Join me for a quick look at a busy train morning, from December 28, 2004 – 21 years ago today.

CN 5440 East

First up at 09:20 was this train with a lot of lumber loads on the head end. Long vanished CN 5440 was leading 5653 as they approached Shaftesbury Boulevard on the CN Rivers subdivision.

I relocated a few kilometres east to St. James Junction, where the CP La Riviere subdivision crosses the CN Rivers sub.

CN 5264 West

Locomotive power sure was different in 2004! You’d never see an SD40 leading a main line freight on CN these days. BC Rail Dash-9 BCOL 4645 was trailing, with a couple of BC Rail boxcars right behind it, at 09:49.

The tail end of that train barely cleared the diamond before an eastbound train came pounding through at 09:52.

CN 2596 East

CN 2596 and CN 5450 led an intermodal train, which had several trailers on flatcars (TOFC) – another thing you don’t see in Canada any more.

Soon I wandered a bit north to the BNSF shop off Lindsay Street, where BNSF 1685 was coupled to an ADM tank car and the BNSF caboose, 12580. This was well before 1685 was gifted to the Prairie Dog Central Railway.

I returned to the CN main line after watching this for a few minutes.

GCFX 6068 East

I think this wins the “most unusual consist of the day” award. Leased locomotive GCFX 6068 led BC Rail 3624 and an intermodal train at 11:03.

BCOL 3624 was one of the fleet acquired when CN acquired BC Rail. It didn’t last long in CN service, going to Homewood Illinois for disposition by 2006. It was built for Conrail as a GE C30-7 and rebuilt as a C36-7M.

Ten minutes later…

CN 9486 West

Two SD40s with two different paint schemes, CN 9486 with the “sergeant stripe” scheme and CN 9468 with the short lived “CN North America” scheme, led this general freight train at 11:14.

Continuing on the very busy Rivers subdivision, another eastbound train came through at 11:20.

CN 5330 East

Unfortunately I screwed up the “approach” shot, so here’s the “going away” shot. I might like this better, because it shows the raw lumber loads pretty well – another rarity.

The locomotives were CN 5330, CN 9423 and CN 9581.

That was quite a parade.

I relocated downtown to see the eastbound VIA “Canadian” at the station.

The Canadian

Assiniboine Park was on the tail end of the train. You might notice the caboose at far left, owned by the Winnipeg Railway Museum and eventually scrapped.

This photo was taken from the tower at the Forks (see View from the Forks for a more recent view).

I shot VIA 6439 and 6446 on the head end, but photo angles weren’t great.

Soon I relocated to the other side of the Red River, and shot a two engine consist running light across the Red.

CN 2435

What a busy day!