I thought it might be time for an update on some projects I’ve been working on. This is a way for me to be accountable to myself and also to convince myself that I actually accomplished something since my last update in late November.
This series is modeled after the “Interesting Railfan” series in Railroad magazine from years ago. I’m asking each railfan 10 questions, some standard and some customized for the particular person. I hope you enjoy it. (See all in the series). I put 10 questions to Ian Cole, who goes by “CTP_Trains” on Instagram. I’ve admired … Read more
Canadian Pacific, like most railways, has its own business train that it uses for corporate and public relations purposes. It charters this train as the Royal Canadian Pacific – although I think that’s on hold for now – and it has been used for public events such as the Canada 150 tour. This week, however, … Read more
Rolling past the grain elevator under construction at Rosser, CP 9827 East faces the rising sun as it approaches Winnipeg. The track is laid in the new loop track, and soon track crews will return to put in the switches and signals to connect it to the main line to make way for 100+ car unit trains to serve the new, modern elevator. Word is that the old elevator will be retained for specialty crops.
I was acting on a little intel on May 1, 2021 when I went out in the late afternoon to make some train photos. A little birdie had told me that there were some interesting old switchers visible at the CN Transcona shops, and another little birdie told me that a CP heritage locomotive was … Read more
Industries with railway sidings often need to move rail cars around. Large industries like refineries, paper mills, and grain elevators often have multiple cars on site at once and may need to move cars in and out of specific locations to load or unload them. Industries often used small industrial locomotives to do this work. … Read more
When we lived in Moscow back in the late 1970s, there wasn’t a lot to do. Russian television was of course broadcast in Russian, which I didn’t understand, and seemed to be mostly state propaganda. I read voraciously from the school library, but for family activities, we were pretty limited in what we could do. … Read more
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here are two slides; 2×1000=2,000. I can still do math!
I was driving around one evening recently, roaming around the east side of Winnipeg looking for trains. I ended up with a few sunset drone photos of the Dugald grain elevator – both the old wooden one and the new Parrish & Heimbecker one under construction just east of the town. But no trains. Dejected, … Read more
This post follows Trains at Night. After driving around all night to see trains, your intrepid railfan ended up near Oakville, MB shortly before sunrise. It was turning out to be a beautiful morning and it was nice to be outside. The birds were back and making their presence known with a variety of songs. … Read more