Orange You Glad You Stayed Out?

After a productive CN night photography session, and some sunrise shots of CP and CN, I returned to the CP main line. I had a tip that Canadian Pacific’s orange “Every Child Matters” locomotive was on its way into Winnipeg. I hadn’t seen this locomotive before, so I decided to go catch it.

I stopped briefly near Rosser (again) to photograph the two Viterra grain elevators across the temporary lake left by the melting snow.

It’s hard to believe this is normally a field. We have so much water in Manitoba… and yet there are warnings of a drought in Alberta this year.

I headed west toward Marquette, for the second time that morning. As I passed the town of Meadows, I saw a headlight in the distance to the west. I backtracked quickly to capture the train.

Not the Orange

The lead engine wasn’t orange, and neither was the mid-train locomotive.

There were lots of interesting old “fallen flag” cars on the train. I’ve collected them into another post, coming soon.

The tail end of that train had barely passed me by before I saw another headlight… a second train!

Yes, the Orange

As the train approached, I took a long-distance photo with my “long lens” and saw that the lead locomotive wasn’t orange. I switched lenses to a wide angle lens so I could capture the locomotive better if it was mid-train.

CP 8757, the “every child matters” locomotive, turned out to be on the tail end.

I did my railfan duty photographing it as it passed by.

You may notice the signals in the photo above. I was standing by the west end of the Meadows siding, and I saw that the train was going into the siding. This gave me more opportunities to take photos of CP 8757.

Here’s the conductor’s side of the locomotive with the bold “EVERY CHILD MATTERS” lettering and the orange shirt logo on the short hood.

I didn’t have too much time to document the locomotive before the westbound train passed by on the main line. It had a trio of locomotives.

While the westbound train rolled past, I took the opportunity to take a few “action” shots of the train passing CP 8757.

It didn’t take long before CP 8047 East was on its way.

Since it had to get up to speed, I was able to get just ahead of it before it got to Rosser. I took some photos across the bare fields.

I really like how the Canada Geese were all over the photo below.

I drove carefully through Rosser and its 50 km/hr speed limit, then resumed highway speed to beat the train to the Viterra grain elevators at Rosser. Remember those from the start of this post?

I elected to take video this time, with my phone mounted on the tripod.

That was enough railfanning for me, so I headed home, tired but happy.

Just One More Thing

Canadian Pacific made a big splash in the fall of 2021 with their Every Child Matters locomotive. It was inspired by a request from Jacob Hoffer, a 13 year old indigenous youth.

I’m glad that CP has made a gesture toward reconciliation and promotes the Orange Shirt Society. It’s a nice gesture.

I just wish CP hadn’t then turned around and released a second orange locomotive shortly afterward, celebrating one of their customers, Hapag-Lloyd. CP 8781 is painted orange, just like the one above. It’s just labeled “Saint John Express / DP World” instead of “Every Child Matters”.

In my opinion, this really cheapened the message.

I know Hapag-Lloyd’s corporate colours are orange and blue, but come on. I feel it wasn’t well thought out.

If you’d like to support the Orange Shirt Society, you can donate here. Personally I would rather donate more directly to causes like the Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre here in Winnipeg.