Summer Railfanning Action

 The annual family trek to Manitoba allowed for some time to railfan around Winnipeg and the western part of the province.  Some of the highlights below.  



The first pair of repainted GP38-2 I have seen, running light engine southbound behind our hotel in Winnipeg on August 4th 2025
VIA Hudson Bay near the Highway 16 crossing at Gladstone MB on July 29, 2025

VIA Hudson Bay at Gladstone July 29, 2025



Some interesting stuff at the Keystone Pioneers Museum in Roblin MB




The history of the locomotive boiler explosion at Millwood MB in 1899.

Diamond MB action while waiting for the kids to finish shopping at the Outlet Mall down the road on August 3rd, 2025

Timing is everything

Catching the VIA Hudson Bay at Diamond was a nice surprise



An eastbound to round out the afternoon

DPU


Herzog ballast train at Newdale MB - we always seem to find a train there while driving to points west. August 4th, 2025



Who would have thought catching an SD40-2 on the prairies would be an uncommon occurrence...





A classic prairie scene
I met up with my friend Mark P. on August 9th, 2025 to give back some slides I scanned as well as shoot the BNSF on a rare Saturday movement.  It was the first time I have been able to catch a train on the Assiniboine River bridge here.







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Something a little closer to home (literally) - Canadian Pacific's Arbutus Spur

Image
From early 1998 through 2002 I lived near the Granville Island area of Vancouver.  Vestiges of the former industrial nature of the area still survive the encroaching condominiums, townhouses and tourist traps in the area.  The condo building that I lived in was built on the site of an old sawmill.  One benefit of this location was that I was literally 2 blocks from the Molson brewery which was served by CP several times per week.  As well the Downtown Historic Railway operated former BC Electric interurban cars during the summer from a station across the street from my apartment. My apartment was just behind the CIBC sign, although it hadn't been built yet when this photo of BCH switching Granville Island was taken in 1974.  The tracks in the foreground are still there as a reminder of the historic industrial nature of what is now a prime tourist destination BC Hydro 904 has just come off the False Creek Bridge and is likely heading to the BN/CN interchange on t...
Read more

Quebec, North Shore and Labrador Railway (QNSL) in the mid 2000's

Image
QNS&L 702 was used in the construction of the railway. The orange station in the background sees regular passenger service to this day I'll complete my tour of the North Shore of the St. Lawrence with the Quebec, North Shore and Labrador Railway, otherwise known as the QNS&L.  This was one of the first railways completed in the region to access the iron ore in the Labrador Trough, a geologic feature that hosts significant deposits of iron ore.   While I didn't work on the north end of the QNS&L, I frequently flew into Sept Iles to continue east to Havre St. Pierre and beyond.  Whenever I had time and opportunity I would railfan the area, and got to see quite a few areas.  Unfortunately by the time I got to the region public access to the facilities was very restricted.  Lingering too long in one spot would get you a visit from a security guard telling you to move along.  That said, you could still see quite a bit of railway activity. ...
Read more

Ferrominera Orinoco Venezuelan Iron Ore

Image
In the mid 1990's Venezuela was a top destination for gold exploration and I worked in the El Callao region of Estado Bolivar on and off from 1994 until 1999 when I last visited the country.  Generally I was busy crashing around the jungle trying to avoid snakes, killer bees and tropical diseases.   The airport in Ciudad Guyana (we called it Puerto Ordaz) was our flight destination after first flying from Miami to Caracas and then onto Puerto Ordaz, generally flying on a wing and a prayer with Aeropostale (it was an airline before it was a clothing line) or one of the other more dodgy airlines.   The more dangerous part of the trip was from Puerto Ordaz to Guasipati and El Callao where our housing and work sites were.  Venezuela at the time was (and likely still is) where old cars went to die.  It was amazing to see the ancient gas guzzlers still running there (fuel was around $0.05 per liter at the time, heavily subsidized by the government), seemingl...
Read more