Sunday, June 13, 2010

The Three Hundreds

Not 300 the movie... this is about two trains numbered in the three hundreds. Specifically, 301 and 304.

On the evening of June 10th, I was standing on 156th Street NW in Edmonton just north of the Yellowhead Trail. This is the east end of CN's Bissel yard, on the CN Edson subdivision.

I saw train 304 was waiting to head east across Edmonton, with CN 5761 and CN 5703 at the head of a train consisting mostly of paper products.
CN Bissel Yard, Edmonton
After a while, they got their light... yellow over yellow, meaning "Clear to Slow" - proceed, approaching next signal at slow speed. They slowly pulled out of the yard and went under me.
CN 5761 in Edmonton, Alberta
As they did that, CN 301 came around the corner east of me, and passed under me on their way west. This train had CN 2304 and IC 1027 on the head end.
IC 1027 in Edmonton, Alberta
CN 301 had engine 2238 mid-train... nice to see!
CN 2238 mid-train (DPU) in Edmonton, Alberta
Once those two had passed, I went back to my car and headed east. I saw CN 304 threading its way past Calder Yard. I went to East Junction, where the CN Vegreville subdivision meets the main line, and where I railfanned back in 2004. I waited by a baseball field and soon enough 304 came along.
CN 5761 at East Junction in Edmonton, AB
It was getting dark, so I decided to head back to the hotel. On my way, I noticed that CN 304 had stopped on the high bridge over the North Saskatchewan river. I went to the wye just east of the river and waited. After a few minutes, they started up again and I took this shot of the "Canadian National Railways - Courtesy and Service" logo with the train in the background.
Canadian National Railways - Courtesy and Service
It was getting pretty dark by then!

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