Falling behind!

Apologies to my followers! Since moving, I haven't kept up this page much.

The plan is to try and get things rolling again, and I have a few posts that are about half way to being done. It is just a matter of finishing them up.

For now, I'll share the latest time-lapse compilation that showcases a few different areas of Alberta, as well as some shots from Florida.

For those of you who don't know what a time-lapse entails, it involves taking a picture every few seconds for an extended period of time, and then putting them together. The base for this video was 24 frames per second, which allows us to see the movement in things that would otherwise go unnoticed.

I hope you enjoy!

Edmonton Bound

Well, I have moved again. This time to Edmonton, Alberta with my girlfriend's job.

We plan to be here for a number of years, so I will be basing the majority of my posts out of the city.

Just before we moved however, I did manage to get in one more day out trackside for another shortline profile. Look for that in the coming weeks!

As for now, here is a shot of IC 1003 acting as the tail DPU on an eastbound CN potash train near Spruce Grove, AB.

Note: The picture says U758, the correct train number is B758.

Soo Line Units

Over the last few months I have seen a number of Soo units rolling over the Weyburn Subdivision. So I thought I would share some pictures with you!

The first of the year came on March 11 and was Soo 6061 rolling north on train 499. 6061 is the last Soo painted SD60M on the CP roster, and I knew that this unit was coming (by checking Heritage Units), but I had to work when it would have been rolling through. Luckily for me though, they had work to do in Weyburn! As soon as I got off work they were heading north, so I raced ahead to get a few shots.

YouTube video


April 30th brought the next unit in the form of Soo 6053. This one I also knew was coming, but this time the source was the RailsAB Facebook group. Below we see 6053 trailing on train 292 near Ralph, SK.

Third, and last (so far) was Soo 6035 on May 12. This unit, I had no idea was coming but was very lucky to have been out fishing within sight of the Weyburn Sub. I spotted the white Soo paint and walked (okay, ran) to the car and chased them north of Weyburn to grab the quick shot below.

YouTube video


Hopefully they keep rolling. Always enjoy seeing them.

Shortline Profile, Episode 2: Long Creek Railroad

Long Creek Railroad logo

In this episode, we will take a look at the Long Creek Railroad (LCR) which is a shortline operating in South-Eastern Saskatchewan. The trackage on which the LCR operates is the former Canadian Pacific Bromhead Sub, and a portion of the former Neptune Sub/Spur. In all the LCR stretches 41 miles from Estevan to Tribune.


The LCR began operations in 2012 when a group of about 25 shareholders finally took over the line after years of delay due to a number of different issues. You can read more about those issues here, but they included such issues as flooding, and pricing for a purchase of the line.

The Bromhead Sub was built in 1913 by CP, and was originally known as the Neptune Branch which stretched from Estevan to Neptune. Later, the Bromhead Sub was extended from Southall to Minton, and the section from Southall to Neptune via Tribune became known as the Neptune Spur/Sub.

Current LCR operations marked with Aqua. Abandoned CP trackage of the Neptune and Bromhead Subs marked with burgundy. Current CP in red.

Cars stored near the end-of-track.

Anyway, we begin our journey along the LCR at the west-end of the current track near Tribune.

Here we see a number of "cans" in storage just shy of the end of track. These cars are likely here due to the recent downturn in oil prices, and they are not the only ones we would come across, as many more will be shown in pictures below as we move east.

The shot below I included because of the abandoned buildings on the hill. There are many abandoned structures out here that give the area a bit of an eerie feel to it.

Same cars, but from another angle. Those houses on the hill are abandoned.

Moving on into Tribune, we see the loading facility which on this day only has four cars parked further back awaiting to either be picked up, or loaded.

Facility at Tribune.

The next stop on this adventure was Southall, the location of a transloading facility. Prior to the purchase of the line, the LCR's main commodity was expected to be grain, but the increase in the oil industry in the area gave the LCR an extra source of income. Torq Transloading built a transfer site at Southall which was a good location due to the presence of a wye, and a short stretch of track that still continues south-west on the former Bromhead Sub.

Oil cars stretched out at Southall.

Cars on both legs of the Southall wye

The next stop was Bromhead which is visible in the above photo. Although Bromhead was the namesake for the subdivision on which the LCR runs, it is now very much a ghost town. Two fires destroyed much of the town, and it never really recovered.

Bromhead elevators, and cars stored.

When we arrived in town from the west, we found more cars in storage, and two grain elevators still standing, although not in use by the looks of things.

