Morning Light

In the previous post, Dark to Light, I covered my trip from Winnipeg to Dacotah along the CN Rivers subdivision. As the sky was starting to get bright, I arrived at Elie. Elie I’ve been to Elie’s grain elevator many times. It’s adjacent to the Trans-Canada Highway and has been featured in many of my … Read more

Dark to Light

I went railfanning early in the morning of October 20th, 2019. I had set my alarm for my usual weekday 6 AM wakeup, but I ended up waking up at 5:10 AM, so I started out earlier than expected. I had no particular destination. This is usually not a good idea for me, as I … Read more

Fallen Flags at Lorette

I had a little time to railfan recently, so I went out along the Sprague subdivision to try to catch a train. Rumour had it that this line – which goes southeast from Winnipeg to Rainy River, Ontario with a brief detour into the USA – was very busy recently, so I figured there was … Read more

Book Review: Streamliners

The book “Streamliners: Locomotives and Trains in the Age of Speed and Style” by Brian Solomon is a great overview of streamlined trains, from early examples like the UP M-10000 through the California Zephyr and beyond. Streamliners is up to the usual quality that I have come to expect from Brian Solomon books – well-researched, … Read more

Railfanning for the Weekend

Everybody’s railfanning for the weekendEverybody wants heritage unitsEverybody’s goin’ down to tracksideEverybody needs a million likes, oh – What Loverboy might have written if they were railfans This weekend, I had several opportunities to railfan. I spent them on the CN Rivers subdivision, and I’ll share the results with you. Friday Evening I went out … Read more

Incidental Railfanning

I’ve been wanting to fly my drone near some grain elevators in western Manitoba for a while now. Followers of this blog may have noted that I’ve recorded some aerial views of elevators like Barnsley and Elie, but I haven’t been back to western Manitoba for “vator fanning” since my two day trip in 2014. … Read more

A Branch Line Chase

On Labour Day, 2019, I went out in the morning with the intention of catching a few trains along the CN Rivers subdivision. I only had a couple of hours so I decided on the Rivers to maximize my chances of seeing a train (or two). As I drove around the Perimeter Highway, I saw … Read more

A Morning With Jason

My friend Jason Paul Sailer was in Winnipeg in July on vacation. You may remember that I toured the CP Stirling subdivision with him in 2016 and went rail/elevator fanning over Christmas 2018. First Try I picked him up before 6 AM to get the sunrise photos. We started out on the CN Redditt subdivision. … Read more

Riding a Combine

One day early in August, I opened my email to see an invitation from blog reader and commentor Sheldon Hildebrandt. They were starting to harvest wheat and he was wondering if I’d like to ride along in the combine. He knew my interest in grain elevators, and this is where the grain comes from! I … Read more

Early April Railfanning

Here are some trains I saw during two days of railfanning in early April 2019. I was out on April 2 and April 6. Keep an eye on the amount of snow on the ground! It’s surprising how much it varied by location and by day. April 2 On April 2 I was out along … Read more