Friday, October 05, 2012

The Grey Cup Train Approaches

The Grey Cup train has been heading east for several days. The train has been traveling on Canadian Pacific Railway tracks and therefore had a CPR engine on the head end, CP 8711. The complete consist was:
  • CP 8711
  • VIA 6445
  • VIA 8615
  • CP 103
  • CP 104
  • VIA 8412 Kent
  • VIA 8502 Skyline
  • VIA 8208 Chateau Dollier
It arrived in Minnedosa, Manitoba on Wednesday, October 3 and John Longhurst was there to record it. His blog entry is here. Here's one photo from his blog entry.
CP 8711 and the Grey Cup train. Photo by John Longhurst.

It carried on to Portage la Prairie on Thursday, October 4 (a very blustery day) and Manny Jacob recorded it in great detail here and here. He got the shot I would have tried to get, the VIA Rail Canadian passing the Grey Cup train.
The Canadian passes the Grey Cup train. Photo by Manny Jacob.

Here's an excellent pacing video of the train between Red Deer and Calgary.

The train is open to the public at Union Station in Winnipeg on Saturday October 6 from 11 AM to 4 PM. I plan on being there for some of the festivities. Here's the complete list of stops. From Winnipeg the train apparently will be going directly to Halifax, Nova Scotia while the Cup will travel to Newfoundland before going to Nova Scotia.


1 comment:

One Man Committee said...

I really enjoyed visiting the Grey Cup train in Winnipeg. The displays and exhibits were very interesting and well presented. Judging by the huge throngs of people in attendance, it really seemed to be a hit with the public!