Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Trains, Trains and More Trains

See part 1 for the first part of my grain/train-fanning day of November 9th.

After photographing some grain elevators, I was heading home. I had just passed Glossop when I saw a train heading east, the same direction that I was. I overtook them and photographed them east of Newdale.

I was surprised to see CP 8756 again. Clearly trains don't move fast on the CP Bredenbury subdivision...

Since highway 16 parallels the tracks, I was able to get ahead of them one more time before they descended into Minnedosa.

You probably can't see it here but the conductor is grinning at this crazy railfan.

I had never been in Minnedosa so I decided to head in to see the station and maybe catch 8756 one more time. I followed a road in and found myself in downtown Minnedosa. I spotted the station.. with a little surprise in the yard!

That's CP 3020 at the head of CP's TEC (Track Evaluation Car) train.

Nice to see the TEC train again! The last time I saw a TEC train was in New Brunswick in 2007. CP has two TEC trains as far as I know.

It wasn't long before I heard CP 8756 blowing for a crossing. Soon they rolled past the boarded-up station.


After they passed by, I went over to photograph the TEC train.. from the public road, of course.
The train had CP 3020, CP 424994, CP 65 and CP 64.

Here's the Minnedosa station, by the way. It's a nice looking structure!
Apparently CP still owns it. Earlier this year a local group was negotiating with CP to purchase it but that fell through. I don't know the current status.

I spent a moment photographing the display train consisting of a wooden caboose, CP 431970, and FP7 CP 4038.

Then it was off for home! I didn't see any trains on the Minnedosa subdivision. GMTX 407 was still parked by the Dundonald Pioneer grain elevator.

I spotted a pair of CN trains passing each other by East Tower in Portage la Prairie. I barely got ahead of the eastbound train at Oakville.

After it passed, I carried on toward Winnipeg. I cut up to Diamond and photographed CN 5784 East splitting the signals there. I though that would be my last photo of the day.

However... notice the green signal in the above photo? It turns that that the Hudson Bay VIA 693 was rolling along on the other track. I took this terrible photo to document the power (VIA 6456/6449) but there was no opportunity to chase it to get a better photo.

I hope you enjoyed this extended grain/train excursion. Remember to read part 1 if you haven't already!

For other grain elevator tours, please view:


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