JAMIE'S RANDOM AMERICAN RAILWAY PHOTOS.

[Graham Heather]

Was purchased May 1999, for $8.99 US.

[jamie92208]

Good moaning from the Charente.   The Tardis is still in North America. It's the 8th June 2004 and we set off north from Vancouver heading to Whistler.  On the way we passed the BCR shops at Squamish.

Not sure what the locos were but no sign of CN livery at that date.  The next film jammed in the camera and was lost so our trip through Lillooet, Kamloops and the lake country at Kelowna has not been recorded.  After Kelowna it was back to the coast and across to Victoria.  Here the Esquimault and Nanaimo was still running but I didn't get the chance to ride on it. Here a Budd RDC waits at the terminus.

And then set off and is here passing the roundhouse.

There was even a caboose there.

Quite a big roundhouse.  I hope that there is still some activity there.   This was the 14th or 15th of June.

After a whale watching trip and an afternoon on the beach we headed back to Vancouver for our flight home.  On our way south to the airport I saw this in the street.  A tower wagon changing the contact wires on the trolleybus system, with everything live.  The trolleybuses were going around the tower wagon on battery power.

Hopefully some more tomorrow.

 

Jamie

Edited April 12, 2022 by jamie92208

[Mike_Walker]

3626 is (was) a GE C36-7 acquired from Helm (HLCX 6705) who had upgraded it. It was new as Conrail 6605 and wears the BCR's final "economy" all-blue livery.  The pair in the middle are a RS18CAT - a MLW RS18 which had been re-engined by BCR with a Caterpillar engine and a Slug rebuilt from an ALCo RS3.  The locos on the right are GE C40-8Ms a type built only for the BCR and CN.

 

Sadly, RDC no longer ply the rails of Vancouver Island and the Esquimalt roundhouse is no longer in use.  In fact I think all operations on the island have shut down. No doubt others will update you on the current situation.  Here it is in better days:

 

 

September 1979 with CPR RDC1 9064 in residence.

 

 

On the same day  with three cars from the BC Museum train which had been touring the island, plus S11 6621; and GP9s 8822 and 8689.

 

 

And in June 1986 with SW8 6701.  Spot the difference in the skyline!

 

Edited April 11, 2022 by Mike_Walker

[PaulRhB]

3 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

no sign of CN livery at that date. 

They only took on the lease in 2004 so I guess it took a while to intergrate the rosters. 

[Mike_Walker]

Seems the BCR C40-8Ms aren't quite dead yet.  I've just received word that 4609 and 4619 at least have been working recently a long way from home deep in former Wisconsin Central country.

[jamie92208]

1 hour ago, Mike_Walker said:

Seems the BCR C40-8Ms aren't quite dead yet.  I've just received word that 4609 and 4619 at least have been working recently a long way from home deep in former Wisconsin Central country.

That's weird, my daily update on the Loconotes group had a picture of them when I opened my daily digest 10 minutes ago. Thanks for the info Mike.

 

Jamie

Edited July 26, 2021 by jamie92208

[Mike_Walker]

12 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

That's weird, my daily update on the Loconotes group had a picture of them when I opened my daily digest 10 minutes ago. Thanks for the info Mike.

 

Jamie

Seems we both subscribe!

[mdvle]

6 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

Quite a big roundhouse.  I hope that there is still some activity there.   This was the 14th or 15th of June.

 

Not fully up to date but at best there may still be rail service around Nanaimo - the rest of the line closed due to unsafe track conditions.

 

The BC Government did a study on restoring passenger service to Victoria released last year and the estimates were C$500 million +

 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-island-rail-corridor-cost-analysis-report-1.5550167

[jamie92208]

I've found a photo f my WP&Y stock, running on the Wakefield Club's Earlsheaton layout in the clubrooms. I'm not sure what loco was used by IIRC Athearn.

The coaches are various batches.  2 were built from kits and the others came in packs of 4 all of different vehicles.

 

Jamie

a

Edited April 23, 2022 by jamie92208

[PaulRhB]

6 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

I'm not sure what loco was used by IIRC Athearn.

Looks like their GP38

 

edit: yes item 99157 GP38-2

Edited July 26, 2021 by PaulRhB

[jamie92208]

1 hour ago, PaulRhB said:

Looks like their GP38

 

edit: yes item 99157 GP38-2

Yes that's right. The coaches are all Roundhouse ro the same basic dexign but with 3 different  body styles. I've just knocked the dust of the boxes to have a look.  

 

Jamie

[PaulRhB]

25 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Yes that's right. The coaches are all Roundhouse ro the same basic dexign but with 3 different  body styles. I've just knocked the dust of the boxes to have a look.  

 

Jamie

Yes they’ve used the old Roundhouse shorties for various tie ins, I’ve got them in the Gorre & Daphetid livery  

[mdvle]

1 hour ago, PaulRhB said:

Yes they’ve used the old Roundhouse shorties for various tie ins, I’ve got them in the Gorre & Daphetid livery  

 

The Roundhouse 34' cars are in the July announcements, and Athearn has asked if there is any interest in the return of any of the other Roundhouse passenger cars or future paint schemes (if interested, submit request to the product suggestion email)

[jamie92208]

Good afternoon, it's grey and overcast here but the Tardis is still in Sunny south Vancouver on 17th August 2004. The trolleybus wires were being renewed and after the buses had run round the tower wagon on batteries, there was a guy waiting to re wire the bus.

Here he's got the second up.  I hadn't seen that operation being done since a school transport society tour of the Bradford system in 1970.

nd here's the guy doing the live wire working.  He seems to be clipping the old wire up on the span wires.

