Sunday, September 21, 2008

CN Train No 805 on the Rivers Sub, June 1978

Forty-foot grain boxcars were used to ship western Canada's grain, even after the advent of 100-ton cylindrical covered hopper cars.


The train journal of CN No 805 from Winnipeg to Rivers, Manitoba listed 65 empty CN boxcars to be placed at grain elevators along the Rivers Sub on June 21, 1978. Engines 9581 and 9472 left Winnipeg at 1100, and here's the information on 47 of those cars, and some views along the line taken in 1984. It's likely the first 18 cars were set out at MIle 10.6, Dacotah, or Elie.

At 1245, CN 420738 - 422884 - 420061 - 420288 - 485870 - 482424 were set out on track RV23, the siding at Benard.


At 1310, CN 425204 - 475868 - 423838 - 475418 - 478348 - 485450 were setout on track RV35, the United Grain Growers elevator at Oakville, and CN 474613 - 421763 - 480679 - 422310 - 423228 - 423346 were left on track RV29, the Manitoba Pool elevator.

No 805 set out cars at both of Portage la Prairie's four in-town elevators that CN served, between 1340 and 1400. Track RG54 United Grain Growers: CN 422874 - 483554 - 478515 - 425314 - 425104 - 425184 - 471867 - 420765, and track RG37 Manitoba Pool B: CN 422773 - 425757 - 420829.

The Portage Pool and UGG elevators are shown with trains passing on both the CP Rail (left) and CN (right) mainlines:

The westbound VIA Canadian passes the two elevators and grass-covered team track with work cars on it:


The remainder of the train went through to Rivers: CN 424079 - 424804 - 521093 - 482952 - 484168 - 420346 - 424764 - 420409 - 481128 - 424539 - 482798 - 422818 - 425941 - 422503 - 424719 - 425664 - 474123 - 423442 - caboose 79734.








2 comments:

Canadian Train Geek said...

Nice to see grain elevators in Portage... none of those left there any more.

Anonymous said...

That's right Steve. Made railfanning Portage more interesting, dodging grain trucks! I remember the CP trains in particular would "appear" from behind one of the elevators...they always seemed to cruise through town faster than CN, with their ditchlights on and horn blaring.