Electric Buses in Winnipeg – The 2000s
In early 2011 a prototype electric bus project was launched to run a single electric bus in Winnipeg. The project was financed by the province, Manitoba Hydro and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI). At the time, MHI was in the business of manufacturing lithium-ion batteries but exited that business in 2014. The study was conducted in … Read more
Chasing the Maroon
I caught my second* CP heritage unit on February 11th – and my first “on the road” – thanks to some Facebook tips in the great RailsMBSK railfan group. (I posted about my first heritage unit sighting – CP 7013 – as one of my Railfan Five) Tim B posted that he saw CP 7016 … Read more
A CEMR GMD1
I had the good fortune of seeing one of the Central Manitoba Railway’s GMD1 locomotives for the first time. Cando Contracting acquired three GMD1 locomotives from CN – CN 1401, 1434 and 1435. Two of those locomotives were rebuilt and are now in service, and CN 1434 has been used for parts. CCGX 1009 CN … Read more
Book Review: The Railfan Chronicles, Trainwatching in Ontario, 1975 to 2005
I was a little hesitant to try another railfan e-book. I bought one a few years ago from a different author that was… poor. However, this one was great! Author Byron Babbish has 44 books on Amazon at the moment, mostly train books but a few on car ferries and even one or two on … Read more
My Railfan Five, Take Two
Back in the fall of 2014, Eric Gagnon challenged several railfan bloggers to share their Railfan Five, a selection of five of our images from our own “railfan journey”. Mine is here. Recently, Eric and Chris Mears and I decided to do the challenge again, and I believe Michael from The Beachburg Sub is in … Read more
Third Time’s the Charm?
“I drove for miles and miles and wound up at your door I’ve had you so many times but somehow, I want more”– “She Will Be Loved”, Maroon 5 In my continuing search for the maroon, I went out on January 12th along the CP mainline west of Winnipeg. I’m looking for the newly rebuilt … Read more
Is RailPictures.NET For Me? (Guest Post)
This is a guest post by David McCormack. You can find his work on Flickr, Instagram, and of course RailPictures.net. Thirteen years ago, when I started taking rail pictures, I searched online for the best place to share these images. RailPictures.net was the first site that came up. After a string of rejections of my … Read more
Day and Night
I was doing a lot of errands on January 19th, driving people everywhere, so I had some opportunity to be trackside after dropping people off. Snow Train First up was CN 2973 East, storming east into Winnipeg through the blowing snow at noon. This train was on the north track of the CN Rivers sub, … Read more
Akaso EK7000 4K Sports Camera Review
For a few years, I’ve been using my “old” Canon T1i as my go-to video camera when I’m in the field. The quality is good, but the T1i doesn’t do 4K video and its on/off switch is balky. I wanted something better. Enter the Akaso EK7000. This tiny camera is a powerhouse, with 4K video … Read more