq article.

I recently read another good photo backup article and wanted to share it with you. The author talks about the various ways to back up your photo collection (summary: DVD=no, hard drives=yes, have at least 3 copies) and what format to archive them in. He briefly touched on "digital asset management" (DAM) which is basically a fancy way of saying "cataloging".

I found it interesting that he never mentioned any of the online backup services. The first article I mentioned talks about online backups. I don't use any of those, mostly because I'm cheap but also because I like to have control over my own files.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I do have 3 copies... my desktop, my home media server, and an offsite drive.

I also read a good review of Drobo. Drobo is a storage appliance, a smart box that you plug hard drives into and use like an external hard drive. What's great about the Drobo is that it handles redundancy transparently, so a drive can fail and it will alert you but continue working. Replace the failed drive in the Drobo unit (without powering off) and Drobo automatically uses it and makes things redundant again. Not enough space? Replace a drive at a time and Drobo will use them, all with no downtime.

Drobo units are not cheap but they are quality appliances. I sure wish I had one. :)

PS - that's my 50mm lens in the photo above.. playing with macro photography. I have a long way to go!

Transcona Work in Progress

CN operates a repair shop in Transcona on the eastern edge of Winnipeg. This sprawling shop used to be much busier, but it still hosts a locomotive repair shop, a car shop and a maintenance of way shop.

On September 24 I drove along Pandora Avenue West (Route 37) and found the locomotive shop. I stuck my camera through the fence and shot a few of the locomotive bits hanging around the outside of the shops.

The visible units there were CN 2649, CN 5545, CN 5717, CN 5788, and CN 8019. Some looked better than others!

Apparently CN 5717 was involved in an accident in Quebec in late summer 2009. As you can see from the above photo, a part of her is still around. Here's a shot of CN 5717 as she came into Symington back in September 2009.

Another thing to note about the above photo is the many old wheel sets hanging around, and the shiny new ones on the right side of the photos.

Below we see CN 5545 missing a very important part.


CN 8019 was also missing her diesel engine.

There was also a collection of hoods and axles visible.


Now that I know there are some shots possible, I'll have to keep an eye on that space!

October 16

I was out and about in Winnipeg on Sunday, October 16. I think the kids were with me because my wife was working. I had tried to catch VIA 693 but we left our house too late to get it. We ended up doing a few things together and I ended up near the CP yard. I saw an interesting consist at the east end of the yard and had to take a few photos of it. It's not often you see an AC4400, a blocked off SD40-2, and a "red barn" SD40-2F together. Old friend CP 6078 with the blocked-out windows was second, and "red barn" SD40-2F CP 9023 was on the end, a new engine to me.CP 1530 and CP 8205 were in the yard, switching.

We drove around a bit then headed home on the Perimeter. I knew CN 532 was heading out and I figured I could get a shot of them south of the city. I exited at Pembina and headed south on highway 75 through St. Norbert. I easily got ahead of them and waited just south of the community in the first wide open space. I arranged things so we were parked on a service road paralleling the highway, figuring there might be a chance to take some stills then jump in the car and leapfrog ahead to get another shot.

I should mention it was very windy. The radio said it was 50-60 km/h gusting to 70-80.

Here's the first shot, with CN 5528 on the point.

After taking a few more as the train approached, I sprinted for the car and peeled out. I figure the train was only going 25 MPH so it was easy to get ahead of them, as I had a few kilometres of side road. I parked at the end and took video as the train passed. Pardon the wind noise!

Book Review: Union Pacific

Regular readers know that I write mostly about Canadian railways, so when I was asked if I would like a copy of Union Pacific: The Reconfiguration, I was a little dubious. What do I really know about Union Pacific? After thinking about it, I realized this was a great way to learn more. As an aside, the full title of the book is "Union Pacific: The Reconfiguration: America's Greatest Railroad from 1969 to the Present".

This is a great book. As the extended title shows, it covers the period from 1969 to the present. Volume 1 covered the period from 1862 to 1893, and Volume 2 spanned 1894 to 1969. It is written by Maury Klein, Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Rhode Island.

Clearly Professor Klein had tremendous access to company files and employees, both employed and retired. In fact Union Pacific supported the books financially as well, as noted in the acknowledgments. The author notes that most company-supported books end up being public relations efforts. I do think that this book puts the Union Pacific Railway in a pretty positive light, but the author does not gloss over the company's mistakes and missteps, such as the difficulties arising from their merger with Southern Pacific.

The book is 429 dense pages of history. It starts with a prologue, useful for those of us who aren't very familiar with UP's past, and then is divided into three parts based on three company presidents: Kenefick, Walsh and Davidson.

