Caption: VIA Rail units 6427 and 6438 stand quietly in what little mid-day sunlight Churchill, Manitoba offers in late January. At just 1:00 pm the sun already hangs low in the sky, and the locomotives soak up every bit of warmth they can as temperatures sit at a brutal –28 °C, with a wind chill near –43 °C thanks to the wind off Hudson Bay. Train #693’s 47-hour journey north from Winnipeg carried it straight through a polar vortex, bringing exceptional cold and frozen sections of the train’s plumbing along the way. To the right, the roofline of the historic Churchill station (built in 1929) rises from the snow; to the left, multiple tracks lie silent, as empty as the platform itself. Passengers have long since retreated indoors, leaving only the photographer and a few hurried crew members finishing their duties at the end of the line before heading on rest — with a southbound departure back to Winnipeg just 12 hours away.