Getting a closer look at the elevators, the two sport the letters A and F which I take to mean that at one point there were at least six that would have stood here. The elevator marked A is a former Saskatchewan Pool elevator, while the other marked F looks to be a former Lake of the Woods Milling Co elevator, but I can't quite make out the words on this photo from the 1950's on SaskHistoryOnline. Also looking at that photo, there are four obvious elevators, and a fifth that is hidden behind one of the Canadian Consolidated elevators. So the thought of six being here at one point isn't necessarily out the question.

Have a look at the photos below of the east and west sides of elevators A, and F.

East side of elevator A

West side of elevator A

East side of elevator F

West side of elevator F

After examining the elevators at Bromhead it was back on the road for our next stop at Troquay.

Arriving at Troquay, we found another two elevators standing, but these two appeared to still be in use. To my surprise (based on info I was given) we also found one of the LCR units parked on the "mainline".

Two elevators, and a LCR unit at Torquay

Of course I had to take a quick walk across a field to get a few close ups of the unit.

LCR 6347 is an ex. Southern Pacific GP35, and was purchased from the Dakota Missouri Valley & Western Railway in 2013.

LCR 6347 sits quietly in Torquay

I also made sure to get a few shots of the elevators in Torquay, both of which were at one point Sask Pool owned. Today however they are owned by Pederson Heritage Farms.

Elevator "A"

Elevator "B"

After Torquay it was a quick drive down the highway to Outram, where we came across our last elevator of the day. And like many of the other on this day, it is a former Sask Pool, but this one is a bit different in that the new owners have actually put their name on it;  Lievaart Farms Ltd.

Notice that we have more tank cars here.

Getting closer to Estevan now, we come to the trestle located just below the Rafferty Dam which holds back the Rafferty  Reservoir. Below we see the trestle, and the Souris River.

Continuing towards Estevan, I made a stop at the LCR shop located down a road behind the KFC. The road in wasn't in great shape, so I parked and walked in.

Here I was hoping to find the LCR's second unit, but it must have been inside.

LCR Shop

Of interest up on the hill was the maintenance of way equipment, seen below.

After the quick stop at the shop, I took my final pictures at the Junction where the LCR meets the Canadian Pacific at mile 137.5 of CP Weyburn Sub.

LCR line at right, CP at left

LCR at left, CP at right

Some extra info I found:

- CP and LCR share up to mile 2 of the Bromhead Sub in order to exchange cars with each other.
- Long Creek also owns about 20 acres of property south of Estevan which was supposedly going to be used for pipe storage/transportation yard. Not sure if that is still planned or not.


That was the end of our adventure on the Long Creek Railroad. Hope you enjoyed!




Sources:
http://www.discoverestevan.com/discover-our-southeast-communities/discover-outram
https://www.otc-cta.gc.ca/eng/notices-discontinuance-received-agency-under-section-146-july-1-1996-table
http://saskhistoryonline.ca/
http://www.estevanmercury.ca/news/city/long-creek-short-line-railroad-makes-its-debut-1.1438652

A Look Back at the Year of 2015

2015 certainly brought an adventure, and a lots of learning experiences. Let's take a look back at some of the highlights of the year:

January 6:
I started the year still in Eastern Ontario railfanning the CP Winchester, and CN Kingston Subs. Below is my first video of the year in the form of CP 8944 heading east over Kemptville Creek, near station name Bedell.

The same day, I ventured down to the Kingston Sub to get my first CN action of the year, and wasn't disappointed.

VIA 62, and CN 532 pass by me within a minute of each other just east of Brockville. 62 was travelling much quicker than 532, with made "The Tortoise & The Hare" a suiting name.

January 16:
This day brought the opportunity to shoot a train that I had been aiming to get for quite some time. CN 327 is a mixed freight that originates in Montreal, Quebec and terminates in Syracuse, NY. Often times this train sports CSX power, and today I was able to catch some.

January 20:
4 days after catching CN 327, I had the opportunity to catch a Ferromex unit operating in Canada on CP train 143 out of Montreal. I knew that the train had departed Montreal just prior to myself leaving Orleans. Little did I know that I would show up just 5 minutes after they had past through Finch, Ontario. When I realized what had happened, I chased them down. An hour and a half later I was finally ahead of them, and managed to get the shot below. This is the first and only shot I have of a Ferromex unit thus far.

February 28 - March 3:
Near the beginning of February, I learned that my girlfriend and I would be moving to Weyburn, SK. This would be our first big adventure of the year, and I did a few blog posts dedicated to the move which took place on the noted dates above:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

March 7:
Having finally settled down a bit in Weyburn, I ventured out to catch my first train on the Prairies. I quickly learned "holy cow that wind is cold" when shooting CP 8776 south. Of interest to me in this catch was CP 6615 sandwiched between 8776, and 8846.