The book concerns itself with the people of Union Pacific, their relations to each other, the decisions made and the reasoning behind the decisions. Prof. Klein's extraordinary access to company records and personnel is evident throughout the book and the 45 pages of footnotes back that up. The level of detail is amazing and I came away with a pretty thorough understanding of UP's last 40 years of history.

You might expect a book like this to be a real snooze-fest but I found it to be quite interesting. It took me a few weeks to read it, but I enjoyed reading it very much. I recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about the Union Pacific railway.

Buy Union Pacific: The Reconfiguration: America's Greatest Railroad from 1969 to the Present

Amazon links in this article are affiliate links, meaning I get a small commission at no extra cost to you if you buy something using that link.

VIA 692 Incident

VIA 692 was involved in what appears to be a serious rules violation / near miss near Grandview, Manitoba Tuesday around noon. The train ran about 11 km past Meharry siding on the CN Togo subdivision, where they were supposed to wait for CN 853. The article states they slowed to a stop, then ran in reverse to the siding and CN 853 arrived shortly afterward. A spokesman for VIA said both engineers were suspended without pay on the spot, awaiting the results of an investigation. The passengers were bused to Winnipeg.

The Winnipeg Free Press reported on it. I encourage you to read the article. Apparently a passenger on board the train "who is familiar with train operation" called the Free Press to tell them about it. To quote the Free Press: "I felt the rules violations were so serious the public should know," the passenger said. "There could have been a very serious incident."

Very serious indeed.

My amateur reading of the Canadian Rail Operating Rules (CROR) tells me they violated rule 304:
When a train or transfer has been restricted by clearance, such train or transfer must not leave the point named until it is positively known that the opposing trains or transfers named on the clearance have arrived.
Without knowing their orders, or more detail about the event, I could easily be wrong. Whatever the case, they were in danger the moment they ran past the siding. There are no block signals on that track to protect the trains, so they could have met head-on easily enough.

The passenger said that once they came to a stop, they ran in reverse back to the siding, "reaching speeds of about 50 to 65 km/h". The passenger said that there was initially no one on the rear of the train to protect the movement, but after about five minutes one of the engineers reached the rear of the train. Rule 115 (a) of the CROR states:
When equipment is shoved by an engine or is headed by an unmanned remotely controlled engine, a crew member must be on the leading piece of equipment or on the ground, in a position to observe the track to be used and to give signals or instructions necessary to control the move.

The WFP article says that the Transportation Safety Board is investigating, so it will all come out in their report. Thank goodness no one was hurt.

PS the photo is an old one of VIA 693 leaving Winnipeg on June 6, 2010... not the train in the article.

Portage Junction Tuesday

I wanted to shoot the Hudson Bay VIA 693 on Tuesday, but I was bored with the usual Wilkes Avenue shots. I decided to head to Portage Junction by Fort Rouge to get a different angle.

Workers are hard at work on the Southwest Rapid Transit Corridor and much has changed in Fort Rouge. One beneficial thing for railfans is that they have built a large mound of earth near the Junction that is great to stand on to shoot trains. Previously it was hard to get a shot over the fence separating the tracks from the rest of the area, but now you can stand on the hill and easily shoot over the fence.

The Winnipeg Free Press just released an article about the corridor and it looks like the photographer was standing on the same mound.

First up was a westbound container train. I didn't catch the number but it was headed by CN 2283 and BCOL 4653.


I understood that CN 112 and VIA 693 were both going to pass the location around the same time, and I was concerned that the freight train would block my view of the VIA train. Fortunately, VIA came just before CN 112 did.

I like the composition of this photo but the focus is soft.


Here comes VIA 6452!


They went around the bend at Portage Junction to meet CN 112, who was coming east on the south track.


CN 112 had CN 2200 on the head end.


CN 2260 was pushing hard on the tail end. There were no other engines on the train.


Look, I even included the Tim Hortons sign in the shot. Now you know it's Canadian!

Book Review: Canadian Steam!

Readers of this blog will know I am a diesel fan, not a steam fan. I don't go on long trips to see an operating steam locomotive. In fact, I've only seen two operating steam locomotives in my life - a steam locomotive at Calgary's Heritage Park, and Winnipeg's own Prairie Dog Central #3.

I borrowed Canadian Steam! from the local library because I wanted to see if it had any local (Prairie) scenes in it. I had never read the book before.

The book is edited by the late David P. Morgan, editor of Trains magazine from 1953 to1987 and a lover of steam engines. If you've ever read any of Mr. Morgan's writing, you will know how this book is written. David had a breathless, adjective-filled way of writing that was distinctive and entertaining to read. His style has been emulated to varying degrees of success by later writers such as Greg McDonnell.

