Railfanning with Michael Berry, Part 2

Michael Berry and I went railfanning on Saturday September 3rd. Michael is from Montreal and wanted to experience Winnipeg's railfan scene. In part 1 we went to CN's Diamond.

Prairie Dog - this way!

The Prairie Dog Central

Michael and I left Diamond and headed north on the Perimeter Highway to see the Prairie Dog Central's steam train depart. They have numerous excursions from their station and each trip has a theme. You can always see what's coming up by going to https://tickets.pdcrailway.com/ and they even indicate whether it will be steam or diesel pulling the train.

This time it was a steam train, good old #3 ready to haul the ancient coaches to Grosse Isle and back. They had a long train this trip, with the normal four coaches 104-107, combine 103, the caboose, and even bunk car #110 behind the locomotive for some reason.

The Prairie Dog Central steam train

They have to have a "buffer car" between the steam locomotive and any passenger car, but normally the combine (seen above behind the water tank) provides that function as it doesn't carry passengers. I saw from other photos taken this day that the steam engine and #110 were turned together on the wye in Grosse Isle, so maybe the caboose was occupied and they needed 110 as the buffer when they headed back from Grosse Isle.

While we were waiting for the train to leave, we photographed some of the other equipment in the yard.

VLSX 5232

The PDC acquired ex CN SD40 #5232 from the Central Manitoba Railway in the spring of 2015. At that time it was in a faded CN "sergeant stripe" scheme. It was repainted this summer into a classy black and white scheme and this was the first time I had seen it in its new.. "colours" isn't the right word... in its new paint scheme.

VLSX 5232 in Winnipeg

It's now VLSX 5232, labelled for Prairie Rail Solutions, which is the freight arm of the Prairie Dog Central and handles car storage and other railway services. Both the PDC and PRS are owned by the Vintage Locomotive Society, which is where the VLSX reporting mark comes from.

I immediately thought it looked like the New Brunswick East Coast SD40 locomotives' scheme. Here's a comparison:

Comparing PRS 5232 to CFMG 6907

Both are ex CN SD40s. NBEC/CFMG removed the snow shields behind the cab and made some changes to the filters and doors to try to reduce snow ingress into the body. You can also see that 5232 still has her class lights above the number boards while 6907 did not.

For comparison, here's CCGX 5232 in July 2014.

CCGX 5232 in Winnipeg

By the way, the fine print under the cab window of 5232 says "Prairie Rail Solutions is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Vintage Locomotive Society Inc. Operators of the Prairie Dog Central Railway".

Anyway, tangent over - for now.

Other Equipment

ex Virginia Central #1238

We photographed the two ex Virginia Central steam engines that are stored at the PDC (ex CP 1238 and 1246). These came to Winnipeg back in September 2015 and have remained at the PDC since.

ex Virginia Central #1246, power car and ex BNSF 1685

I don't know what the plans are for these locomotives. The PDC does not own them.

You can see the freshly painted "genset car" #111 and ex BNSF 1685 in the row as well.

PDC's main diesel, #4138, was sitting out at the other end of the shops.

The high hood GP9s... ex BNSF 1685 and PDC 4138

As 11 AM approached, people started lining up to board the train. Tickets indicate which car you are on and the seat you're assigned to. If you go to their ticket site you can pick which coach and which seat you want... assuming it isn't already taken. It's pretty slick! They used to link out to Ticketmaster but I see their ticketing is now fully integrated with their web site. Nice work.

The crew did some final oiling of the locomotive before the trip to Grosse Isle.

Oiling the locomotive

The platform was emptied as people found seats, and there were only a few stragglers left on the platform when we took our final shots before getting ready for the pursuit.

The Prairie Dog Central at the Inkster Junction station

Smoking It Up

They made some serious smoke before getting under way!

Smokin' it up

The PDC's line goes north-south, and since we were shooting at 11 AM, the sun was right on the rear of the train, and high. This made head-on or near head-on shots impossible as they would have been terribly backlit. For example, even with heavy editing this photo isn't great:

Smo-o-o-ke on the prairie / a fire in the boiler

A Short Chase

We chased the train from the Inkster Junction station to the Perimeter Highway. That's a short chase - 4.5 km (2.8 miles) - but there's a dirt road paralleling the track and the train doesn't go very fast, so we were able to stop three times to shoot the train. I elected to shoot video.

