One More Day at Portage, 1986

From May 21 to June 7, 1986 I travelled aboard VIA Rail from Kingston to Vancouver return. My trip east is profiled in this post. My goal had been Expo86, the World Exposition in Vancouver, and its SteamExpo. My first two days in Portage are profiled in this first post of this two-post series. 

I had the use of my Aunt Rosemary and Uncle Wilf's car, so mid-morning on June 5 I drove to Burnside, where agent Fernand Legault, one of their dental patients, showed me the new Manitoba Pool elevator. I was down at the station from 0830-1040, caught two CP trains at Burnside, then spent the afternoon back at the station. 

Between switching moves, CP 6014-5776-3120 pause at the Portage station with its manifest train and van CP 434142, as the head-end trainman returns to the head-end at 0850 on June 5 (top photo and below):

Pulled by CP 5615-552x, a short 47-car eastbound with van CP 434620 passes grain cars at 0928:

VIA 6512-6621 bring train No 2 into Portage behind the UGG elevator at 8th St N.W at 0945. The train’s two engines can manage the 8-car consist, but help is on the way. New VIA F40PH-2D’s will arrive beginning in December, 1986. 

On the wide-open, west-of-Portage prairie, I’m visiting MPE’s new elevator at Burnside. Watch for an upcoming post on this new grain elevator. 

Three CP freights went past, maybe more while I was inside! CP 5989-5924-5407 led this eastbound intermodal at 1042. CP 5407 was originally Quebec, North Shore & Labrador 211. Caboose 434712:

New CP 3121-3122 lead 5529 plus ballast and grain empties wend their way west at 1125. Cylindricals forever! Or so it seems as these iconic grain-handlers seem to head to the horizon on CP at Burnside (below).

Back in Portage, CP 6010 crosses 3rd St N.E. with its solo serving-up of 110 grain empties at 1145:

CPWX 601073’s were the reporting marks chosen for Model Power’s  HO-scale cylindrical (too short, friction-bearing, under-detailed but it’s all we had until Intermountain and other model manufacturers cottoned on to the Canadian market).

Unphotographed:

1320 W CN 5244-5032 79718.

1320 E CN 5314-5185-5036 bathtub gondolas 79392.

1400 W CN 9511-5273 36 ballast cars 79860.

It was very difficult to find a CN SD40 not wearing stripes by this time. CN 5195 with two-shy-of-a-hundred grain empties westbound at the CN station at 1420:

CP stabs CN! CP 5780-5917-6020-6013 hammer the West Tower diamonds with 109 eastbound coal loads behind them at 1435.

CN 5141-5221 wait to go west on the Rivers Sub as coal loads continue to continually clank over the CN.

Minnedosa messenger! CP 6034 toots its own horn, making its eastbound arrival apparent at 8th St N.W. Its grain loads ahead of Angus van 434626 pass the Coke can loads at the UGG elevator at 1450:

CN 5141 and 5221 are now free to go west with 95 grain empties and caboose 79201, after pawing patiently for the CP coal loads to conclude at 1453.

Westbound CP 5782-3064 drag potash empties past the Engro spur, with its own fertilizer load spotted at the fertilizer shed at 1600:

CN stabs CP! CN 9499’s manifest has the light at West Tower, as CP 5782’s train waits at 8th St N.W. at 1610:

After a home-cooked steak supper, my aunt and I drove the yards in the evening, catching more CP and CN freights. 

2031 E CN 5175-4314-1051 grain loads 79213

2130 E CN 5229-5226 79657

Aunt Rosemary and I were at the Portage station at 0830 on June 6, though my train didn’t arrive until 1015. Wilf arrived just before train time. I was in seat 30 of ex-CP coach 110, where I enjoyed their care package lunch at Winnipeg. I arrived in Toronto on June 7.

Running extra...

It's been a week. IYKYK:

Nora O'Donnell's changing role at CBS includes a relaunch of the CBS Evening News this coming Monday, with co-anchors Maurice duBois and John Dickerson and state-of-the-art technology 'walls'. A through-line to the greats: Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather, forgettable Harry Smith/Jeff Glor and the sterling Nora.