One photograph I always intended to make was a CN train crossing the Red River in Winnipeg. After living here for almost 16 years, I finally did it.
It’s not that it is difficult. Dozens of trains cross the river daily. I just never stand in this area. It’s a fair distance from home, parking is difficult, and, well, I just figured I would do it “someday”.
On a quiet April 13 morning, I parked near the baseball field and walked toward the Provencher Bridge. I heard a low bass rumble, and ran the rest of the way to see a westbound train crossing the bridge.
CN 8920 led the train, with autonomous inspection boxcar CNIS 412091 behind it. As chunks of ice flowed downstream under the bridge, distributed power CN 8867 came rolling over.
This historic bridge was built in 1910 and 1911 for the Canadian Northern and Grand Trunk Pacific Railways. The west end is a bascule span, meaning it has a hinge and a huge counterweight so it could open to let ships pass. I am not sure when it last opened, if ever.
Someone has painted “PRESS ON” across the top of the bridge. I wonder how long that has been there.
I took the long way home, past CN’s Symington Yard, and I found a train coming off the Sprague subdivision with a shiny rebuilt locomotive leading.
Just One More Thing
During this little outing, our 2011 Honda Odyssey minivan rolled over to 200,000 km. I missed the actual rollover but I took a photo as soon as I noticed and was able to pull over.
Record the little moments.
Love the photo of the minivan km reading. Somewhere I still have the proof sheet of negatives of my 1959 VW when the odometer rolled over from 99999 to 00000. This was in 1966 somewhere on the TransCanada in Saskatchewan on my way back east from Edmonton!
When cars only lasted 100K Miles…. LOL!