Turning Back

I’ve become very cautious about my winter driving. I am not sure why, but I am far less willing to drive in iffy conditions than I used to be.

Wisdom, maybe? That seems unlikely!

Recently I planned a little jaunt to Elma, an hour east of Winnipeg, to visit a newly-opened gluten free bakery, Gabby’s Gluten-Free Goodies. I set my alarm for 6 AM Saturday morning so could arrive at opening time, 10 AM, for the best selection, and do some railfanning on the CN Redditt subdivision along the way.

Saturday morning turned out to be an iffy day. Some snow came down overnight, and a brisk wind made driving difficult outside the city.

I caught a CPKC high-railer truck heading south on the Emerson sub as I headed east around the city.

By the time I reached Dugald Road / Highway 15, which runs dead east to Elma from Transcona, I was seriously considering turning back. The highway was slippery and I wasn’t looking forward to another hour plus of driving each way just to get some muffins and cinnamon rolls.

I decided to drive to Dugald and decide there.

CN 29xx West

I didn’t get too far before I encountered a westbound container train. I very carefully turned around and managed to catch up to the head end. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to do more than pull off and fire a shot through the side window. The camera settings were, uh, “sub optimal”.

I adjusted the settings to get a better picture of the mid-train locomotive.

Relocating to the nearby Deacon Road crossing, I captured a little scene in the near dark.

Heading east towards Dugald again, I found another westbound train!

CN 2864 West

This general freight train had the usual variety of bland gray hoppers, a long string of snow-covered black tank cars, a scattering of rusty “Trudeau hoppers” and these cool coil cars.

Right. Another attempt to get to Dugald!

This time I made it.

I had a feeling that is third westbound train was coming. I don’t know why – some railfan sixth sense – so I relocated to near the new Parrish and Heimbecker grain elevator.

Sure enough, there were headlights to the east.

CN 2812 West

The lead photo of this post shows the train with the elevator.

The engineer gave me a few extra toots on the horn.

I had my phone on a tripod to take video. It lasted maybe a minute before falling over!

That was enough for me. I headed back to Winnipeg.

The bakery could wait for better weather!