Felix Lesiuk's springtime rail fanning reaps a harvest of great shots

Felix Lesiuk always has had a great eye for the unique rail fanning shot. Pictured above is a coal train coming down the track with a strong wind blowing an enormous cloud of coal dust from the open hoppers. He also captured a unique CP consist featuring a Milwaukee Road passenger car, a bunk car and a converted heavyweight passenger car seen outside of Rosser. He has also taken notice of the proliferation of Union Pacific motive power recently seen on the CP line. 

 

Stormy train images along the CP main line

Our longstanding contributor Felix Lesiuk sent us some striking photos he took along the CP mainline along highway 221 near Rosser, Manitoba. Highway 221 has been a longtime favorite spot among Winnipeg rail fans, as it's close to the city and it hugs the CP mainline from the perimeter to Marquette, Manitoba.

These photos were taken as a storm was brewing, and we applaud Felix's courage in braving the weather to take them. He even captured a lightning bolt in one of them!

Exclusive photos of the CP executive train in Manitoba

On a recent rail fanning trip, long time member Felix Lesiuk caught sight of the CP Rail executive train rolling down the mainline near Rosser, Manitoba. This train is used only occasionally for private excursions and tours taken by CP Rail executives. It is a rare sight to see this magnificent train on the rails, and our man Felix was at the right time at the right place!

Exclusive images of CP train wreck near Rosser

   Wow! Talk about being in the right place at the right time! Long time WMRC member and intrepid railfan correspondent Felix Lesiuk took these images of the CP train wreck near Rosser shortly after it happened, and he dispatched them to us pronto!

  
 "I was coming back from the farm this afternoon around supper time and just came upon a derailment of an Eastbound CP stack train." Said Felix. "A storm cell had blown the train onto the north side of the tracks. This happened about 20 minutes before I got there between the town of Rosser and the Rosser grain elevator.  Luckily, I wasn't there as it happened. There was a Manitoba storm chaser car driving around so I suppose it was following the storm."

  
 "I took a bunch of pictures from my window as I drove slowly by. When I got to the end the sun came out so I doubled back to get some pictures in the sun. When I was leaving the emergency response team closed the highway after me. The irony for CP is that they just replaced that section of rail with new track last month."

The Meadows grain elevator falls

By Morgan Turney

Photos by Felix Lesiuk

The Meadows Paterson grain elevator was turned into a heap of scrap wood on July 18, 2017, just after 12:00 noon. After chewing out the bottom four feet of the elevator footing on the elevator's west side, the contractor wrapped a heavy cable around the elevator cupola and with a few tugs from a large bulldozer, down she came into a heap of lumber and grain dust.

I don't know what it is about the name of Meadows, Perhaps it conjures up memories of a very peaceful place. There isn't much there. A few farms nearby and a homestead just across the street from the Meadows road sign. But it had a Paterson wooden grain elevator, the first one you came across driving westward down Rosser Road.

Rounding a gentle curve just past Rosser, there were two things you could count on seeing. One was an African type tree (it looks like it's from the plains of the Serengeti) in the field on the right hand side of the road. In the distance straight ahead was the Meadows elevator. It served as a familiar landmark to anyone taking the back roads and following the CPR's Carberry subdivision on a rail fan adventure toward Portage la Prairie. Sadly, after July 20, 2017, the African tree is all that's left.

Many of us will miss the Meadows elevator. It was the last one standing on that route after Marquette (another Paterson grain elevator) was pulled down on September 3rd, 2013. 
How sad is it that we destroy our iconic history so willfully, and so thoughtlessly. Meadows is gone forever. All that's left are the photographs and the memories.