One More Day at Portage, 1985

In Part 1, I photographically portrayed two of my three prodigious days trolling for trains trackside in the remarkable railfan mecca of Portage la Prairie, MB. In Part 2, we thrill to the third day's trains before I head west, young man, to the beckoning West Coast ports of Vancouver and Prince Rupert!

September 20, 1985

My aunt and uncle headed east in their Dodge camper van at noon. I had their car and the rest of the day to train watch before catching No 1 westward from Portage station in the evening. 

1300 W CN 5316-5176 to Rivers Sub with Jordan spreader CN 50937 on the head-end and International Service  caboose 78112 on the tail-end, captured west of Portage from along the Trans-Canada Highway (top photo and below):

1402 E: Coming back east into Portage at the 18th St NW crossing at 1402, this eastbound Rivers Sub hotshot rolled past, led by CN 5265-5237 and trailed by caboose 79217:

1430 W CP 5798 guides 98 grain empties (cylindrical on the head-end, boxcars behind) at the switch for the CN-CP connecting track at West Tower, continuing on the CP Carberry Sub with van 434550:

For this many empties, one unit will do:

1505 W CP 5796-4202 to Minnedosa Sub possibly with potash empties and with van 434341 accelerated after stopping in Portage, leading to skid marks on the country roads past the Campbell's soup plant when I tried to stay ahead for another photo!

Friendly van crew on CP 434341:

1538 W CN 5009-5529 97 cars manifest 79589 (unphotographed).
1555 W CP 5696-5933 manifest followed by van 434502, at the CP station:

1616 E CP 5779-4739 434133-434448 (unphotographed).
1655 E CN 5408-5419 brand-new power posing with my aunt and uncle's car:

1703 E CN 5214 81 grain loads and caboose79615 (unphotographed).
1752 E CP 6037-5611-6014 manifest with 434425 (unphotographed).
1911 W CN 5088-5055 and caboose 79850 have a clear signal to the setting sun. The head-end cars picked up on the Portage CN-CP interchange are just past the switch to the United Grain Growers elevator lead:

1921 E CP 6042-5727-5929-5912-xx25 from Carberry Sub 434710 at 8th Street NW crossing (below).

These three trains unphotographed in darkness: 

2115 W CN 9631-5076-5043 79763.

2240 W VIA No 3 6306-6604 7 cars - the Super Continental.

2250 E CN 5563-4330 79229.

My aunt and uncle's assistant Lynn and her husband Mark had driven me to the station. VIA No 1 was about two-and-a-half hours late, so I talked to the CN operator while waiting in the station for the train to arrive from Winnipeg. Then it was off to Vancouver-Prince Rupert-Regina grain elevator photography, through Winnipeg on September 30 and into Toronto on October 2

Running extra...

On June 3, for the first time, VIA attempted to meet CN's imposed minimum train-length requirement for its new Siemens Venture trainsets by augmenting a test set with the addition of two cars. Total transit length is eight: VIA train No 631operated from Montreal-Ottawa return, with one each Economy Class* and Business Class** cars from Set 7 added to Set 12. Consist: Cab car 2311-Economy Class cars 2811-2911-2906*- Business Class cars 2706**-2711-2611- locomotive 2211.

Despite VIA's position against operating 'doublavay' Venture J-trains and/or augmenting trainsets, VIA has now tested both. If the latter test is successful, it could be a stop-gap measure as VIA continues to wait for a court ruling to remove CN's requirement (in process in Ontario then Quebec since late-2024), or a Transport Canada decision (data submitted by CN in January, 2025).

This augmentation has seemed to me like an obvious option once the October, 2024 speed reductions became oppressively omnipresent at over 300 crossings in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor, yet it has taken nearly eight months for VIA to test this option.

With 29 trainsets on the property, and three out-of-service, 15 of the remaining 26 trainsets are in daily rotation, with another 11 sets undergoing maintenance or out-of-rotation. VIA has not moved beyond having 15 sets in daily use. Therefore, 11 sets are not in daily use. If only three of these gave up four cars each for the augmented consists, that would make six 32-axle stop-gap trainsets!

In the meantime, VIA's Venture-equipped Corridor trains continue to operate 15-60 minutes late due to CN's actions and VIA's inactions, and passengers are finding other travel options that actually suit their plans and meet posted schedules. In a press release today, VIA released on its Q1 numbers: on-time performance dropped sharply to 30% down from 72% last year, due primarily to restrictions imposed by a third-party infrastructure owner, and ridership declined by 2.7% marking the first drop since the pandemic recovery began.

Elbows...down! A recent perusal of Rapido Train Zinc Newsletter #206 produced not a single Canadian model in New Announcements or updates. Or anywhere, really. Not counting a lone photo of CN/IC cabs with air-conditioners roof-mounted, it's all American: electric E44's, Chicago 'el' cars (and OK, nominally a few H16-44 Canadian schemes in the above list). From a recent video, "International and Canadian are a very small part of sales."

Coupled to an update on tariffs (still absorbed by the company) and clarity on US "rairroads" (gee, I hate that affected-American pronunciation!) being orderable from their Buffalo warehouse, I think this issue marks the complete Americanization of the company. (This really should have been a separate post!) Fun facts on Rapido's new Buffalo building (click for larger images):

The good news is, all the major Canadian prototypes have already been produced by the proudly-Canadian company over the past 20 years! Needed VIA units, RDC's, Royal Hudsons, CN and CP cabooses and ballast cars, RS-23's, RDC-4's, more steam icons, CN S-13's a' la Spadina, Buffalo boxcars, U33CS's...oh, never mind. 

First past the post...

Though rainy in this post, Manitoba is on fire and Manitobans are making a difference. Also the Red Cross, Canadian Forces, even VIA Rail helping evacuees from remote Northern towns and Indigenous communities. The very worst bringing out the very best in people.