Railfan Stories

Stories about railfanning – trip reports and so forth. Any time I’m trackside and writing about it, it’ll be here.

First Trains of a New Decade

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Happy new year! And happy new decade*! I was taking my daughter to her work this morning, and as I have been doing over this holiday season, I did a bit of railfanning after I dropped her off. This resulted in the first trains of 2020 for me. A quick drive west along the CN … Read more

Revisiting the Maritimes

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I was in the Maritime provinces for a week in December 2019. Here are a few rail-related things I saw during my visit. Train Stations En route between Moncton, NB and Halifax, NS, I stopped at the train stations in Sackville, NB and Amherst, NS. They are not far from each other and are easily … Read more

Playing Leapfrog

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I had the good fortune to follow an empty grain train down the CP Glenboro subdivision recently. I mentioned at the end of a recent post, Chasing an Oil Train, that I found something more interesting to chase and this was it. Aside: We railfans often talk about “chasing” trains. In some cases we are … Read more

2 UP

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When I was younger, I used to drink 7 UP a lot. That lemon-lime flavoured drink was a favourite pop of mine. These days, when I drink pop (and I do, too much) I drink Diet Pepsi or Pepsi MAX. I find 7 UP too sweet now, plus I like caffeine. Anyway, I found two … Read more

Chasing an Oil Train

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There once was a man from the prairie,Who admired the work of Mark Perry,He chased an oil trainAcross the open plainWas he up early? Very! – me I had the opportunity to do a little railfanning early in the morning after dropping my in-laws off at the airport. Since CP has been cranking out SD90 … Read more

Noise and Confusion

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I was watching the progress of VIA Rail’s westbound Canadian (VIA 1) as it rolled through Ontario one Thursday morning, with growing interest. Under the current schedule, VIA 1 is due into Winnipeg at 7:30 PM, which in November after the time change is well after sunset. However, the Canadian on November 7th was running … Read more

Morning Light

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In the previous post, Dark to Light, I covered my trip from Winnipeg to Dacotah along the CN Rivers subdivision. As the sky was starting to get bright, I arrived at Elie. Elie I’ve been to Elie’s grain elevator many times. It’s adjacent to the Trans-Canada Highway and has been featured in many of my … Read more

Dark to Light

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I went railfanning early in the morning of October 20th, 2019. I had set my alarm for my usual weekday 6 AM wakeup, but I ended up waking up at 5:10 AM, so I started out earlier than expected. I had no particular destination. This is usually not a good idea for me, as I … Read more

Fallen Flags at Lorette

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I had a little time to railfan recently, so I went out along the Sprague subdivision to try to catch a train. Rumour had it that this line – which goes southeast from Winnipeg to Rainy River, Ontario with a brief detour into the USA – was very busy recently, so I figured there was … Read more

Railfanning for the Weekend

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Everybody’s railfanning for the weekendEverybody wants heritage unitsEverybody’s goin’ down to tracksideEverybody needs a million likes, oh – What Loverboy might have written if they were railfans This weekend, I had several opportunities to railfan. I spent them on the CN Rivers subdivision, and I’ll share the results with you. Friday Evening I went out … Read more