Here's the train leaving the station. Lots of wind noise. :(

Round 2 - no crossing = no whistle here:


Round 3 - I elected to shoot this at the Lilyfield spur. The track in front is the track CN uses to service the nearby Paterson grain elevator.

Round 3.5 :) - we saw it was approaching the highway crossing and Michael wanted to catch it crossing there, so I stopped the car at the bend near the crossing and Michael jumped out to get the shot. I stayed by the car and photographed him photographing the train!

Michael at left capturing the ancient train with the modern crossing

That was it for us, as we had to get back to Diamond to get the VIA Rail Canadian. No rest for the wicked!

Bye for now!

Up Next

I'll wrap up this three-part series with a few CN trains at Diamond, along with VIA Rail's flagship Canadian, finally... with a little bonus action at the CN Symington hump yard.

NEXT POST

Back to part 1

Railfanning With Michael Berry, Part 1

Michael Berry at Diamond

Montreal railfan Michael Berry was in Winnipeg in late August / early September, visiting family with his wife and baby daughter.

He had been in touch with me prior to the trip, looking for some tips on railfanning locations, and we arranged to get together to railfan the Diamond area sometime during his visit.

The Plan

Sunrise near Dugald

Michael wanted to railfan the "famous" Diamond on the CN Rivers subdivision. We Winnipeg railfans often talk about Diamond on the RailsMBSK Facebook group and joke that one of the local railfans is the "mayor" if Diamond, as he is often found there, observing trains with his girlfriend.

Diamond is a good location because it has a lot of trains, it has wide open prairie and it's close to the city... and sometimes CP shows up for a cameo.

He also wanted to photograph the VIA Rail Canadian, which leaves Winnipeg at 11:45 AM (if it's on time) on Monday, Thursday and Saturday during the summer.

A "nice to have" for him was to photograph the Prairie Dog Central tourist train, which had a few departures at 11 AM... and the Central Manitoba Railway (CEMR) if it happened to be around.

Sunrise

Dugald - the start of a glorious day

We arranged for me to pick him up at 07:45 on Saturday September 3rd. I was up bright and early and decided to head out a bit early and catch the sunrise (and maybe the VIA Rail Canadian) at Dugald just east of Winnipeg.

The sunrise was pretty.

I was running a bit short of time but I saw the green signal indicating an eastbound was approaching. I drove just east of Dugald and saw a headlight approaching, so I decided to risk being a few minutes late picking Michael up to get the train. I figured Michael would understand.

CN 111 approaching Dugald

This was CN 2815 and 2927 leading train CN 111. I shot the DPU unit, CN 2821, at the highway crossing then headed into the city to pick Michael up.

Diamond

Old Diamond sign

I picked Michael up, exchanged pleasantries then we hit the road for Diamond. We crossed over a few empty tracks on the way around the Perimeter Highway before arriving at the CN Rivers subdivision. Everything was quiet there, so we took a brief detour over to the Assiniboine River to photograph the CP bridge there.

CP bridge over the Assiniboine River

We returned to Diamond to wait for a train... any train. The nice thing about the CN Rivers subdivision is that you don't have to wait hours for a train. We had arrived at Diamond by about 08:30 and our first train was at 09:30. It looked a bit... familiar.

We meet again, Mr. Bond.

CN 2815 and 2927 leading a container train... hey, that's the CN 111 I saw two hours before! I imagine they stopped in Transcona for a crew change and maybe some fuel, then carried on west to pass me again.

Since I keep talking about Diamond, I might as well show you the actual diamond... here's the DPU locomotive CN 2821 crossing the CP Glenboro subdivision.

CN 2821 crossing the diamond at Diamond

In about 15 minutes, another train came along. Fortunately this one came from the west, so the morning light was much better on this train. Michael positioned himself closer to the actual diamond than I did, and you can see his photo on Railpictures.net.

