On the evening of April 14, 2020 I went out for a bit of railfanning. I took my usual route “A” of heading counter-clockwise around the city, crossing the CP Emerson, CN Sprague, CN Redditt and CP Keewatin subdivisions in sequence.
The Sprague subdivision had a train heading out of CN’s Symington Yard, so I gave chase to that one. I was able to get ahead of it not far from Deacon’s Corner, and got my drone into the air just in time to record the eastbound stack train.
Shiny new GE ET44AC CN 3273 was leading. You can see from the drone photo below that it has a white roof, like many of the new CN GE locomotives. I’m told this is an old CSX trick to reflect some sunlight and try to keep the cab from heating up too much. It works well with the white stripe on the side.
Here’s the video.
I didn’t see anything on the Redditt or Keewatin subdivisions, but when I returned to the Sprague, I found an oil train near the Lorette siding.
The sun was lower and giving some sweet side light to the train, and some nearby cattails.
I didn’t fly my drone this time, but I did put my tiny 4K video down low to capture a different viewpoint of CN 3117.
Oil trains are a little monotonous in the middle, since they are a string of 100 or so more or less identical black tank cars. I amused myself by practicing my panning technique.
Sister locomotive CN 3106 was on the tail end, pushing on the buffer car. Here they are passing the Lorette siding.
With no more trains in sight on the Sprague, I drove over to the CP Emerson subdivision to check on the water level in the Winnipeg Floodway. Mid April was prime flood season, and the Red River peaked at about April 23.
I flew my drone to take some photos of the water level and the CP train bridge.
In the summer there is a small trickle at the middle of the channel, maybe a metre across, and the rest of the channel is dry. You can see that the Floodway has a lot of water in it during prime flood season.
The sun was getting low, so I took a couple of sunset photos and headed for home.
Just One More Thing
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Re: CN’s white roofs. On a holiday to the Greek Island of Santorini most of the buildingS in the towns are painted white as it cuts the heat by 2 or degrees.
Hi Ian, lucky you, going to Santorini! It’s on our list of places to visit but I’ve never been there. The photos I’ve seen look so beautiful.
A comment by our Tour Guide at the time: you never get tired of looking at beauty.
That’s very true! I always have time to look at gorgeous landscapes and Italian towns.
What are you using for a drone?
I have a DJI Mavic Air.