Railfan Stories

A visit to the CP Winnipeg yard one evening yielded another “blue barn” sighting. I had heard that a Central Maine & Quebec locomotive had arrived in Winnipeg but I understood it wasn’t very visible. I decided it was worth a trip to the yard. At the east end, a generic GE locomotive was sitting … Read more

Set your wayback machine to July 14-15, 2006. My wife and two youngest children were away in Winnipeg visiting her relatives, and my oldest son was with his mother, so I was alone for the weekend. Time to volunteer at the New Brunswick Railway Museum! I drove to Hillsborough after work on Friday, July 14. … Read more

There have been a few more CP “heritage” locomotives visiting Winnipeg over the past few months. Here are the ones that I’ve seen… CP 7013 I was fortunate to catch maroon and gold CP 7013 by the shops in Winnipeg on May 8th. This unit has the “Canadian Pacific” in “script” lettering. Half of the … Read more

Back in 1988, Canadian Pacific Railway received the first of 25 SD40-2F locomotives. These Canadian-built locomotives were the only new locomotives delivered in the “Action Red” scheme, and were unique to CP. They were essentially SD40-2 locomotives with a cowl body instead of the usual “hood” that SD40s had. They were quickly dubbed “red barns” … Read more

I like to write long “story” posts, taking the reader through a railfan trip or a “productive” time trackside. Sometimes, though, all I have is short stories – I saw a train, then on another day, I saw a different train. They aren’t enough for a post on their own, so I am combining them … Read more

A hot tip led to my first photograph of a Canadian Pacific “military” locomotive! Local photographer Jack Hykaway alerted a few of us that CP 7022 was in the Canadian Pacific yard in Winnipeg, along with a few other SD70ACU locomotives. I convinced my wife that it was a good evening for a drive, so … Read more

This past weekend, I decided to make a point of recording the Winnipeg-Churchill train, both coming into Winnipeg and leaving from Winnipeg the next day. VIA 692 is the incoming (to Winnipeg) train and VIA 693 is the outgoing (to Churchill) train. Odd numbered trains go west, even go east. VIA 692 A few of … Read more

Back in March I decided that I hadn’t seen the Central Manitoba Railway (CEMR) in a while, so I drove up to their yard off Day Street in northeast Winnipeg, aka North Transcona. They have a shop here that does a lot of repair work for the Cando fleet, so sometimes there are some interesting … Read more

Since the global shutdown due to Covid-19, a lot of transit services have reduced service or stopped running entirely. VIA Rail is no exception to this, and has shut down all long distance travel with the exception of the Winnipeg-Churchill train (see The Longest Train Still Running) and a few shorter haul trains in Quebec. … Read more

Today’s railways use continuous welded rail (CWR) a lot instead of the traditional jointed rail. CWR or “ribbon rail” is a very, very long rail, often a quarter mile in length. CWR is preferred because it is strong and has no joints to sag or fail. Most wheel and track wear occurs at the rail … Read more