Here's mine, showing CN 318 splitting the east-facing signals.

CN 8893 and 2140 leading train 318 past Diamond

CN 8893 and CN 2140 were leading a longish manifest train. I amused myself by photographing a few of the freight cars, including these centerbeam flatcars carrying Tolko wrapped lumber.

Tolko, soon not to be made in The Pas

Tolko is topical because they've announced they are closing their mill in The Pas, Manitoba. They are the major employer in the town but unfortunately they haven't been able to make a go of it.

We waited for a while after CN 318 passed, hoping for another train, but nothing showed up except for another railfan. We chatted with him for a while but it was time to head up to the Prairie Dog Central for the 11 AM departure of the steam train.

That's in the next post... featuring the steam train, of course, more steam engines, and repainted ex CN 5232.

NEXT POST

Locomotive Classifications

CN 3014, classed as EF-644t

Following on my recent post about railfan names for locomotives, I was asked on Instagram what the cryptic letters on CN locomotives meant.

CN Locomotive Classifications

The CNRHA's CNCylopedia has a great page that describes what these cryptic designations are. In truth they make a lot of sense. I won't go into great detail here - you should check their page out - but I'll give some examples.

CN 3014 (an ET44AC): "EF-644t"

• E = Built by General Electric
• F = Freight locomotive
• 6 = Six axle locomotive
• 44 = 44xx horsepower (4400 in this case)
• t = Order sequence (normally starts at "a")

CN 6025 (an SD40u): "GF-630c"

• G = Built by General Motors
• F = Freight locomotive
• 6 = Six axle locomotive
• 30 = 30xx horsepower (3000)
• c = Part of third order

CN 8011 (an SD70M-2): "GF-643d"
You get the idea.

The interesting part here is that the manufacturer designation "SD70M-2" is also listed at bottom left. I can't recall seeing that on any other CN locomotives besides the SD70M-2 units.

CN 8239, photo by Greg Brewer

CN 8239 (an S-12): "MS-10p"

• M = Built by MLW
• S = Switcher locomotive
• 10 = 1000 horsepower
• p = Order number

Note that it doesn't include the number of axles.

CN 203 (a slug): "GY-00b"

• G = Built by General Motors
• Y = Yard use
• 00 = No horsepower (it's a slug, it doesn't have a prime mover)
• b = Order number

CP Locomotive Classifications

CN and CP have very different systems. Compare CN 3014 at top, and CP 3014 below.

CP 3014, classed as GP38 or DRS-20b

CP's system is simpler than CN's.

• DRS=Diesel Road Switcher, DRF=Diesel Road Freight, or DS=Diesel Switcher
• xx=First two digits of horsepower
• y=order letter (optional)

Also note that CP doesn't always put a class designation on its locomotives. I have photos of numerous CP locomotives with only the unit number on the cab with no classification at all.


CP 3014 (a GP38AC): "DRS-20b"

• DRS = Diesel Road Switcher
• 20 = 2000 horsepower
• b = order number

It looks like someone labelled it as a GP38-2 initially.

CP 1540 (a GP9u): "DS-17"

• DS = Diesel Switcher
• 17 = 17xx horsepower (1750)

No order letter here!

It's very common for CP to show the locomotive type as well as the CP designation.

CP 6000 (SD40-2): "DRF-30"

• DRF = Diesel Road Freight
• 30 = 3000 horsepower

CP 8946 (ES44AC): "DRF-44"

• DRF = Diesel Road Freight
• 44 = 4400 horsepower

What other railway(s) have their own classification schemes?

PS I'm stevetraingeek on Instagram if you want to touch base!

CN 1501, Finally

RDC CN 1501

Like other railways, CN inspects its track and roadbed regularly. It does this with a combination of manual and automatic methods, such as visual inspection by foremen and inspection vehicles like Sperry rail vehicles and CN's TEST train. One vehicle I was aware of, but had never seen, was CN 1501, an RDC (Rail Diesel Car) converted to a Self-Propelled Track Geometry Car.