March 15:
The first trip of the year to Regina yielded my first catch of the Stewart Southern Railway(SSR) near Richardson. Later in the year, the SSR would be the focus of my first episode of "Shortline Profile", which you can read about here.

March 23:
While this may not be a big deal to everyone, March 23 marked my first catch of a Loram Rail Grinder in action.

Seeing this thing in action was pretty cool, and I am glad that I got the opportunity to shoot it.

May 3:
On this day, I published the first instalment of "Abandoned Rails" to the blog. The original focused on CN's abandoned Turtleford Sub, and the second which was published later in the year on CP's Kisbey Sub.

May 8:
May 8th was the day of a journey to Lloydminster by myself. I took thee opportunity to do some railfanning along the way, and did a post about the day, here. Highlights were a CP ballast train, Last Mountain Railway power at Alyesbury, and perfect timing for a meet on CN.

May 17:
The 17th brought me home for the funeral of my Grandfather(Papa). This definitely was not a planned trip home, but another lesson learned in "don't take things to granted."

While sitting in my grandparent backyard, I took advantage of nice quiet morning to shoot CN 120, and 407 rolling through Belmont. There is something about the hills, and the quiet being broken in below shot of 407 that I love. The same can be said about this shot of 120 moments earlier.

May 25:
After the very quick trip home to NS, I had about a day between getting back to Saskatchewan, and heading to California for my Cousin's wedding. On May 25, I got lucky and caught Amtrak 144 heading south passed Kirby Park, CA.

July 1:
On July 1st, I found myself driving a friend home to Lloydminster. Along the way we came across a detoured CN intermodal on the Prairie North Line. The detour was set up due to work blockages on the mainline to the south.

You may also notice in this video that it is quite smoky. This was due to the wildfires burning to the north.

September 16:
This day marked the first release of my Google Earth railway maps. I began by releasing the CP network, and then later the CN network.

In the next few weeks I should be releasing the GWI Canadian Division, as well as a few other railways, so look for those in the coming weeks.

September 20:
On the 20th of September I caught a train near Wilcox, SK on the CP Weyburn Sub. This train, if you were to look at it, you would think was somewhere in the states because of the power it sported. UP 5535 and KCS 4831. You might think "why is this important?" Well it is important to me because catching that KCS unit meant that I had now captured all of the Class I railways on camera.

Have a watch of the video below, and read about where I caught each of the other class I railways here

The rest of the year was relatively quiet for myself, aside from acquiring my Dad's old Canon Rebel which I hope to get a lot of use out of in the next year to come.

Happy New Year to everyone!

Weyburn, Saskatchewan Through the Eyes of a Railfan

Now that I've been in Weyburn for almost nine months, I thought that a post on rail related information in the area would be a good idea.

Although currently there is only one railway line that runs through town, Weyburn was once full of railway activity. Because of this, we will begin by looking at the current and past railway lines of Weyburn starting in the east and moving west, before looking at the mainline that still operates.

In 1908 the Canadian Pacific's Kisbey Sub was extended from Stoughton to Weyburn, and was the first railway to operate in the area. Atfer the extension, this subdivision stretched west from Arcola to Weyburn by way of Stoughton where it met the Tyvan Sub. Although today the Kisbey Sub is no longer in existence,  a small spur is still in use in Weyburn itself to service the Nexans plant. This remaining trackage sees less than one train a week, and I have yet to see a train on these tracks. If you were looking to shoot a train, Wednesday would likely be the best bet as CP tends to switch the local industries on that day.

Kisbey Sub Trackage in Weyburn

Kisbey Sub tracks eastward towards Nexans. July 2015.

Next we take a look at the former CN Weyburn Sub. This sub once ran from Talmage on CN's Lewvan Sub to Radville where it met the Goodwater Sub, the Avonlea Sub, and the Bengough Sub. In 1992 the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) approved CN's request to abandoned the sub from Talmage to a point near Weyburn.  Also according to the CTA, 1994 marked the takeover of the Weyburn, and Bengough Subs by CP. This takeover was more of a trade by CN and CP where CN got CP's Meadow Lake Sub in return. This resulted in the Weyburn and Bengough Subs becoming the Radville Sub from Exon (Weyburn) on CP's Weyburn Sub, to Willow Bunch.

Present day, and the Radville Sub tracks are still in place. However, CP has not run a train over this line in quite sometime, and plans to abandon the line eventually. This is why I have marked the sub in burgundy south of the Wye near Exon. The Wye still sees trains that switch the local industries.

