Railfan Stories

One evening this past May, I had the itch to get trackside and see some trains. I decided to head east and try my luck on the CP Emerson and CN Sprague subdivisions in the southeast area of Winnipeg. As I rolled across the CP Emerson subdivision where it crosses the south Perimeter Highway, I … Read more

We often look for some deep meaning in things that we experience. It’s tempting to think that there is a larger plan behind world events, personal events, tragedies, even songs.

Many railfans are also railway modelers – and vice versa. I’d say the overlap is probably 90% between the two groups.

Sometimes you’re the windshieldSometimes you’re the bugSometimes it all comes together babySometimes you’re just a fool in love “The Bug”, Mary Chapin Carpenter I really like the song “Passionate Kisses” by Mary Chapin Carpenter. It’s very catchy. I ended up buying her album “Come On Come On” and enjoying that too. There’s a lot of … Read more

Steve was restless. He was never the type to be content sitting at home, day after day. He’s not that patient. Every now and then, he had to do something. Steve’s father George was like that, but on overdrive. George was never content to sit still, often visiting someone for only ten or fifteen minutes … Read more

Every now and then I like to drop in at the south end of CN’s Symington Yard in Winnipeg to see what’s going on at the hump yard. There’s almost always at least one train being pushed over the hump and sometimes two trains at once. CN usually has three hump sets in the area … Read more

I really enjoyed our family vacation in Banff. It’s such a beautiful location. However, Banff doesn’t have canola. This bright yellow crop has become a very popular plant for western farmers to grow alongside or in place of the traditional wheat fields. Canola was bred from rapeseed, but it is called canola (CANada, Oil, Low … Read more

I haven’t been railfanning a lot since we returned from Banff. I think it’s a combination of my renewed interest in bicycling and a general lack of interest in the trains around here after seeing some great mountain scenery. It’s not something to feel guilty about. Railfanning is a hobby and it shouldn’t feel like … Read more

In between seeing the Rocky Mountaineer in the Banff area, photographing trains at Castle Mountain, and lurking at the Storm Mountain lookout, I saw a few other train related things while we were on our family vacation in Banff this summer. This post provides the “rest of the trains” – hat tip to the late … Read more

Most Canadian railfans have heard about Morant’s Curve. This iconic location was the scene of many Canadian Pacific Railway promotional photos, drawings and paintings and is named after Nicholas Morant, the CPR’s most famous photographer. Today the Curve is fairly overgrown, and much of the open sweeping vista that Morant captured so well is blocked … Read more