CN 1501 was originally a CN RDC-1, labelled D-108, built in 1958 for passenger service. As an RDC-1 it had coach seats only. All RDCs, except for the RDC-5/9, have two diesel engines driving the wheels, so they are self-propelled and have operator controls at each end.

D-108 was renumbered to CN 6108 in March 1969, then became VIA 6108 in March 1978. I'm not sure when CN acquired it from VIA but it was rebuilt into a rail test vehicle and was in service as CN 15016 in 2010. I heard it was fairly quickly renumbered to CN 1501 when it was realized that CN's dispatching software only accepted four digits for a locomotive number.

Anyway, back on July 27 2016, I heard on RailsMBSK that 1501 was in Symington yard, ready to go east on the Sprague subdivision. Since I only live about 15 minutes away from Symington, and happened to have some time, I decided to run over and see if I could grab 1501 before it got away. It's been in Winnipeg before but I was always either out of town or unable to go see it.

When I was approaching the Sprague sub, I saw a freight train coming into Symington off the Sprague. I made a guess that 1501 had already left, so I headed east on the Trans-Canada Highway.

The highway parallels the Sprague sub for at least 25km so it's a good area to chase. I was hoping to overtake the RDC before Ste. Anne where the railway diverges from the highway.

As I approached the first siding, Lorette, I saw headlights from a westbound train. I pulled over to photograph CN 2874 and 2852 running elephant-style with a mixed manifest.

CN 2874 and 2852 near Winnipeg

After grabbing the head end shot, I hit the road again. As I approached Lorette, I saw this:

CN 1501 in the Lorette siding

Score!

CN 1501 was in the siding, crawling toward the west siding switch. I snapped a few photos as it passed.

RDC CN 1501

There was a hi-rail pickup truck pulled over on the highway shoulder, and the CN foreman gave me a wave as I walked past - thanks!

They pulled through the signals and out onto the mainline, blowing the horn for the Station Road crossing as they went.

Red-nosed CN 1501

CN 1501 tested more than 25,000 miles of track in 2013. It gets around! If you search online for photos of 1501, you'll see it everywhere on CN's system.

CN 1501, and partner rail car CN 15008 (not self propelled), both collect rail profile data at one foot intervals. The kind of data they collect is the gauge of the track (distance between the parallel rails), superelevation, curvature, alignment, surface, and wear data. Here's an example, taken from a CN presentation at a 2014 Heavy Haul Seminar (PDF).

Example rail profile data, from CN

The raw data is processed through Holland's Rangecam software to produce various reports. This can result in immediate slow orders being issued to CN for any serious defects, and reports are used in planning maintenance for coming weeks and months.

Rail defect cars are known for leaving a trail of slow orders behind them! It's good, because they are finding issues that can be corrected before a serious accident occurs.

After CN 1501 was on the main line, the RTC lined the switch for the main and 1501 took off. I took a little video with my phone. The engineer gave me a nice toot on the horn as they passed!


I chased them down to the other end of the Lorette siding and grabbed this iPhone shot of them passing the work crew at the east end of the siding.

CN 1501 approaching the signals at Lorette's east end

So, finally, I caught CN 1501. One more off my list!

CN 1501 departing

See also:

• CN TEST train blog posts
• CP TEC train blog posts
• Introduction to RDCs
• CN Safety Technology Toolkit (PDF)

The Bonavista Train Display

NF110 CN 932 in Bonavista, Newfoundland

The second place we stayed on our summer vacation in Newfoundland last month was Bonavista. This charming town on the east coast of the Rock is near the tip of the eponymous Bonavista Peninsula.

History of the Bonavista Branch

The Bonavista Branch was the second longest branch line in the system when it was completed at the end of 1911. Stretching 87.9 miles from Shoal Harbour just outside Clarenville, it ran past picturesque Trinity (through the famous Trinity Loop) until it terminated near the ocean in Bonavista.

Port Union train station and museum

Construction began on the branch in November 1909 and the branch was officially opened on November 8, 1911. The line was lightly built, like most Newfoundland branches, and only the lighter G8 diesel-electric locomotives were permitted on the line. The last train was mixed train 205, which departed Bonavista on November 23, 1983 with CN/Terra Transport 802 and 803 for power. The branch was suspended shortly afterward due to track conditions and never reopened.

