Friday, March 08, 2013

VIA Rescues CN



On Thursday, March 7, CN had a small derailment in their Transcona yard in Winnipeg. The lead engine and first car of westbound CN 115 derailed while coming into the yard, blocking the CN Redditt subdivision at around 7 AM. The rest of the train blocked a busy street (Ravenhurst) and the east Perimeter Highway. This also trapped VIA 1 and a couple of freights (CN 101 and CN 111) east of Winnipeg.

Radio station CJOB 68 had their chopper in the air and took some nice aerial photos of the scene. From the photos it appears that there was a sideswipe but I am told it was a simple derailment.

Perhaps the two CN engines (led by IC 2701) were there trying to hook on to the train to pull it into the yard. I believe the derailed engine was CN 8848.

I drove up to see what I could see. I decided not to go anywhere near the derailment site, as the traffic would be crazy and based on the location I would probably not be able to see anything. I drove up Deacon Road to avoid the Perimeter and then headed out Dugald Road (route 15) toward Dugald. Very quickly I found VIA 1 stopped on the main line at Pineridge Road. The strange thing was that they only had one engine.
VIA 6410 outside Winnipeg

When I was taking pictures, a taxi came up with a new crew and they boarded the train. There were six deadhead cars on the train.

I guessed that the lead engine had been sent to help clear up the derailment scene, being the closest engine to the incident on the east side. I drove over to the Deacon Road intersection and sure enough, there was VIA 6446 on the end of a container train.
VIA 6446 pulling a train near Transcona

I went to the crossing and watched them slowly pull the train eastward. Quite a pull for a single engine!

Once they had pulled it far enough, one of the engineers dismounted to uncouple from the train.
The engineer dismounts from VIA 6446

Once that was done, they headed east toward the Canadian. Note the EOT / FRED / ETD back on the coupler.
VIA 6446 detached from the CN train

They crossed Deacon Road and kept on going.
VIA 6446 running light outside Winnipeg

I hopped back in my van and returned to the Canadian to catch them coupling up.
VIA 6446 rejoins the Canadian

Reunited and it feels so good...
VIA 6446 and 6410 and the Canadian

Note the VIA Rail truck by the crossing.

That was fun!

Other news articles: Winnipeg Free Press , Global Winnipeg

See Also


2 comments:

Eric said...

Good stuff, Steve! You were in the right place at the right time. Usual reasons given for train delays in the Corridor:
1. We are following a freight train
2. We are waiting for a signal
3. A freight train has broken down ahead of us

New reason for train delay in Winnipeg:
We are following a freight train, that has derailed in front of us and we are going to help clear the tracks with our locomotive!

Reminds me of Thomas the Tank Engine saving the day!

Thanks for sharing,
Eric

Canadian Train Geek said...

Thanks, Eric! I was indeed in the right place at the right time, thankfully.