The weather outside is frightful, but the railfanning is delightful.
It was 25/01/25. After a blizzardy night, the snow stopped but the wind continued. Terrible for driving but great for railfanning.
My trusty Honda Civic navigated the finger drifts and icy patches to Diamond, just west of Winnipeg. I was surprised to see that CN was replacing crossing signals; a crane was hoisting a component while watchful workers held ropes to help guide it into place. It wasn’t a pleasant day to be outside working.
Just west of the crossing, components of the new crossing signals waited in the snow.
A few things to note: the snow fence on the left side in the distance; the east-facing signals guarding the diamond; the switch heaters visible on either side of the right signal, with their propane tank.
With the blowing snow, visibility was near zero. But life goes on and the trains must roll. So must the maintenance and inspection crews.
I know it’s hard to tell, but there’s track under that high-rail pickup.
As I sat there, snug in my car, I wondered if I would get any advance warning of a train at all, or would it just emerge from a wall of snow?
Eventually the sun started to make its appearance, forcing its way through the clouds.
After an hour and a half of waiting, I thought I saw something to the west. A headlight?
“I tawt I taw a fweight twain! I did, I did taw a fweight twain!”
Like a bloody monster emerging from the fog, red-nosed CN 5704 pushed through the blowing snow.
I was glad I had my telephoto lens at the ready, because CN 5704 smashed through a drift in dramatic fashion.
I took more than a few steps back as the train approached… I didn’t need a face full of snow! 😉
I watched the long train of tank cars roll by, black steel cylinders holding propane and the like.
Normally I can see entire trains at this location – it’s wide open – but not this day!
The title of this post is from Kate Bush’s song, “50 Words for Snow“, based on the myth that the Inuit have a huge variety of words to refer to snow. It’s true that they have several different words, but nowhere near fifty. What makes Kate’s song so great is A) that most of the words are whimsical and entirely made-up, and B) that Stephen Fry narrates the words.
Someday soon I will write a post about Kate Bush. I love her work so much.
I had my phone on a tripod while I was taking photos. Fortunately it didn’t blow over… here’s the video.
All good things come to an end, and so did this train, and my train-watching for the morning. I only saw one train, but it was a good one.
