Railfan Stories

The waiting is the hardest partEvery day you see one more trainYou shoot it on film, you take it black and whiteThe waiting is the hardest part“The Waiting”, Tom Petty, more or less It was a bitterly cold afternoon when I went out to photograph along the CN main line on February 15th (2020). IC … Read more

There have been a few occasions when an Ontario Northland Railway locomotive has wandered into New Brunswick. I think they may have been repaying “horsepower hours” to CN and I was fortunate to see two of these locomotives in the 10 years I was railfanning in New Brunswick. ONR 2105 ONR 2105 visited the Maritimes … Read more

I was out in the morning of February 8th, 2020 looking for some CP heritage units, as is my wont these days. It was a bit of a blustery, snowy morning, a morning good for train photography. The Rivers On my way north, I found an eastbound train stopped short of mile 15 on the … Read more

I caught my second* CP heritage unit on February 11th – and my first “on the road” – thanks to some Facebook tips in the great RailsMBSK railfan group. (I posted about my first heritage unit sighting – CP 7013 – as one of my Railfan Five) Tim B posted that he saw CP 7016 … Read more

I had the good fortune of seeing one of the Central Manitoba Railway’s GMD1 locomotives for the first time. Cando Contracting acquired three GMD1 locomotives from CN – CN 1401, 1434 and 1435. Two of those locomotives were rebuilt and are now in service, and CN 1434 has been used for parts. CCGX 1009 CN … Read more

“I drove for miles and miles and wound up at your door I’ve had you so many times but somehow, I want more”– “She Will Be Loved”, Maroon 5 In my continuing search for the maroon, I went out on January 12th along the CP mainline west of Winnipeg. I’m looking for the newly rebuilt … Read more

I was doing a lot of errands on January 19th, driving people everywhere, so I had some opportunity to be trackside after dropping people off. Snow Train First up was CN 2973 East, storming east into Winnipeg through the blowing snow at noon. This train was on the north track of the CN Rivers sub, … Read more

I have climbed the highest mountainsI have run through the fields…But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for– U2 I’m still searching for CP’s newly refurbished locomotives in the “maroon” and “military” schemes, commonly known as “heritage” paint schemes. These reconditioned SD90s, now designated as SD70ACu locomotives, are roaming the rails, but not in … Read more

This is a repost. The original post was written in May 2006. I thought I’d freshen it up and resurface it for those who weren’t following this blog almost 14 years ago (gulp). Hope you like it! My comments and additions will be in italics. David Morris, Peter Gough, Ken McDonald and I decided to … Read more