Tuesday, February 21, 2012

SD60s in the Snow

CN 5538 in Winnipeg
First off, I must apologize for not blogging as much recently. I have a little back problem these days and I'm trying to limit my computer time a bit, so the blogging suffers. Hopefully things will improve soon.

I have been seeing trains, and I wanted to share this one from February 16. I went to St. James Junction to see if I could see a train, and sure enough a freight was visible to the west through the falling snow. A CN crew were looking at the diamond, and after saying hello to me they took up positions on both sides to inspect the train.

The lead unit was CN 5538, followed by CN 2727, then another SD60, CN 5508.
CN 5508 in Winnipeg

I was idly standing by, doing my own rollby inspection, when this car came rolling by. I managed to take a few snaps of this artwork.
Willie Nelson in Winnipeg

IC 799789 appeared to be bearing a likeness of Willie Nelson. I don't know a lot about railway, but this one was done by "Theory" from the FR80PHILE gang.

Near the end of the train, there was a series of shiny new TILX tank cars. They appear to have been built around April 2011 so they are pretty new. These cars were carrying some kind of combustible liquid, according to the 1993 placard. It's a class 3 flammable liquid which means it has a fairly low flash point = easy to ignite.
Tank Cars in Winnipeg

There were also a few Interstate Asphalt cars, carrying... asphalt. Interstate Asphalt supplies the Chicago area with asphalt, so these cars had a fair distance yet to go. Maybe they came from the tar sands area in Alberta?
Interstate Asphalt Tank Cars in Winnipeg

2 comments:

ph4nth0m said...

Does anyone know why these railcars have this blue painted on both ends ? I see a lot of them near the Husky upgrader in Lloydminster, SK. All wear this blue and the placard 1993. And those Interstate asphalt railcars are in the same spot, near the upgrader but I have never seen them in AB, so it must be loaded there.

Canadian Train Geek said...

I was wondering the very same thing. I have no idea why they have blue ends.