Zoom Is A Railfan’s Best Friend

I think one of the best tools for a railfan photographer is a zoom lens. With a zoom lens (aka a telephoto lens), you can get a vastly different perspective than you can with a wide angle lens. The “reach” of a zoom means you can isolate the subject from a cluttered background, or photograph … Read more

New Cars for the Rocky Mountaineer

The Rocky Mountaineer is getting some “new” cars. On January 21, 2019 I spotted this pair of cars in Symington Yard in Winnipeg, Manitoba. I recognized these cars as belonging to the Charlevoix tourist train operation in Quebec. The “RMRX” reporting marks on these two cars (RMRX 201 and 202) told me that these now … Read more

VIA 2 And Much More

On August 30, 2018 I went out in the evening to catch the eastbound VIA Rail “Canadian” coming into Winnipeg. It was a beautiful evening, and I was hoping to get a nice sunset. The Rivers Subdivision Parking Lot I hit the road a little early and caught my first train, CN 2962 East, stopped … Read more

CN’s New Power

Over the past few years, CN’s traffic has grown significantly, which has led to a need for more trains to move this traffic. This means more locomotives and more crews. CN has been hiring and training new conductors all across Canada and the US, and they’ve been buying new locomotives and leasing locomotives as well. … Read more

Eight Locomotives, One Train

Saturday, September 5th, 2018 was a big railfan day for me – and not just for flying my drone. OIL and Foreign Power My youngest son was busy downtown for a while mid-day, so I had an hour and a half on my hands. As I usually do, I drove up to the CP yard … Read more

First Impressions of the DJI Mavic Air Drone

I’ve wanted a drone for a long time. I’ve seen drone photos and video from talented railfan photographers like Jeff Wizniak, and I appreciate the change in perspective that a drone can bring. I had some “found money” late in 2018. I looked at a few different DJI drones – I considered a discounted Phantom … Read more

Mission… Accomplished?

You may recall that I went out on a mission to find the new rail inspection portal at Nattress, west of Winnipeg. You might also recall that I didn’t find it. Well, I did some research, and consulted a few people, and determined exactly where it was. Consulting Google satellite views, I wasn’t sure that … Read more

Top 12 of 2018

I’ve picked one photo from each month in 2018 as my “best”. I know it’s subjective. Here we go. January’s photo was taken on the 14th on a very snowy day – it was a terrible day for driving but a good day for railfanning! February’s photo is in Ghent in Belgium. I was there … Read more

VIA Rail To Get New Trains

VIA Rail has selected Siemens Canada to provide new trainsets for the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor. These trains will replace the existing MLW-built LRC cars, built in the early 1980s. Siemens was selected over Quebec-based Bombardier. The LRC ( Light, Rapid, Comfortable or Léger, Rapide, et Confortable) cars were designed together with their locomotives to provide … Read more