A Geologist went on the Railway

Recently my family and I traveled to Manitoba for a summer vacation. Beyond visiting family and friends, I managed to squeeze in some railfanning while in the Keystone province.  Beyond the majors (CN and CPKC) there are a number of smaller regional railways that operate in Winnipeg and area.  I managed to see a few of these smaller operations around the city.  I didn't manage to catch the GWWD this go around but hopefully will on another trip.     Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway (Manitoba) The BNSF operates the former Midland Railway of Manitoba in Winnipeg.  Historically they ran to the Canada/US border but now they operate a switching and transfer operation between CN and CP on the central/western part of the city.  Midland #2 was a GP9 that was used for decades in this operation.  It was retired and donated to the Prairie Dog Central.  Now a variety of BNSF 4 axle units hold down the assignment.  Currently a GP38-2 is working the BNSF trackage.    Westview Park, more commo

Not the best shot but you take what you can get in low light conditions... Canadian Pacific had a sizeable fleet of MLW C630, M630 and M636 locomotives.  These were railfan favourites (not so much for the crews) for many years.  Initially they ran across the CP system, but when CP standardized on the SD40 and SD40-2 during the 1970's these units migrated to eastern Canada.  Some would make it as far west as Winnipeg, and a few even went west of there on occasion.   Growing up in western Canada these units were a rarity by the time I became more aware of what was running on the railways.  I saw the occasional C424, S-2 or S-3, but the "Big Alcos" were not something I can recall seeing prior to moving to Winnipeg for university.  These quickly became a favourite, and I was quite happy to see them lurking around the city.   CP retired these units in the early 1990's but reactivated a few when traffic levels required more motive power.  The reactivated units were kept as

A work trip took me to northern Manitoba in April - May 2000.  At this time the gold mining industry was going through a rough patch, with depressed prices and many companies cutting staff and shutting down mining operations.  The project I was running at the time had been shut down and I was at loose ends.   My boss "strongly suggested" that I get out of the office for an extended period as having someone not actively working on a project was likely to get unwelcome attention from the company in the form of a pink slip.  So I quickly came up with a trip to review gold projects in the cheapest way possible in Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario.  There was a mining conference in Thunder Bay and I knew people in Flin Flon and Thompson that I could couch surf with.  I arranged a few mine tours and meetings with several companies and prospectors to review their gold projects.   Overall I think I budgeted around $2000 for the trip including car rental, gas, airfare and food.  The f