CN in Whitecourt, Alberta 2020

[Mcleod]

Thought I'd drop in a share a couple of photographs I took yesterday, August 12, 2020. These are both cropped to where I like them. I've learned it's best to take locomotive and yard shots at distance, and then crop them to a workable photo. It seems to help with the bent fisheye effects that happen when one is to close to a large subject.
The first taken as I was walking into the Whitecourt CN yard:

A yard shot. SD40-2W right, with an SD751 and a C40-8W across the way on a siding:

Here's a Sperry Rail Services vehicle working the CN track in Whitecourt. I believe the vehicle uses technology to measure defects in the rail, but, I'm no scientist:

Have a good one!

 

[Zoohogger]

First of all a belated welcome from Nebraska in the US. I looked up Whitecourt on the map and I see you are in a part of Canada that is on my list to visit. My wife and I made it to Winnipeg and are looking forward to seeing much more of Canada.
Beautiful photos and I am impressed that a town of this size has that much going on.
Our CN in the Omaha area has one train in and same train out and a local switcher to do the interchange.
Your portrait of the Sperry truck should be on an advertising poster.

Rick Z

 

[Mcleod]

a belated welcome from Nebraska in the US.

Thank you, for the welcome, Rick. Don't worry about not knowing where Whitecourt is; it's only a small Alberta town to begin with.

CN usually keeps a couple of older engines in the downtown Whitecourt yard to perform switching duties necessary for the variety of local industries. There are various forest product and petrochemical industries immediate to the area.
CN 5326 has been around for roughly the past 6 months, while 5287 showed up a couple of months ago, replacing SD40-2W 5386. You can see that the two SD40-2w's on hand currently, are very weathered, indeed. Photo's taken in August, 2020:

Have a good one!

 

[Mcleod]

08-22-2020 - CN 1501 RDC test car parked on a siding, later in the afternoon. I just had to stop and capture a few photos; it's the first time I've seen such a unit come into town.

CN 2562 pulled in beside the RDC while I was taking the photos.

There was also the seemingly resident SD40's parked to the north of the RDC.

And here's full frames of CN 2562 (C44-9W) and CN 2190 (C40-8W), parked on the south siding from the RDC.

Have a good one!

 

[Bill Anderson]

Good photos. It must be nice to have resident diesels in your town.

 

[Mcleod]

Thought I might update with a few engine photos I captured during this autumn season.

First, CN 6007, an SD40-2Q, in town on September 21, 2020:

CN 5628, an SD75I. October 06, 2020.

CN 3904, a new ES44AC. October 14, 2020.

Finally, another photo of the seemingly resident SD40-2W's, which are kept on hand in the area, and used for local switching. October 06, 2020:

 

[Mcleod]

Here's a weathered SD-40 that is seriously in need of paint:

I suspect this unit is replacing 5326 which has been the local resident switching work-horse along with 5343 for the summer months. Perhaps 5326 has been sent to Edmonton for servicing, and 5242 is a temporary stand-in. - I don't know; I'm not with the railroad.

5242 and 5343 are shown leaving town to do some work, photo taken this very day. Two doors are still open on 5242, front and one on the side:

 

[Mcleod]

I dunno! Thought it was an interesting photo. The scene holds a number of railway elements.

 

[Mcleod]

After many visits down to the McLeod River rail bridge, hoping to get a photo of a freight crossing with the sun behind me; success, at last.

Being able to capture that photo really made my day!