Stories about railfanning – trip reports and so forth. Any time I’m trackside and writing about it, it’ll be here.
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
Sunday, May 3rd was a very exciting time in the Winnipeg area for the railfans in the area. There were not one, not two, but three Canadian Pacific Railway “heritage” units in town during the day! Also, it was a lovely day and the three all came through in daylight. A railfan’s delight! The three … Read more
These days, a lot of VIA Rail’s trains have been reduced in frequency or cancelled outright. The Canadian, the Ocean, the Maple Leaf, the Jasper-Prince Rupert train – all cancelled. Corridor service is reduced, and other longer distance trains like the Sudbury-White River and Montreal – Jonquière/Senneterre trains have been reduced in frequency as well. … Read more
I seem to be photographing a fair number of aircraft these days. I thought I’d share a few here from a recent excursion. The helicopter above is a Hughes 369E, also known as a McDonnell Douglas MD 500E. It’s a small helicopter, 9.4m (30.8′) long with an 8.1m (26.4′) rotor diameter. This series of helicopters … Read more
I set out on the morning of Saturday, March 28 with great hopes for some sunrise train action. My plan was to visit the CN Redditt subdivision and the CP Keewatin subdivision on the east side of Winnipeg, maybe fly my drone, and capture some trains in that sweet early morning light. I’ve already spoiled … Read more
One recent evening, I went to the St. Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg for an MRI. I have some neck pain and numbness, and my doctor ordered the MRI to see what’s going on. I was on “standby”, meaning they would fit me in between patients sometime between 5:45 PM and 9 PM. I was guaranteed … Read more
Fall in love when we meet againWe can finish what we startedFall in love if we try againAnd then nothing will keep us apart– Alanis [Morrissette], “When We Meet Again” One evening, I had a little bit of time to railfan before doing some chores. I thought I’d try the CP Emerson sub to see … Read more
Well, COVID-19. What a thing. Years from now, I hope we’re all able to look back on this and shake our heads at just how life-changing this was. One of the big phrases of the year is “social distancing”. This is the act of keeping a distance from everyone else, something I happen to be … Read more
Late last summer, my good friend Caleb Wentzell was in Winnipeg for a while, doing some training with CN. I picked him up one evening for a different kind of train-ing… watching trains! We decided to head down the Sprague subdivision to see if we could find a train while there was still some light … Read more
I wanted to be clever and title this post “A CN-CP-CN Sandwich”, but you’ll see that it would have made a lopsided sandwich at best. So we’re stuck with this lame title. Anyway. The trains are the important part, not the blog post title – right? Right. Whither the Maroon This was another excursion to … Read more