Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right
– Stealers Wheel
Here I am, stuck in the middle with you
Manitoba is perhaps Canada’s most forgotten province. Most of our 10 provinces have something unique about them – Nova Scotia, the ocean; Newfoundland, the accents and screech; Quebec, French and poutine; and so forth. Manitoba has polar bears, I suppose, but otherwise we are pretty dull.
What we do have is the longitudinal centre of Canada… and it’s not far from Winnipeg!
It’s located on the Trans-Canada Highway, about 15 km southeast of Winnipeg. The signs are on both sides of the 4 lane highway, and there’s a little “Centre of Canada” park with flags and such on on a service road off the east side of the highway.
The longitudinal centre means the east-west centre. The easternmost point of Canada is Cape Spear in Newfoundland and the westernmost point of Canada is Boundary Peak 187 in the Yukon. The “absolute” centre of Canada (longitudinal + latitudinal) is in Nunavut near Yathkyed Lake, about 260 km north of the Yukon-Manitoba border.
I’ve meant to take a photograph of a train passing these signs, but I never made the effort… until a few days ago. I had a few hours to myself and I decided to spend them crossing two things off my “railfan to-do list”
Driving southeast down the Trans-Canada Highway, I didn’t see any trains from Symington Yard to the town of Dufresne. I spent a few minutes taking more photographs of the Dufresne grain elevator – I have dozens but why not take a couple more?
As I was about to leave, I saw that the east-facing signals were changing from red/red to blinking yellow/red (advanced clear to stop). This meant a train was coming… eventually.
I chose to wait for it at the traditional highway 207 crossing just west of the elevator. The train had an interesting consist – CN 2884, ex CREX unit CN 3984, and CP 8207 – with another CN unit (2959) on the tail end.
As soon as the head end passed, I jumped in my car and “booked it” westward to get them by the sign. I was a little concerned that I wouldn’t make it – they were moving fast! – but I eventually saw that they were facing a STOP signal at the east end of the Lorette siding. They were slowing down, allowing me to get in position well before their arrival.
CN 2884 crossed the midpoint, rolling into western Canada, but first… into the Lorette siding.
As they crawled up the siding, I went to the west end. The west-facing signals were green over red (CLEAR)… and, oddly, the crossing gates were down, the bell was ringing and the lights were flashing. No nearby train, though.
I called the number (1-800-465-9239) on the blue sign by the crossing, and spoke to a nice gentleman who asked what subdivision this was (Sprague) and what the mileage was (138.70). This is on the sign. He also asked for my first name, and promised to send someone out to look at it.
After waiting for a few minutes, and seeing nothing coming from Winnipeg, I got into my car and drove to Symington Yard. There was a train at Navin waiting to head out on the Sprague… but it was facing a red STOP signal.
A white vehicle drove up, and a crew piled out and boarded the lead locomotive as the engine’s crew dismounted. By this time it was getting pretty dark and I was running out of time. I took a long exposure of the lead locomotive (CN 2856) and you can just see the blur of the crew on the right side of the image.
Why was the westbound train held at Lorette? I’m not going to second-guess the railway!
Here’s a brief video of the train passing the middle of Canada.
Just One More Thing
You may have noticed that I said I crossed two things off my railfan “to do” list. One was photographing a train at the middle of Canada. The other was the photo above – a drone shot of Symington Yard, facing northwest toward downtown Winnipeg. The Trans-Canada Highway is the 4-lane road crossing the end of the yard.
I’ve been meaning to do that for quite a while and I finally got “a round tuit”.
After scanning the area for low-flying planes – the Lyncrest Airport is nearby* – I popped my drone up to about 90m off the ground and took a few photos. The sunset light was sweet.
Speaking of sweet light, here’s one of the set of locomotives working the hump lead. Quite a collection!
* I can’t fly within 5.6 km of an airport, but Lyncrest is classified as an aerodrome, and I can fly near it as long as I keep an eye out for air traffic.
No pilot shall operate a remotely piloted aircraft at or near an aerodrome … in a manner that could interfere with an aircraft operating in the established traffic pattern.
901.47(1) of the Canadian Aviation Regulations
There was no air traffic at all. I kept pausing and scanning the sky 360 degrees to be sure. Safety first!
Yet One More Thing
Did you know Gerry Rafferty was one of the two founding members of Stealers Wheel? I had no idea. Now that I know that, I can’t unhear his voice in “Stuck in the Middle With You”.
Gerry was well known for his solo hit “Baker Street” and a few other songs such as “Right Down the Line”, “Days Gone Down” and “Night Owl” (not to be confused with the Little River Band hit “The Night Owls“).
Sadly, Gerry was a long-time alcoholic, and died at age 63 from liver failure.
I could write about music for a long time. Maybe I will.
It seems kind of appropriate to have both a CN and CP engine on a train in the middle of Canada
Great post!
From a joker to the right of Manitoba 🙂
I sure don’t want to hurt no one
from, The Joker by The Steve Miller Band
I always thought the same about Manitoba, but in a slightly different context. I always thought of Manitoba as the province that “can’t get no respect,” as Rodney Dangerfield famously used to say.
I never thought of Manitoba as the forgettable province. I would have handed that title to your neighbour to the west. Manitoba has polar bears, but also Louis Riel, the Prairie Dog Central, the Human Rights Museum, the Mint, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Canadian Club, etc. Saskatchewan has…the Roughriders.
Great shots! I railfanned out that way a few years ago, never thought to include the “center of Canada” sign!