Late afternoon. Mid-October, last year. A lovely day for train watching.
Right off the bat, a CP train appeared, heading south on the Emerson sub. A chase revealed a train waiting in the siding at Grande Pointe for the southbound train.
The southbound train rolled to the south siding switch, which was against them. The conductor dismounted, relined the switch, and boarded the locomotive. The engineer quickly throttled up and the big GEs dug in to pull the loaded oil train toward the US border.
One could say that the presence of a Kansas City Southern locomotive on a CP train was a result of the CP-KCS merger, but the truth is that “foreign” power like this is often on oil trains in Canada.
More foreign power was yet to come, with a Union Pacific locomotive pushing on the rear of the train, separated from the rest of the train by a SOO LINE buffer.
With that out of the way, it was time to catch up to the northbound train. Fortunately, it took a while to come up to track speed.
As usual, motorists were annoyed by a train blocking the Perimeter Highway.
A trusty steed and an elderly phone greeted CP 8935 North.
The third unit had clearly been at the losing end of an altercation, with the engineer’s front window shattered.
The train included a block of “reefers” or refrigerated boxcars, likely destined for Portage la Prairie and either the McCain Food plant in town or the Simplot facility to the west.
A satisfactory but brief period of railfanning, complete.
