A Visit By The CP Business Train

Canadian Pacific, like most railways, has its own business train that it uses for corporate and public relations purposes. It charters this train as the Royal Canadian Pacific – although I think that’s on hold for now – and it has been used for public events such as the Canada 150 tour. This week, however, … Read more

Moments

Rolling past the grain elevator under construction at Rosser, CP 9827 East faces the rising sun as it approaches Winnipeg. The track is laid in the new loop track, and soon track crews will return to put in the switches and signals to connect it to the main line to make way for 100+ car unit trains to serve the new, modern elevator. Word is that the old elevator will be retained for specialty crops.

Odd Ducks

I was acting on a little intel on May 1, 2021 when I went out in the late afternoon to make some train photos. A little birdie had told me that there were some interesting old switchers visible at the CN Transcona shops, and another little birdie told me that a CP heritage locomotive was … Read more

Critters

TNVR 12 in Thurso, Quebec, Aug 1976. Photographer unknown.

Industries with railway sidings often need to move rail cars around. Large industries like refineries, paper mills, and grain elevators often have multiple cars on site at once and may need to move cars in and out of specific locations to load or unload them. Industries often used small industrial locomotives to do this work. … Read more

Hockey in the USSR

Red banner with Soviet hammer and sickle on the left, crossed hockey sticks in the middle and a Canadian flag on the right

When we lived in Moscow back in the late 1970s, there wasn’t a lot to do. Russian television was of course broadcast in Russian, which I didn’t understand, and seemed to be mostly state propaganda. I read voraciously from the school library, but for family activities, we were pretty limited in what we could do. … Read more

Surprise! It’s the GWWD

I was driving around one evening recently, roaming around the east side of Winnipeg looking for trains. I ended up with a few sunset drone photos of the Dugald grain elevator – both the old wooden one and the new Parrish & Heimbecker one under construction just east of the town. But no trains. Dejected, … Read more

Trains at Sunrise

This post follows Trains at Night. After driving around all night to see trains, your intrepid railfan ended up near Oakville, MB shortly before sunrise. It was turning out to be a beautiful morning and it was nice to be outside. The birds were back and making their presence known with a variety of songs. … Read more

Trains At Night

I really like photographing at night. I enjoy the change in perspective, the challenge of photographing in scant light, the different techniques… I don’t do it enough. On April 3 I decided that I would try to capture the Milky Way.

Writing About Writing

In the little “about me” section on various web sites and services, I used to write “I like to tell stories”. These days, I usually have something like “I like trains” or “I am a photographer who specializes in trains and grain elevators”, but I still like to tell stories.