One unique feature of the branch was the Trinity Loop. The track had to drop more than 30 feet in a short distance to get close to Trinity. This was the only visible train loop in North America; there are others like it but this is the only one where the entire loop is visible.

After the closure of the railway, the Loop was leased by a local businessman and operated as an amusement park until 2004 when it was shut down. Hurricane Igor did serious damage to the remnants of the park in 2010 and it is dubious whether it will ever reopen.

The Bonavista Display

Bonavista station and locomotive

The train display is at what was the very end of the Bonavista branch line. The display consists of locomotive 932, a flatcar, a passenger car, and a caboose, along with a speeder. The train station and freight house are both still on site as well.

I walked over there from our hotel (the excellent Harbour Quarters Inn) on the first evening we were in town. The display is not really front and centre, being midway between the two main north-south roads through town. You could drive through town without even noticing it.

CN 932

CN 932 and train

CN 932 is an NF210 locomotive, one of 38 narrow gauge 1200 HP diesel-electric locomotives built for CN for service on Newfoundland. It is a bit out of place in Bonavista as the NF210 and nearly identical NF110 locomotives were prohibited from operating on this branch due to their weight. The lighter G8 locomotives were the only diesels that operated on the Bonavista branch line, to my knowledge.

I didn't take any photos of the flat car, CN 12142.

The Diner Car

Dining car in Bonavista, NL

The dining car in the train was built by the Canadian Car and Foundry Company for the Newfoundland Railway in June 1943, as NF 12. It was renumbered to CN 174 in April 1953 and it retired from diner service in July 1973, becoming work car #5018 until after the official closure of the Newfoundland railway.

The car is in CN white and black but has no external markings.

Caboose CN 6060

Caboose CN 6060 in Bonavista, NL

The caboose at the end of the train, CN 6060, was built by National Steel Car in December 1962.

The Station and Freight House

Bonavista Train Station

The train station, on Station Road, is now home to the T.K. Kelloway Senior Citizens 50+ Club. Based on some recent town council minutes (PDF) it sounds like it requires some repairs.

The former freight house is still in its original place, on the other end of the train display. It doesn't look like it is being used for anything but it is intact.

The former freight house in Bonavista

Here's a great photo by Joe McMillan of the mixed train in Bonavista on June 30, 1980.


Joe has great photos from Lethbridge (not the Alberta one) and Port Rexton on Flickr.

There's also a little speeder in Bonavista. I was surprised to see this on display outside.

CN speeder in Bonavista

I tried to visit the Trinity Loop when we were touring Trinity, but I wasn't 100% sure where it was. I ended up driving up a road for a bit, then getting frustrated and turning around and giving up.

I realized that night that I was on the right road, only a few hundred metres away from the Loop. Shoot.

Instead I'll share this fantastic photo of the mixed train by Joe McMillan, taken from the top of the Trinity Loop.


That's the last of the railway displays I've seen in Newfoundland. There are a number of displays in central and western Newfoundland that I haven't seen yet. The biggest ones are at Bishops Falls and Port Aux Basques, with a variety of cabooses, and freight cars scattered around the island in private use.

The most unique piece on Newfoundland I haven't seen yet is the G8 locomotive at Carbonear, CN 803, the only G8 remaining on the island. I understand it is looking very shabby. I have seen a G8, though... CN 805 was outside at the Exporail museum in July 2005 when we visited it.

G8 locomotive CN 805 in Delson, Quebec

Thanks for reading and taking a virtual tour through the railway sights in eastern Newfoundland!

I'll leave you with a few non-railway images from Bonavista and area... including this photo of me enjoying cod cheeks in Bonavista. They were tasty!

Bonavista harbour at sunset

Inside the Cape Bonavista lighthouse, with its rotating reflectors

CCGS Vladykov, docked in Bonavista, NL

See more!

• Trains in Newfoundland and Labrador
• Flickr photo of CN 805 in Bonavista
• Story and photos of the Trinity Loop
• Brian Hiscock's photos of Bonavista, 2000