Thursday, February 10, 2011

More Rocky Mountaineer Cars

A little birdie told me that today's Canadian would have Rocky Mountaineer cars on it, so I made time at lunch to go see them. The last time I saw Rocky Mountaineer cars on the Canadian was November 2010. I thought about where to shoot them, and ended up going to my default location just east of Diamond and west of the Perimeter Highway. I parked on the side of the dirt road and waited for their arrival. It was -20C outside, so I wasn't going to stand outside to wait!

The hotbox at mile 10 warned of their impending arrival. I hopped out of the car and crossed the frozen snow to wait for the sound of the horn blasts and the first sign of the headlights. Soon enough, VIA 1 rolled into view.
VIA 6458 and Rocky Mountaineer cars
VIA 6458 led two RMX cars, followed by VIA 6428 and the usual 9 car winter Canadian consist.

Those repainted Rocky Mountaineer cars sure look pretty!
VIA 6458 and Rocky Mountaineer cars
I like how the white "swoops" on the sides of the cars match up. Imagine a whole train of these!

Very quickly, VIA 1 was gone and on to Diamond and beyond.
VIA's Canadian near Winnipeg

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2 comments:

Mike said...

Would you happen to know why the R-M cars are between the 2 locos?

Canadian Train Geek said...

Yes. RM cars have only one HEP (Head End Power) circuit while VIA has two. In order to supply two HEP circuits to the rest of the train, one VIA locomotive must be behind the RM cars.

The other option is to put the RM cars on the end, but that blocks the view from the Park car.