September 27, 2014 - Part 2

After the Canadian Pacific-based excitement of part 1, and the Winnipeg model train show, I headed home. I took my usual detour of driving along Wilkes Avenue with the hope of spotting some CN action before I got to the Perimeter Highway and had to head south for home.

The action was immediate. There was an eastbound freight headed by CN 2032 to catch!

Those ex-Union Pacific Dash-8s still look odd to me. I don't think crews like them, but they are a welcome change to this railfan from the usual SD70M-2 / ES44DC / SD75I parade.

I drove down along Wilkes some more, not seeing anything, and drove back to Carman Junction one more time "just in case". I was lucky enough to spot a headlight of a westbound train, so I parked and set up to catch it coming around the bend.

Wait... what is that behind the engines?

It was the CN business train! There were six passenger cars being carried behind the four engines (the latter two of which were the power for the business train).

The consist was:

• CN 5612
• CN 2611
• CN 2324
• CN 8958
• IC 800653 / SANDFORD FLEMING
• ICMW 101314 / CHAMPLAIN
• CN 1059 / TAWAW
• IC 800210 / BATON ROUGE
• IC 800413 / GREAT LAKES
• FRASER SPIRIT

Here's the video:
I understand the train was going to Saskatoon where the business train would split off on its own.

I gave chase to Diamond, intending to catch a more side-on view of the train. Diamond resident Brian S was there to catch the action as well.

SANDFORD FLEMING

CHAMPLAIN

TAWAW

BATON ROUGE

GREAT LAKES

FRASER SPIRIT

Purists might argue that although these cars wear the old green-and-gold colours, they are lettered for CN not Canadian National. I say "pfagh" to that; I'm just happy to see these old cars decorated in some semblance of the classic colours. I like the little touches like the "Canadian National Railways" roundels on FRASER SPIRIT and the "Illinois Central" gate on GREAT LAKES.

That was exciting!

The action was still not over - there were two eastbound trains to come.

Next up was CN 8801.

This Crandic car - CIC 2062 - caught my eye. "In recognition of Crandic employee Dave Schulte".

The second eastbound train was CN 2232 and CN 5605 leading an intermodal train.

That was it for me for that day... whew! Busy times.

To end this off, here are a few more photos from the Winnipeg train show in the fall of 2014.

Thanks for reading!

Go back to part 1