Railfan Stories

Stories about railfanning – trip reports and so forth. Any time I’m trackside and writing about it, it’ll be here.

Searching for the Maroon

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

Noise and Confusion

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I was watching the progress of VIA Rail’s westbound Canadian (VIA 1) as it rolled through Ontario one Thursday morning, with growing interest. Under the current schedule, VIA 1 is due into Winnipeg at 7:30 PM, which in November after the time change is well after sunset. However, the Canadian on November 7th was running … Read more

Morning Light

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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

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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

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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 a decent chance to catch a train with the time I had.