Technically I would say that some of the photographs are great, many are fair to decent, and some are of poor quality. Keep in mind that this book was written in 1961.

There is quite a variety of locations and engines represented, and Mr. Morgan stated in the foreword that there was no effort made to represent all classes and all locations. Even so, I think he did a good job of capturing the flavour of Canadian steam operations.

Personally, as someone who definitely prefers diesel engines, I give it a "meh". If you like steam engines, I suspect you will like this book. Check it out: Canadian Steam!

Haunted Train

The town of Florenceville-Bristol, NB changed their train cars into a Haunted Train for Halloween this year. Luke Shaw produced a short movie documenting the horrible experience!


If you are ever around Bristol, be sure to check out their train display. They have three passenger cars and a restored railway station. More about Bristol.

Kansas Grain Elevator Explosion

A massive explosion at a grain elevator in Atchison, Kansas has killed at least three people. The explosion at the modern grain elevator, owned by Bartlett and Company, occurred Saturday night while workers were loading corn into train cars. It is not clear what caused the explosion, but it is well known that airborne grain dust can easily explode when a spark or fire is present. Three people were confirmed killed, three people are still missing, and three were injured.

The search for survivors was suspended while an expert was brought in to coordinate rescue / recovery efforts. The structure is still considered unsafe. Aerial photographs from the Kansas City Star show that the roof equipment was blown off.

The facility is served by BNSF and has three tracks with a capacity of 85 cars. Don's Rail Photos has a few photos of Bartlett's switchers as does RR Picture Archives.

Let's hope the missing people are OK. My condolences to the families of those who were killed.

News: CNN, Kansas City Star, Yahoo, CNN Again

CP Winnipeg Yard

On Saturday I spent an hour or so prowling around the Canadian Pacific Railway yard in downtown Winnipeg. Regular readers know I railfan CN much more than CP so I try to visit CP when I have spare time.

I started off at the east end of the yard, where I found CP 5863 and CP 1550 shunting. I mentioned CP 5863 before as one of the two SD40-2 engines that still has a multimark.

The real prize, though was CP 8904, one of the shiny new ES44ACs delivered to Canadian Pacific this year. This is the first time I've seen one of the 8900 series.


CP 8904 and CP 9682 pulled away almost as soon as I arrived, pulling a grain train out of the yard.

Right after that, CP 8798 and CP 8548 pulled up. I took a few shots and then I went to the Salter Street bridge. It has been years since I've taken any photos from that bridge. Normally I like the Arlington Street bridge more, but I thought I'd go back to Salter Street.

There were a few switchers parked between the two bridges at the fuel stand. CP 1530, 1532 and 1597 are all visible in this photo.


On my right, I saw CP 1540 pulling a cut of cars through the yard, so I jogged over to get this overhead shot of 1540 and 1585.


After they passed, I returned to my car and drove over to shoot the engines at the shop. There were quite a few engines there... SD40-2s, including three "red barn" SD40-2F units; SD90s, ES44ACs (including shiny new CP 8903), and a few GP9s.

Here's "red barn" CP 9010. I've heard from people that work at the shops that these SD40-2Fs are a real pain in the neck. I just like the look of them.


Dual-flag SD40-2 CP 5936 was also there. The paint is looking a bit shabby now.


After I did my photo inventory, I heard horns from a train approaching from the south. I figured it was a train on the La Riviere subdivision, so I drove over to take a quick video. It turned out to be CP 8251 and CP 1587 running light.


I was just about out of time, so I returned to the east end of the yard to see CP 8798 now coupled up to a train. They started rolling and scared off a few Canada geese.


The complete list of engines I saw is in my sighting database.

No Cook on the Hudson Bay

VIA Rail is axing the chef position on the Winnipeg-Churchill train, formerly known as the Hudson Bay. The five chefs currently providing that service have been told that they will no longer be required after November 15. They said that very few people were using the service.

VIA will provide microwaved meals instead, as they now do on the Chaleur train between Montreal and Gaspe. VIA says they plan to save $500,000 per year on chef salaries and food costs.

Railfan discussion agrees that the diner car itself will likely be retained for snack service, as well as a place to prepare and serve the microwaved meals.

Coverage: Winnipeg Free Press (long) and Winnipeg Free Press (short). Nothing from the CBC yet.

PS - the latter WFP article has a photo of meal service on the same diner I was in at the Winnipeg Maintenance Centre, the Annapolis.

Dark Meeting

I was out fairly early in the morning of October 22, looking for trains before heading to work. It was quite dark, even as it approached 8 AM, so I put the 50mm lens on my camera as it is the most light sensitive lens I have. I say that like I have a lot of lenses - I have 3.

