A Five Train Morning

I hadn’t really intended on going train watching. Honestly.

It was Saturday, February 20. My wife had left for work and I was sitting in the kitchen, finishing my breakfast, browsing my phone, and thinking about what I should do for the rest of the day.

I got up and looked outside, and saw a golden sunrise through the front window of the house. Well. I couldn’t let that go to waste!

I grabbed my camera bag and tripod and hit the road. Next stop, Symington Yard.

As I neared the yard and the Sprague subdivision, I saw that a train had left the yard not long ago and was heading east on the Sprague. I decided to give chase.

Train One

The roads were pretty good, clear but they looked like they could be a bit icy. I kept the car’s speed under the speed limit as I gave chase. The eastbound train was going at a good clip, but I managed to reach the head end at Dufresne. There were only a few more miles where the road paralleled the track, so it was now or never.

I took the exit at Dufresne and headed southeast on the graveled #207 toward Ste. Anne. When conditions are slippery, the gravel roads usually give better traction than pavement, since they have a lot of texture for the tires to grab.

I passed the head end near the grain elevator and continued to my favourite location east of Dufresne. I parked the car and jumped out to grab the shots above and below.

Someday soon that pole line will be gone. I’m trying to include it in a lot of my photos in the area. I used to hate pole lines for blocking shots of trains, but I came to appreciate them for the history they show and the character they add to photographs. I’ll miss them when they’re gone.

After that excitement, I headed back to Winnipeg.

There was nothing too photogenic going on in Symington Yard, so I continued on to Transcona. There I saw a container train ready to head east on the Redditt subdivision. Keeping that in mind, I headed out toward Dugald, drove north to check the CP main line – nothing – then back down to the Redditt, where I saw headlights to the west. The container train was on the move.

Train Two

This train confused me for a while. I rushed east through Dugald to wait for them near the highway crossing, expecting them to be right on my heels, but… nothing.

I cautiously retraced my steps into Dugald, and when I came to the crossing east of the grain elevator, I saw headlights waaaayy in the distance. Looking at the signals facing west, I saw they were red over red – STOP.

Huh. Maybe there was a meet?

I waited for a while. They seemed to have stopped west of Dugald, so I drove a bit east to see if there was a westbound train visible – nope – so I returned to the crossing. Eventually the STOP signal turned to CLEAR and the train started rolling.

The morning light was really nice on the train as it passed the grain elevator just before 10 AM.

In the photo below, you can see the high green they were facing.

Here’s the video.

That was worth the wait, in my opinion.

Still scratching my head, I got back in my car and drove west to check on CP again. Still nothing! Sometimes I wonder if I should bother… but from the Deacon Road crossing (here: 49.930, -96.933) you can see for miles and miles to the west. You can practically see a train leave the downtown yard a dozen miles away. The east view is straight too but it’s not as in flat that direction.

Anyway, I returned to the Redditt subdivision again and I saw the east facing signals were lit. This told me there was a westbound train coming, so I headed back toward Dugald. I believe they were going to meet “train #2” above in Dugald but the meet was switched to Anola. That would explain the pausing and the signal change.

Train Three

I set up at the first crossing west of Dugald, a place I’ve only been to once or twice. By this time it was 10:45 AM so I wanted to get some side light, since the nose of the westbound would be dark. Of course I wanted to include the grain elevator in the shot…

I took one shot while standing closer to the tracks (above), then stepped back before the gates started coming down and framed up a somewhat closer shot with more side light (below).

There was the one locomotive on the head end, and another on the tail. The tail end was better lit by the late morning sun.

Here’s the video…

I was pretty sure there wouldn’t be any more trains for a while there, so I drove down Deacon Road toward the Trans-Canada Highway and back to the Sprague subdivision. I didn’t see any trains there so I drove toward the city. Right after I made that decision, I spotted an eastbound train leaving the city! A U-turn brought me back to the Deacon Road intersection.

Train Four

This was a tank train but not an oil train. I think the tank cars had a UN 1993 placard – “flammable liquids”. It was definitely a “key train“.

The “going away” shot was horribly backlit but I liked the 60 MPH railway speed limit sign.

After that train passed, I decided to head home. I exited from the Trans-Canada Highway onto the Perimeter Highway, only to see another train leaving Winnipeg. I quickly pulled over and ran back to the overpass over the tracks.

Train Five

This was an intermodal train, following the tank train I just saw. They weren’t going very fast, no doubt because they had to wait for the tank train to clear the block in front of them before they could proceed.

I waited a bit and took a few more shots as the train rolled under the overpass.

This train had a mid-train locomotive but my photo of it was not great, so I won’t share it.

Five trains over a few hours – not a bad haul!

Just One More Thing

Does someone forward a list of posts to you? Want to get an email when I write a new post?

Join my mailing list!

You’ll get one email a week with a list of blog posts for the week (usually two), and possibly another email a week with the videos I’ve uploaded to my YouTube channel that week.

I don’t give or sell your email to anyone. I value your privacy and I’ve removed any tracking codes or images, so I don’t know who has opened or read the emails.

Even if you don’t sign up for my list, I’m happy you came here to read what I write. Thank you.