You will also notice that CN operated a Wye on the edge of town, as marked below. This Wye, and a former part of the Weyburn Sub north of the Wye are now part of the Tatagwa walking trail system. The southern portion of the trail ends just shy of CP's Weyburn Sub, and is a decent spot to shoot a few trains on that sub.

Former and current Weyburn/Radville Sub tracks 

If you jump to minute 1:09 of this video, you will see the CP local tied down on the tracks to the ethanol plant (more on those tracks below), and CEFX 1036 hauling a train that was stored over night, off the Radville Sub.

Now we will take a look at the ethanol plant area, as well as the former Assiniboia Sub.

The Assiniboia Sub is a former CP line that ran west from Exon to Assiniboia. 1995 marked the end of this line in Weyburn, as the CTA gave CP permission to remove tracks from mile 0.6, west of Weyburn, to mile 36.5, just east of Pangman. The line west of mile 36.5 is still in service today after it was purchased from CP in 1999, and is now known as the Red Coat Road & Rail. The "Red Coat Road & Rail is an organization consisting of representatives of the communities adjacent to the rail line, including Rural Municipality No. 72 (Lake of the Rivers), RM No. 40 (Bengough), RM No. 71 (Excel), RM No. 70 (Key West), and RM No. 69 (Norton), as well as the villages of Ogema, Viceroy and Pangman." (Source). The Great Western Railway operates over this line on behalf of the Red Coat Road & Rail, and a tourist railway also operates on the line, but those are both for another post.

The 0.6 miles remaining in the Weyburn area are used to access the ethanol plant, as well as a few other small businesses nearby. The former Assiniboia tracks are now known as the Tatagwa Spur, and there is also the Promolas Spur, which gives access to the ethanol plant area. Currently, the ethanol plant itself is closed because of the downturn in fuel prices.

Tracks associated with the former Assiniboia Sub

CP Local on the Tatagwa Spur. Ethanol Plant in the background. March 2015.

Of course with all of these railway lines running into Weyburn there had to be yards for the trains. Although a big chunk of the yards are now gone, a small bit is still here. As seen in the below snapshot, the Weyburn Siding gives access to the remaining yard tracks, of which there are four.

You may also notice that I have labelled the former roundhouse, and the proposed location for the CP shops. The roundhouse is now more than a century old and is used by the Weyburn Public Works department, and the shops were never built (to my knowledge).

Moving west, we see the Soo Line Historical Museum, and the CP Van. Here is the description of the museum from the Weyburn website: "A stroll through this Museum, housed in what was originally an electric utility power plant building, will peak your curiosity. It houses a collection of artifacts that were used by Weyburn and district pioneers, a collection of Native artifacts, the Soo Line Historical Archives plus the Charles Wilson Silver Collection. The Wilson Silver Collection is the largest one man collection of silver known to exist in Canada. There are more than 5,000 items dated from 1750 to 1972. You will view everything from full tea services to opera glasses and spoons. Mr. Wilson was a bachelor who lived on the family farm northwest of Weyburn. After a lifetime of attending auction sales, he chose to will his collection to the Soo Line Historical Museum so everyone might enjoy his lifetime of collecting."

The Van, CP 437254, was built in 1948, and is on display directly beside the museum.

Also marked below are the CP Weyburn office, and local power track (local trains tie their power down here).

I have yet to visit the museum itself, but have watched many trains roll by here. Below we see the CP Van with CP 9640, 8793 & 5708 heading north on the main track.

This next bit took a little more research. Each of the elevators, and tracks that serviced them are labelled below.

Although none of these elevators are still standing, there are newer bigger concrete ones that were built outside of town. Saskhistoryonline provides a number of good images of the old elevators, and as you may notice, a number of them were purchased and/or repainted over the years prior to being torn down.

Finally, we will take a look at CP's Weyburn Sub, and the new concrete elevators. The Weyburn Sub is now the last continuous line that runs through Weyburn. Beginning at North Portal on the U.S. border, the sub travels north-west through Estevan, Weyburn, and Wilcox, until its end at Pasqua where it meets CP's Canadian mainline in the form of the Indian Head Sub.

The Weyburn Sub is operated under the Occupancy Control System (OCS), but I have read that CP plans to install Centralized Traffic Control (CTC) and Automated Train Control System (ATCS) for the entire length of the sub. When that will happen is another question.

Labelled below are the Weyburn Sub itself, and the elevators still operating nearby.

The Viterra Elevator north-west of town was built in 1989, and had expansions in 1998, and 2000. The facility is serviced by three tracks.