Anyway, I was at Diamond when I noticed a CN eastbound train approaching. I shot CN 5701 East as it approached Diamond, then shot over the engineer's shoulder here as they were about to split the signals right at Diamond.

I tweaked the image a fair bit to get some light into it. It's grainy because it was shot at ISO 1600, shutter speed 1/320, F/1.8. I probably could have lived with a shutter speed of around 1/200 but it would not have made that much difference.

I gave chase. It was an intermodal train but there were no DPU engines as far as I could see. I never did catch the number. I heard CN 545 talking to them and I figured they were going to meet somewhere. I picked a spot on Wilkes Avenue that I thought was likely and I saw headlights approaching from the east. It was 545 with CN 4765 leading CN 4776, both GP38 engines.


I wasn't sure where exactly the meet would occur but it would be very near me. I was worrying that 545 on the south track would block my view of the meet, but I got lucky and managed to capture it.


That was it for that morning!

Today's Near Misses

I went out to shoot the Canadian today at noon. I wasn't entirely sure where I wanted to get it, but as I was driving I heard that CN 852 had a near miss at Waverley Street here in Winnipeg. That decided it for me. I saw a train was stopped on the north track as I drove along Sterling Lyon Boulevard but as I approached Waverley Street I saw it had started moving. I parked by Cora's as usual and by then the train had cleared the crossing. VIA 1 was just around the corner at Fort Rouge by that point, headed toward me. The signal maintainer was a little bit east of Waverley Street, watching the train to ensure there was no damage.

I saw the Canadian in the distance. As they approached, the crossing lights came on and the gates started coming down... and a pickup truck ran the crossing. I'm guessing the truck had been stopped and saw a gap to move into on the north side of the tracks, so the driver decided to go, probably not seeing the lights. I was watching and they started moving into the crossing after the lights came on. They ended up crossing the tracks while the gates were coming down.


Hello, Floform Countertops!

Fortunately for them there is no gate blocking their exit. They cleared the crossing, and VIA had slowed down anyway so there was no imminent danger... this time.

Here's the intersection in question. Click on the map to go to Google Maps.

The red dot is where the truck was in the photo above. It looks like there is plenty of space between the tracks and Taylor Avenue to the north, except that it's only a few hundred feet.

Oh yes, here's the Canadian in the fog. They have started the short winter trains, alas.


The fog cleared up and BNSF 2756, Operation Lifesaver caboose BN 12580 and 31 cars rolled by shortly afterward.


The story of the CN 852 incident came out later. Apparently a northbound bus was in traffic, stopped on the crossing due to cars between it and the intersection of Grant and Waverley. The crew of 852 likely put the train into emergency, and fortunately the light turned green and the bus was able to clear the intersection before 852 hit the bus. The lights and crossing arms were verified to be operating by the crew of CN 852. The Winnipeg Free Press published an article about it.

This is a dangerous intersection, given that Waverley Street is pretty busy and the track is the CN Rivers subdivision, two tracks that see well over 50 trains a day. I know people have been calling for an underpass like what was done at route 90 just a little ways west, but of course that costs millions of dollars, all from the city or province. I have no doubt that it will eventually get done.

In the mean time, groups like Operation Lifesaver are doing their best to educate the public about safety around trains. Obviously more education is needed!

EDIT: Added the link to the WFP article.

Extra Sleepers

After my visit to the Winnipeg Maintenance Centre, I realized I hadn't been shooting the Winnipeg-Churchill train (VIA 693) much lately. I resolved to remedy that, and I started on Tuesday. I went to Carman Junction to wait. The Hudson Bay was more or less on time and I grabbed a few shots.




As they passed I sprinted to my car, hoping that they might slow down before Diamond. Being a good railfan, I had parked it facing the right way.

I caught up with them just past the detector at mile 10. As I approached Diamond I saw they were slowing, so I hopped out of the car just short of the stop sign. They paused very briefly and then headed out.


The trailing unit was VIA 6449, which I saw in the WMC. They had three Chateau sleepers, two more than the usual consist.

Dog Catching

You know the old yarn that in the Prairies, you can watch your dog run away for three days? It might be an exaggeration, but you sure can see a long way out here.

In early August I was in Regina, Saskatchewan, one of the flattest areas I've seen in the Prairies. I negotiated some railfan time early in the morning of August 8 and headed out at sunrise to get some shots. I shot a few grain elevators and then moved to the west side of Regina. I had noticed one elevator there on the CP mainline and wanted to see it. It's at the intersection of Pinkie Road and 13th Avenue, here.

