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

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

I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For

I have climbed the highest mountainsI have run through the fields…But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for– U2 I’m still searching for CP’s newly refurbished locomotives in the “maroon” and “military” schemes, commonly known as “heritage” paint schemes. These reconditioned SD90s, now designated as SD70ACu locomotives, are roaming the rails, but not in … Read more

Flashback: Last VIA Budd Train For a While

This is a repost. The original post was written in May 2006. I thought I’d freshen it up and resurface it for those who weren’t following this blog almost 14 years ago (gulp). Hope you like it! My comments and additions will be in italics. David Morris, Peter Gough, Ken McDonald and I decided to … Read more

Searching for the Maroon

Canadian Pacific Railway has been sending its old EMD SD90MAC away for rebuilding to Progress Rail in the USA. These SD90MACs were unreliable when delivered to CP (and Union Pacific) and were stored for years, many here in Winnipeg. Progress has been remanufacturing them into “SD70ACU” units; Norfolk Southern purchased some from UP for the … Read more

First Trains of a New Decade

Happy new year! And happy new decade*! I was taking my daughter to her work this morning, and as I have been doing over this holiday season, I did a bit of railfanning after I dropped her off. This resulted in the first trains of 2020 for me. A quick drive west along the CN … Read more

Revisiting the Maritimes

I was in the Maritime provinces for a week in December 2019. Here are a few rail-related things I saw during my visit. Train Stations En route between Moncton, NB and Halifax, NS, I stopped at the train stations in Sackville, NB and Amherst, NS. They are not far from each other and are easily … Read more

Playing Leapfrog

I had the good fortune to follow an empty grain train down the CP Glenboro subdivision recently. I mentioned at the end of a recent post, Chasing an Oil Train, that I found something more interesting to chase and this was it. Aside: We railfans often talk about “chasing” trains. In some cases we are … Read more

2 UP

When I was younger, I used to drink 7 UP a lot. That lemon-lime flavoured drink was a favourite pop of mine. These days, when I drink pop (and I do, too much) I drink Diet Pepsi or Pepsi MAX. I find 7 UP too sweet now, plus I like caffeine. Anyway, I found two … Read more

Chasing an Oil Train

There once was a man from the prairie,Who admired the work of Mark Perry,He chased an oil trainAcross the open plainWas he up early? Very! – me I had the opportunity to do a little railfanning early in the morning after dropping my in-laws off at the airport. Since CP has been cranking out SD90 … Read more