Moving a bit closer to Weyburn, we see the Richardson Pioneer elevator.This facility was built in 2002 as a full service farm centre, and has four service tracks.

in the below video we see CP 8776 south rolling past both the Viterra and Pioneer elevators. The furthest being Viterra, and the closest being Pioneer.

Finally, we have the Parrish & Heimbecker elevator to the South-East of Weyburn. This elevator was built in 1975 with expansions in 1992, 1994, 1998, and 2002. It was also the first farmer owned inland terminal in Canada, but was purchased by P&H in 2014 after shareholders voted in favour of the sale.

Here we see CP 9810 leading a northbound train passing the P&H elevator on April 19, 2015.

That's all for now, but stay tuned for a post in the future about my favourite locations to shoot in the area.


Sources:

http://www.weyburn.ca/pdfs/2010cg.pdf
http://www.redcoatroadandrail.ca/
https://www.otc-cta.gc.ca/eng/ruling/150-r-1994
https://www.otc-cta.gc.ca/eng/ruling/1992-r-130

A Unit From Each of North America's Major Class 1's on Video

Well, I've done it. Caught a unit from each of North America's major class 1 railways. And to celebrate, I will now share the very first video I caught of each.

Let's begin with CN as they were the first class 1 I ever caught on video.

On May 23, 2012 I caught CN 407 at Folly Lake, Nova Scotia. This train was being lead by CN 2438, and two other units, one of which was an IC unit. At the time I had just started railfanning, so numbers weren't overly important to me. Still not a bad catch, but we've come a long way quality wise since then!

Location of CN Catch

Next up was CP.

I caught my first CP train at Bedell, Ontario on August 28, 2012 with CP 8842 as the lone power for an eastbound. quality still wasn't my main focus at the time.

Location of CP Catch. Please excuse the partial side bar.

It was almost two years before I caught the next class 1, and it came in the form of BNSF 5766. Catching this unit where I did was pretty rare in that foreign power does not visit Nova Scotia very often. In the below video we see the unit trailing on CN 121 out of Halifax on April 23, 2014. I caught 121 at Bedford, and Truro being lead by CN 8910, BNSF 5766, CN 2651, and 7083.

Quality has improved greatly in this one, but because 121 leaves later in the evening the shots are after dark. Luckily for me, I am fairly good at finding well lit areas to shoot in!

Location of firrst BNSF Catch

The summer of 2014 I moved to Ottawa, Ontario after finishing university in Nova Scotia. This is when I caught the next unit on a CN crude oil train.

Here we see CN 2565 east leading a fast moving train near Ingleside, about an hour or so south of Ottawa on CN's Kingston Sub. Behind 2565 were NS 6644, and BNSF 5837! Another great lashup, which carried my first NS unit, and third BNSF.

Location of NS Catch

I didn't catch a CSX unit until making a fall trip to Syracuse, New York in 2014.

On the evening of October 5, 2015 I caught my first CSX train at Jordan, NY about 20 minutes west of Syracuse. This train was lead by CSX 7587, 5309, and 2643 on the CSX Rochester Sub.

Also of note is that at this point I had started my new channel name since I was no longer living in Nova Scotia.

Location of CSX Catch

Back in Ontario, the next class 1 was Union Pacific. In the below video, UP 8216 trails on CP train 143 heading west past Bedell. The power for this train was CP 8578, UP 8216, and CP 5966.

Location of UP Catch

The next one was a bit of a hassle to catch! Ferromex 4657 had rolled into Montreal the day prior (Jan 19, 2015) and I knew it was going to head back west the next day. Thinking that I had lots of time to get from Ottawa to Finch to make the catch, I took my time, but unfortunately for me I missed them by about five minutes! Refusing to except that I had missed them, I got on the road and tried to get ahead of them. An hour later I finally accomplished that, and grabbed two shots of them near Perth.

Location of FXE Catch

Finally, 8 months later I caught the last class 1 on the list, Kansas City Southern. At this point I had seen two other KCS units, but didn't have a camera with me at those times. This one didn't come easy either.

As we drove south on highway 6 out of Regina, Saskatchewan we neared the CP Weyburn Sub crossing at Corinne where I spotted a northbound crossing the highway. I quickly noticed a UP leading, and that the second unit was a KCS! Awesome! A quick right onto highway 39, and we were ahead of them by Wilcox. Pulling off at a rural crossing, I did a quick set up as the train approached.

Location of KCS Catch

Catching KCS 4831 marked the end of my attempts to catch all of the Class 1 freight railways of North America.

Also neat for myself to see the places I have been, and how the quality has improved with time. Hopefully the future brings more exciting trips, and catches.