Railfan Stories

Recently my wife texted me that on the way to work, she saw a train carrying windmill blades. That was unusual enough for me to get off the couch to go look for it.

“Wanna race?”

That was the last thing I expected a railway conductor to say, but there it was.

I awoke with a start. What time was it? The blurry digits of my clock radio seemed to say 4:00, but that couldn’t be right – could it? Donning my glasses, I confirmed that A) it was indeed 4 AM and B) I was wide awake. A glance outside showed a lovely morning shaping up, … Read more

For all the times that we sit trackside and watch empty tracks, we have to remember that occasionally Lady Luck smiles upon us and sends us something unexpected.

Well I look over yonder across the plainThe big drive wheels are poundin’ along the groundGonna get on board and I’ll be homeward boundNow I ain’t had a home cooked mealAnd Lord I need one nowAnd the big steel rail gonna carry me home to the one I love “Steel Rail Blues”, Gordon Lightfoot The … Read more

It was far too nice an evening to sit inside. We had fresh snow on the ground, the sun was shining, the sky was blue, and the temperature was hovering around freezing. A very pleasant evening for early April in Winnipeg.

I hate April Fools’ Day. Call me a cranky old man, but I don’t care for pranks.
This year, I chose to spend part of April 1 trackside. I hadn’t planned it, but when I awoke that Saturday morning, I felt like seeing trains.

My wife and I went to Italy in September 2022 with her parents. I was a little nervous about traveling with my in-laws for 19 days. Don’t get me wrong – I like my father-in-law and mother-in-law. They are good people. It’s just a challenge being together with your in-laws for such a long time.

The tracks run pretty straight around here. The flat prairie lent itself to straight lines and easy grades for railway planners in the late 1800s and early 1900s, so there aren’t a lot of curves on the main lines in the prairies. The CN main line west of Winnipeg is no exception.

The largest and longest train bridge in Manitoba is the CN trestle at Uno on the Rivers subdivision. Today, the bridge at Uno is a 1533′ steel trestle bridge. I visited it in April 2017.