On July 11th I did another Sprague – Redditt – Elma for a gluten free goodies trip. I had some company this time!
It was promising to be super hot again (e.g. 32-34C), so I headed out early to do my railfanning before it was really uncomfortable.
I started out cruising down the Trans-Canada Highway toward Ste Anne. My thought was to drive to Giroux or thereabouts, hoping to catch a train along the way. The signals at Lorette told me that a westbound train was coming at me, and soon enough I saw the headlight as the train passed Dufresne.
I chose a quiet crossing to stop at, and as I approached, I saw there was a vehicle parked there and someone was out making photos of the train.
It turned out to be my friend Jim Burnside, who you can find on YouTube. He was so focused (ha!) on his task that he didn’t notice me until I had set up my tripod for my phone.
The engineer gave us a few toots and a wave as they passed in CN 8953.
Jim and I chatted while the train rolled on by. They had a clear signal at the east end of the Lorette siding, clear sailing into Symington Yard.
We waited for a bit, hoping for another train. Soon the signals lit up again, and we elected to relocate to Dufresne to get the next train.
Dufresne
We had a bit of a wait, but eventually CN 3394 West came rolling past. I used my long lens from the road and Jim tried more of a side angle, a less traditional photo in this location.
We said our goodbyes, and I carried on to the Redditt subdivision and east to Elma. I saw no trains on the way there.
Coming back, I saw green signals telling me that a westbound train would be along… sometime.
Waiting for hours was not an option – I had some frozen food that would melt. Fortunately the wait wasn’t too long.
Dugald
I chose to put my drone up at Dugald, to get a view of the train passing the (patchy) canola fields. It hasn’t been a great growing year with all the rain we’ve had. Lots of washouts and flooded fields.
It was a little hazy but you could still see for many kilometres from the drone.
Check out the crop of the photo below.
That’s the train crossing the highway, with the Parrish & Heimbecker grain elevator behind it. The elevator was a little over 5 km from the drone.
I chose to manipulate the drone to follow the train, rather than leave it motionless in the sky like I often do. That meant I didn’t have hands for using my camera, which was OK. Something different.
After the train passed, I took a long distance shot of the Dugald grain elevator across the canola field. I never get tired of photographing canola.
It was nice to have the chance to chat with Jim and catch up!