Saskatoon Area Railfanning

I am visiting relatives in Saskatoon and have had some time to travel around and watch some trains.  (Maybe that should be watch for trains - mostly I watch rails!)

The best area for train action has been the Canadian National Wainwright Sub, west of Biggar (west of Saskatoon).  There seem to be many trains there.  Also, the line has a lot of new signals.  These signals are much closer together than I have seen elsewhere, and I think closer together than the previous ones.  They are also LED so they stay illuminated and are easy to read from the nearby parallel highway.  The train crews report the signals they pass at certain locations - which I think are at each end of passing sidings.  Therefore by watching the signals and listening to the scanner you can get a fair idea of where trains are and which direction they are moving (direction by train number: odd numbers are westbounds, even numbers eastbounds.)  The Watrous Sub should be just as busy but it is harder to get close enough see the tracks west of Saskatoon.

I also had good action east of the Saskatoon CN yard and got a nice video of a train crossing the river by the power station.  (Watrous Sub).

Where I live, in Halifax, we have only the CNR, so I was hoping to see some CPR trains.  But Saskatoon apparently has less CPR traffic than there used to be -- more traffic is now going the southern route through Regina.  I was able to get a few.  On the highway to Biggar there is a stretch where the CPR Wilkie Sub parallels the road and I saw a train coming.  Also on the Sutherland Sub east of Saskatoon I spent some hours waiting and caught one moving train, and on the Potasco Spur one train parked for supper (or the night).

Some Intercity Coaches Spotted in Dartmouth

Driving to a site visit last week I saw two attention-grabbing intercity coaches in a hotel parking lot.  I try to always carry my camera, so I stopped and got some pictures.  I was able to talk to the driver of the Can-Am coach who gave me some details (see the pictures' captions).  I also was able to get some data from internet surfing.

Picture One

Halifax Area Railway Information

Notes:
Train 507 serves HalTerm, as heard on the scanner 0835 August 17, 2012.

Train 509 serves Autoport, as heard on the scanner around 1700 in early August, 2012.