Some rare sightings in Wyoming

My brother was taking his son to soccer back in May when he had a few minutes to spare in Wyoming. They decided to park trackside in the tiny parking lot near the Wyoming Via Rail station. They were lucky enough to catch a westbound passing freight with some interesting elements worth discussing a bit. Fortunately for me, he sent along the pictures he took.

Before we get into it, a little context. Wyoming is one of my favourite spots to catch railroading action in Southwestern Ontario. The CN Strathoy Sub goes through the heart of the downtown. Around the Broadway Street crossing, there are multiple spots along a gravel access road where you can set up and shoot passing freight trains. Closer to the station, you can see the remnants of CN's old freight loading ramp, which is now mainly covered over in weeds.

You can read about my meets with trains in these posts:

The warbonnet in Wyoming (2018)
Perfect afternoon in Wyoming (2017)

On the west side of the crossing, you can see a large feed mill, complete with trackside elevators, that could easily be incorporated into trackside photos, if you can find the right vantage point on public property.

In short, there is lots for a railfan to see in this town.

The train my brother caught was led by 3807, a GE ES44AC unit with a special decal on its hood that appears to be honouring Canada's Indigenous Peoples. The inuksuk is a symbol of the Inuit in Canada's north (CN operates as far north as the Northwest Territories, which boasts a large Inuit and Dene population). The infinity symbol (sideways eight) is the symbol of the Metis while the feather is a more broad symbol of the various First Nations spread all across Canada.

I have seen images of this logo on other sites and am happy to share my brother's photo of this unit on this blog.

My brother made a few notes in the message he sent to me. He took a shot of an old Cotton Belt hopper, which he tells me he rarely sees in Sarnia.

He also pointed out that he doesn't seen many Potash hoppers, although I was equally intrigued by the Agrium Hopper behind the Potash hopper. I think the Potash cars are likely a more common sight, however I also tend to only see them up here in Ottawa only at certain times as well.

I like this shot of this tiny Wisconsin Central hopper as well. But once again, I am intrigued by the car following, as it appears to have some heavy items strapped down to it. I wondered if it was some sort of prefab concrete product.

My thanks to my brother for sharing shots of his meeting in Wyoming. If you are ever in Southwestern Ontario, this town offers a great trackside experience, especially on a busy mainline. Highly recommended.

And speaking of Southwestern Ontario, I will be heading down there to visit family in the next week and a half. So I will be parking the Beachburg Sub on the siding for a week or two. I hope to have lots to share with everyone when I get back, because I plan to do some railfanning when I am there.