It was raining lightly as I approached the main line. I saw a couple of CP GP9s working outside the Brandt facility. CP 1541 and 1533 were switching some tank cars.


They had an honest-to-god caboose there too, CP 434412.


I watched them switch for a while in the rain and took some video.


Finally, they coupled up to their caboose and I figured they were headed back to Regina, so I took off east on 13th Avenue to wait for them. After about 10 minutes I realized they were going west. Oops. I came back and saw they were waiting to go north just west of where I was. I took this long-range shot of the completed train.


I figured I would investigate where they were going, so I drove north to route 730 to have a look. I got snared in road construction and as I was waiting, I saw a westbound train approach. I tried to get to the crossing by 13th Avenue but the train was there just before me. CP 8866 and CP 8831 blew by.


I waited in the rain for the train to pass. CP 8521 was a mid-train DPU engine.


Good thing this is the Prairies! After the train cleared the crossing, I returned to the Trans-Canada Highway and headed west. Since everything is wide open it was obvious where the train was... just a kilometre or two north of me! I overtook the train and was well ahead of it by Belle Plaine, so I pulled off to shoot it there.

I saw there was a westbound train stopped at Belle Plaine in the siding. CP 8604, CP 5908 and CP 9614 were patiently waiting.


Those SD40-2 engines, once the primary power of Canadian Pacific, are getting more and more rare. The ES44AC engines and the AC4400CWs have taken over. I'm trying to get my shots when I can!


Soon enough CP 8604 West blew through. I had the shutter speed a little lower than I wanted, but I kind of like the light blur on 8604, suggesting motion.


I had my video camera set up too.


I was out of time by this point, so I headed back to Regina to rejoin my family.

EDIT: Added the videos.

VIA Rail's Winnipeg Maintenance Centre Part 6

This is the conclusion of my report on VIA Rail's Winnipeg Maintenance Centre. See part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, and part 5.

VIA Rail has five cars stored at the Winnipeg Maintenance Centre. These are all labeled "Northern Spirit" and were acquired from Amtrak for use on the Hudson Bay between Winnipeg and Churchill. The cars are all sleepers. They were put into service on the Hudson Bay in 2000 (ref VIA Rail annual report) and were withdrawn from service.... in 2006, I believe. The cars were leased from Amtrak in 2000 and purchased by VIA in 2004. They have been stored at the WMC for some time and are for sale. They are moved every six months to ensure the wheels are still functional.

Each is decorated with a different northern animal.

Car	Decoration	History	Built
VIA 2448	polar bear	ex Amtrak 2448 (Oak Grove), ex Amtrak 2684, ex SP 9004	1950
VIA 2449	snowy owl	ex Amtrak 2449 (Maple Grove), ex Amtrak 2686, ex SP 9006	1950
VIA 2455	caribou	ex Amtrak 2455 (Elm Grove), ex Amtrak 2680, ex SP 9000	1950
VIA 2462	beluga whale	ex Amtrak 2462 (Silver Chasm), ex Amtrak 2657, ex CB&Q 430	1952
VIA 2463	peregrine falcon	ex Amtrak 2463 (Silver Dale), ex Amtrak 2658, ex CB&Q 431	1952

Let's look at each one in numerical order.

Here's 2448, with 2462 in the middle and 2449 at the far end.


VIA 2448 has a nice polar bear on it.


VIA 2448 was leased to Canadian Pacific for a while and was located in the West Coast Express yard in Vancouver for use by WCE crews to sleep in. Apparently their regular rooms in the CPR Vancouver station were closed for a construction project. Here's a Flickr photo showing the car in Vancouver in late 2007.

Here's VIA 2449 with what looks like a snowy owl on it. There are a number of condemned wheel sets rusting away next to the Northern Spirit cars.


This is VIA 2455 with a moose? elk? caribou on it.


Strangely I did not shoot 2462 directly. This photo shows it has a beluga whale some kind of sea creature on it.

Here's VIA 2463.

I noticed that 2463's Burlington heritage is showing through - note the B U R L I N G T O N showing through the paint. Any idea what type of bird this is? EDIT: It's an osprey. EDIT2: It's a peregrine falcon.


There's some discussion of these cars here.

That concluded my tour of the Winnipeg Maintenance Centre.

I want to thank VIA Rail for permission to roam through their facility and photograph whatever I pleased, the shop foreman for answering my questions, and especially engineer Tommy Bozyk for arranging this and being my tour guide. His knowledge of the equipment and facility is first-rate and I appreciate the time he spent arranging it and showing me around.

Thanks for reading.

EDIT: Thanks for the help identifying the various animals!