Stories about railfanning – trip reports and so forth. Any time I’m trackside and writing about it, it’ll be here.
You may recall that I went out on a mission to find the new rail inspection portal at Nattress, west of Winnipeg. You might also recall that I didn’t find it. Well, I did some research, and consulted a few people, and determined exactly where it was. Consulting Google satellite views, I wasn’t sure that … Read more
“Every year is getting shorter never seem to find the time.Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled linesHanging on in quiet desperation is the railfan wayThe time is gone, the train didn’t come,Thought I’d something more to say.” – “Time”, Pink Floyd, with a few revisions As I mentioned in … Read more
Every year, Canadian Pacific Railway runs its Holiday Train across Canada and the USA to support local food banks. This is its 20th year of operation. It actually runs two trains, one through Canada and the other through the US. I try to catch it every year, with varying success. I caught it in 2011, … Read more
I went out early in the morning of November 17th on a mission. I was looking for a new structure on CN’s main line. CN and partner Duos Technologies has been building rail inspection portals at four locations around Winnipeg. These devices will do automated rail car inspection at high speed. I’ll write an article … Read more
The Greater Winnipeg Water District (GWWD) railway is a pretty unique little railway. It was built to service the aqueduct supplying water from Shoal Lake to Winnipeg. The railway was completed in 1915 and has served the city since then. It used to carry passengers along the 102 mile route, but it has not done … Read more
Golden slumbers fill your eyesSmiles await you when you rise – the Beatles Photographers talk about the quality of light. We talk about soft light, hard light, direct and indirect light. It’s not until you start making photographs seriously that you really notice the quality of light. I’m a huge fan of sunrise and sunsets because … Read more
I had a tip that Canadian Pacific was running its business train east through Winnipeg. The story was that it was headed to Montreal, where it would then head into the US to tour one of CP’s subsidiaries, the Delaware and Hudson. A “business train”, often called an “officer’s special”, is a passenger train owned … Read more
Octobers in Winnipeg can be pretty cold. Season temperatures are a high of 10C (50F) and low of -2C (30F). So when it’s warm, everyone gets out and enjoys it while it lasts, before the cold winter sets in. On October 18, it reached a high of 23.6C (74.5F). Time to get out of the … Read more
On August 7, I heard that the VIA Rail “Churchill” * train headed to Winnipeg had a 40th anniversary unit leading the train. With the current schedule, it would have come into Winnipeg at 13:45, during my working hours. After checking its forecast arrival time using the VIA Rail tracker site, I found it was … Read more
Every year, the Winnipeg Railway Museum hosts Railway Days, with admission by donation. I dropped by on Sunday, September 16 to see Railway Days 2018 and what was new with the museum. The big news is the new locomotive simulator, “CN 9633”. CN 9633 This simulator (OSCAR-4) taught many engineers at the CN training centre … Read more