End of the line for the Motive Power Shed

Well it looks like the old round house / car repair shops days are numbered. CN terminated the lease with the city and gave them until February 5 to vacate the property. Rumor has it that the building will be demolished shortly after to make room from a trans-loading terminal in its place. So get out there and get your photos before it becomes just another memory.

BNSF 6085 vs Tank Truck

Everybody was lucky in this one! BNSF 6085 hits tank truck of gasoline (UN 1203) at Crawford, NE approximately 150 due East of Casper, WY. Date and photographer unknown.

Barbara Foss on the water

Well it was a cold windy day on the water this morning because of a strong Arctic outflow. The mountains tops have a light dusting of snow at higher elevation so it won't belong before Winter is on the doorstep. I manage to catch up to the Barbara Foss pulling into the Petro Canada fuel dock in Cow Bay. The wind was pushing the tow boat sideways hard enough that the Captain had to back out and take a second run at the dock before they managed to secure their lines.

CN 2205 on the waterfront

2205 was in the Prince Rupert yard this morning wait for a crew to arrive.

The Great Pumpkin - Happy Halloween

Well it's Halloween today and everyone usually associates it with orange pumpkins but I thought I'd post a few photos I took this morning on the waterfront of CN 2319. I'm sure the unit won't look this clean for long hauling containers out of the Port of Prince Rupert.

Train in the rain - Smithers, BC

Thought I'd post this interesting photo I took of CN 2290 heading out of Smithers towards Prince George. The light distortion was the result of a raindrop hitting the lens of the camera.

Coyote Creek / Cedarville Yellowhead 16

Well I made a quick trip to Prince George on Wednesday October 20th under low cloud and rain showers the whole trip. Along the way I did manage to catch a glimpse of the occasional train along the way. These photos where taken from the South side of the Skeena river at Coyote creek about 2 miles West of Cedarville on Highway 16.

CN 6019 / SD40u class GF-630b

6019 was caught waiting for the tide to rise at Pillsbury Point so barge loading could continue. The one thing that sticks out are the different font used on the number boards over the windshields.

Barbara Foss back on the barge

Well it looks like the BARBARA FOSS is back towing the rail barge between Prince Rupert and Whitter again. The JEFFERY FOSS had been doing the job during the last while. Barbara is along side the Aquatrain barge which is listing to port because it was only partly loaded as the photo reveals.

What's that sound.......Ultrasound

Well I managed to catch CN crews using a rather odd looking piece of equipment along the waterfront this morning. When I asked what it was, I found out it is an ultrasound unit used to inspect the rails for fatigued areas in the steel.

5542 on the Water front at Rupert

Post # 100 - Slack problem

This is what happens when 36 axles in hard dynamic braking combine with a wee bit of slack. Photographer and location unknown.

Robert's Bank - part three "CN Rail"

Robert's Bank - part two "BNSF"

With the sun just rising, I managed to photograph an inbound Burlington Northern Sante Fe coal train pulled by a mix of EMD and GE units about to enter the coal terminal to wait its turn in the rotary dumper before heading back to the field in the Powder River Basin.

Robert's Bank - part one "CP Rail"

Early morning August 27, I made a trip out to Robert's Bank and managed to catch a passing CP Rail container train with locomotives 3001 & 5914 heading East out of the terminal.

Slugging it out in the Quesnel rail yard

August 22, 2010 started in Quesnel, BC where I caught up with CN remote locomotives 7045, 7267 with slug unit 260 working the former BC Rail yard under a smoke fill sky. The haze was caused by forest fire burning in the Burns Lake region of the province some 3 - 4 hours drive away. It would have been nice to see BC Rail CRS-20 alco's working but those unit's have since been parted out or scraped. It was different seeing the engineer on the ground with a belt pack around his waist, not something I see in Prince Rupert.

Gord Cooper's Smoking Gun 1968 Kenworth

Well it's been a busy summer between work and shipping a kid off to university but I did manage to squeeze in a few days on the road and fewer opportunity's to rail fan. I made it to the Houston, BC drag race at the local airport where my boys and I got to see Edmonton based Gord Copper's 68 Kenworth (Smoking Gun) make some exhibition passes down the 1/4 mile blacktop strip. The rig is powered by a twin turbocharged Detroit 8V92 engine which develops 3000+ HP (bottom end is stock) propelling it the 1320' distance at just under 100mph using up almost 3 gallons of diesel per pass.