In Part 1, I finally got around to sharing my first few days in Portage during the summer of 1980. This post, the first of the year 2026 and Trackside Treasure's 975th(!) includes more photos and numbers from my time spent trackside in Portage that June. Trains are shown by time, direction, railway, locomotive numbers, consist, caboose/van number and remarks. Continuing after lunch on Wednesday, June 18 I was back trackside upon returning from lunch at Portage's Co-Op restaurant with my aunt and uncle, hopping out of the car just in time for a three-unit eastbound CP potash train.
June 18, 1980 (continued)
1323 E CP 5932-5764-5505 434647 (top photo)
1424 W CN 5586-5237-5020 79661 pulled in and stopped at the CN station:
Another westbound pulled in (below, at left), cutting off their power in the yard to pick up the container car sitting on the team track.
1430 W CN 9496-9516 79328:
While still up on the overpass, this eastbound CP freight passed the CP Express office.
1443 E CP 5581-5558 434427:
A short time later, the westbound stopped CN freight that had picked up the container car started to depart. As it was ending, another CN freight banged by at 40 mph.
1511 W CN 9484-9535-5569-9581 intermodal 79706:
As the CN freight came to its end, a CP freight passed through, fortuitously fotographed through a bulkhead flat car.
1516 E CP 5595-5911-5750 grain loads 434583:
At the CP station at 1540, it was a symphony of SD's! Extra-flag-flying 5534-5505 dropped off their 102-car potash/grain train and were heading into the yard.
1540 W CP 5534-5505 102 grain empties to Minnedosa Sub 434589:
Finished switching and back on their train, an eastbound crew chatted with the westbound crew quickly. Notice the stock car on the head-end.
1612 E CP 5926-3000 manifest 434318:
After the westbound left, this one pulled in, staying until suppertime.
1634 W CP 5774 grain empties:
5774 cut off and pulled up to the station as this eastbound got its orders.
1653 E CP 5923 91 cars 434443:
Speno rail-grinding cars, generator and office car ahead of van CP 434443. Engro fertilizer unloading track and platform in foreground:
Visiting my uncle's parents' home in Gladstone in the evening - the CN station:
On Thursday, June 19 we drove to Winnipeg and took in the [now considered classic] movie Star Wars - The Empire Strikes Back.
June 20, 1980
A full day at the station with lunch at the Co-Op Restaurant and its excellent view of the CP Carberry Sub on Portage's west side. At 0830, I got a photo of leased Manitoba grain car USLX 5904 at the UGG elevator just west of the CN station. One of only five Evergreen Hatchery cars leased, its paper tag showed that it had been unloaded in Thunder Bay at Saskatchewan Pool's Elevator 7A six days earlier.
Ten minutes later...
0840 W CP 5936-5740-5511 could be heard whistling at the Trans-Canada Highway crossing near the Co-Op as van 434452 was passing the CP station:
0853 E CN 4325-4324-4306 No 808 (according to the train order-toting CN operator) 97 grain loads 79598:
Not photographed, perhaps due to the drizzle:
0927 W CN 1356-1354-4326 73 cars 79268
1023 E CP 5935 80 grain loads 434586
1108 E VIA No 90 6506-15489-9634-5545-5619. Interestingly, ex-CN coaches 5619 and 5625 used on these Thompson trains were 'buffeteria-coaches'. Running about an hour late:
1122 E CN 9448-9562-9447 hotshot 79538 with business cars 15110-92 just ahead of the caboose:
Skies clearing in the afternoon over Portage Pool B. CNWX 395582-396753-396491 have been loaded. A farmer departs the drive shed in his now-empty GMC grain truck, and CN will soon lift these six month-old cars for their trip to port.
W CN 9402-9482 86 cars ballast 79460 (unphotographed)
1513 W CN 5215-5572 stopped to switch the interchange with CP:
1540 E CP 5755-4714 grain loads 434536 (unphotographed)
1553 W CN 5233-5171 89 lumber empties 79418 passes as the previous CN train's power continues switching:
1609 E CP 5541-5563 138 grain loads 434545:
Fifteen minutes later, another CP freight followed.
1624 E CP 5753 80 cars manifest 434008:
June 21, 1980
We had a visit from my great-uncle Carl and family before stopping by the station in the morning, heading to Miami [Manitoba not Florida, remember I had a train to catch!] to see preserved stations there and in Carman. Two weeks after our visit, the wooden water tower at Miami collapsed!
CP 3019-8806-8546-4440 at station (below)
1045 W CP 8809-5013-8801 128 grain empties 434655 (unphotographed)
On June 22, I left Portage at an eye-opening 0703 on VIA No 4 (car line 452), heading east in upper roomette 11 of ex-CN E-series Eldorado. I arrived home in Kingston on time on the 23rd, having enjoyed a trip down from Toronto at window seat 53 aboard an RDC on VIA No 656 departing Toronto at 2000.
Running extra...
I've been having some new year blue-sky sessions adding skies to photos taken on my Kingston's Hanley Spur layout. With a semi-cirrus eye to the precipitous issue, using the AI editor truly was cloud-based software! I'm working on an upcoming post, unless the whole thing just blows over.
I did a quick back-of-the-cocktail-napkin analysis of the Word of the Year 2025 here on Trackside Treasure. Understandably, some words appear more than others:
Venture = 425 times
Shunt = 424 times
VIA = 242 times
The most often-used phrase:
CN-Imposed Crossing Speed Reductions = 121 times
Words not used:
Mid = 0
Sus = 0
6,7 = minus 67
First past the post...
You. The reader. Thanks for another great year together here on Trackside Treasure. The upcoming year will be a special one as we share my 50th year trackside searching for that treasure, together.
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