Ticket To Ride

Make it So

Funny how things evolve, as earlier while driving through downtown Calgary on 9th Ave east, I caught glimpses of this grain train running parallel to me working its way east.

I didn't get to excited about it, as in my mind it was just another grain train, an empty one at that. Then as I made my way through Inglewood on 9th Ave east, and the Red Deer sub overpass came in to view up ahead, I couldn't help but notice that there were four engines up front of the grain train, one of them Norfolk Southern 3664.

This peaked my interest, but decided it would be tough for me to catch the train where I would be able to include the complete train in a photograph.

Forgetting about the grain train, I stopped in Inglewood at a location overlooking the west end of the Aylth yard. About 20 minutes goes by, and I hear the trainmaster give the engineer of the grain train orders to continue waiting at the Beddington siding mile 8.3 while a northbound oil train is given priority to pass the grain train.

At this news I get my truck moving up Deerfoot Trail and high-tail it up to Country Hills Boulevard. As I near the airport road junction, I can see the grain train stopped as the oil train passes headed north. I start to relax knowing that I have time to get to where a side road north of Country Hills Blvd dissects the Red Deer sub.

Arriving just as the oil train clears the crossing, I end up with approximately a 20 minute window before the grain train gets permission to resume its journey north. This gives me plenty of time to position my Av and set my camera and tripod up on the cargo bay cover, giving myself the elevation needed to get the complete train in the photograph as seen here.
Leading the charge up front was CP 9729, CP9618, NS 3664, and CP 9814, although I believe CP 9618 and NS 3664 were not doing any work, but along for the ride, with CP 9807 the mid-train remote.

Funny thing is that very shortly after the train cleared my location, I heard the trainmaster on my scanner give the engineer orders to pull the train over at the Airdrie siding mile 16.6, as someone jumped the gun in giving the grain train permission to move out from the Beddington siding!

Expand the photo for a closer look.....

6N4A6121