Thursday, October 04, 2007

Trackside Log for Thursday, October 4, 2007

Sam and I headed out once again this morning into a beautiful sunny day. The hunt for grain elevators continued. As I always do on these trips I keep the scanner on just in case. Today as we were following an abandoned Canadian National branch I heard a Canadian Pacific grain tramp obtain a clearance onto the Arcola Subdivision. Whoa, this is a rare occassion. I made the decision to forego the grain elevators and find the grain tramp. On the way to Schwitzer, the beginning of the Arcola Subdivision, I discovered a former CSX GP15 at a grain elevator.

  • 1105 CDT Nesbitt, MB - elevator switcher - LLPX 1502 (photo 1, photo 2)

Very soon after joining the Arcola Subdvision I found the grain tramp.

  • 1157 CDT east of Deleau, MB - CP westbound grain tramp - CP 3108-CP 3060-CP 3130 (photo)

Considering the rarity of the train and the 30 mph speed limit we gave chase. Next stop was just six miles farther west.

  • 1209 CDT west of Deleau, MB (mile 9 CP Arcola Subdivision) - CP westbound grain tramp - CP 3108-CP 3060-CP 3130 (photo)
  • 1245 CDT Reston, MB - CP westbound grain tramp - CP 3108-CP 3060-CP 3130 (photo)
  • 1302 CDT Sinclair, MB - CP westbound grain tramp - CP 3108-CP 3060-CP 3130 (photo)

And then we arrived at the destination for the grain cars, Redvers, Saskatchewan. This is also now the end of steel. The track has all been removed beyond Redvers.

  • 1250 CST Redvers, SK - CP westbound grain tramp - CP 3108-CP 3060-CP 3130 (photo)

We watched the crew spotting the cars in two tracks at the elevators and then they headed back to Brandon, Manitoba with light power.

  • 1325 CST Redvers, SK - CP eastbound light power - CP 3130-CP 3060-CP 3108

That was great. I've wanted to chase a grain tramp on a branch line for a long time. Today I got lucky. After fueling up both the car and our stomachs we continued hunting for grain elevators. No more trains were to be found this day but I did find a Canadian Pacific caboose parked near an old water tower and the grain elevator in Glenboro, Manitoba.

  • 1618 CDT Glenboro, MB - CP 434590 caboose (photo)
It was starting to get rather dark. I photographed a couple grain elevators more and then we made our way to Winnipeg, Manitoba for the evening.

No comments:

Post a Comment