All in all an impressive operation.   

We flew back that evening and that was that for North American locos for a bit. However plans were afoot. My feet had been itching to pedal those cycle trails in the Rockies since 1999.  A chance conversation earlier in 2004 with a nurse in hospital in Leeds where my father was being treated, lead to some excellent advice about altitude acclimatisation.   Some train watching continued, Here at Tamworth.

 

And a Royal 67 at Wakefield Westgate.

 

By now plans were in place for me to go pedalling in Wyomng and Colorado.  For some reason Beth didn't fancy being my back up driver so I was getting ready to set off on my own.   That trip will start with tomorrows pictures hopefully.

 

Jamie

 

Edited April 12, 2022 by jamie92208

[jamie92208]

Good moaning from a cloudy Charente.   The Tardis has now moved forward to 2005. It's now the 2nd August and after a lot of preparation I was off to the US for a mad male menopause event. After seeing that cycle trail alongside I 80 over Loveland Pass in Colorado I had had a deep desire to get over 10,000 on my pushbike.  I'd studied the advice on acclimatisation and also done quite a bit of training.  I even used to put bricks in my saddle bags on training runs in the Pennines above Huddersfield.   Anyway that morning my eldest son and wife dropped me and my bike at Manchester Airport where after some interesting times getting through security and baggage with the bike this American Airline 767 had arrived for my flight to Denver via Chicago.

My first rail borne ransport was the inter terminal people mover at O'Hare.

I eventually arrived at Denver with a slightly buckled front wheel on the bike.  No light rail to the airport then but the buses had front mounted cycle carriers that were easy to use.

My plan was to spend 2 days in Denver before hitting the road in earnest at lower altitudes.  My first task was to head about 5 miles west out of town to get my front wheel trued up.  On the way back this tram was seen in the Platte Valley. Part of the Platte Valley Trolley that I believe runs with a diesel generator trailer.

Inside Union Station there are still some railway tracks but also tram tracks for the modern system.

The Skit train was parked up with three F40's on the point looking nice.

 

Not a bad start.

 

Jamie

 

Edited April 12, 2022 by jamie92208

[roundhouse]

Denver is now quite different.

 

The airport commuter rail station

 

 

Union station from a similar viewpoint as to Jamies photo. Quite a few more platforms these days.

[Johann Marsbar]

That Platte Valley Trolley is a replica built by Gomaco in the 1980's using trucks and other parts from Melbourne, Australia, like the ones that run in Lowell, MA.....

 

 

Was surprised to see how short a run that is nowadays (when it is running again..) as it used to be a lot longer in the past, though the whole thing started operating long after I last visited Denver.

 

 

[JZ]

Took a detour off the I-70 to stay at Keystone, then drive over the Loveland pass on my last trip in 2019.

I was only able to stop for a quick picture as all the parking space were full with skiers cars.

[jamie92208]

Good moaning from a nice and sunny Charente.  In Tardis time it's still 3rd August 2005. First a couple of more shots of the skit train. A nice observation car on the rear.

And a better shot of the F40's at the head end.

Then it was back to the hotel to park my bike.  10 miles at 5000 ft was enough that day.  However I then went for a walk round the downtown area and was impressed by the Light rail RTD system.

I bought a ticket and headed south and happened to see Burnham shops and got a rather poor snatched shot of the locos parked outside.

Of course the line paralleled the 'Joint Line ' which was full of coal traffic.  Three trains visible in this shot, out of the tram window.

Then one of what I think are the first series of cars in the station.

Jamie

 

Edited April 12, 2022 by jamie92208

[John M Upton]

Wasn't the Ski Train the subject of a rather dreadful late 1970's or early 1980's TV Movie (Runaway or something?)  I can only recall some very shiny "brand new" silver GP loco racing to attach to the rear to stop the aforementioned train whilst all the laws of braking and physics were thrown out of the window in the name of entertainment...

[PaulRhB]

1 hour ago, John M Upton said:

Wasn't the Ski Train the subject of a rather dreadful late 1970's or early 1980's TV Movie (Runaway or something?)  I can only recall some very shiny "brand new" silver GP loco racing to attach to the rear to stop the aforementioned train whilst all the laws of braking and physics were thrown out of the window in the name of entertainment...

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/obscuretrainmovies.wordpress.com/2014/09/01/runaway-1973/amp/

 

[PhilJ W]

Are the trolleybuses still running in Vancouver?

[Johann Marsbar]

47 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Are the trolleybuses still running in Vancouver?

 

Yes - They have a fleet of something like 260 low floor trolleybuses operating there now, though I haven't been there since 2002.

 

It's the last place running them in Canada now, as the other operators that lasted into the 1990's (only just in a couple of cases) - Toronto, Hamilton and Edmonton have all closed - Edmonton being the last to go in 2009.

 

.

Edited July 29, 2021 by Johann Marsbar
Extra info added

[jamie92208]

Yes, some folk I talked to in 2004 told me that they were in the process of buying a new fleet so they are still going.   Anyway the Tardis is still on the south side of Denver in 2005 on 3rd August.  I was riding the  RTD south line and at one stop I noticed a line coming in from the west with a train approaching.

This turned out to have two units in Rio Grande colours on the point as they pulled alongside the joint line.  GP40's I think.

They were UP 2292, and RG 3100 and 3129.  They can be seen on the right here along with some more light rail cars.

I then spent more time opposite Burnham shops.  The film that I put in my OM1 didn't engage properly so the next 3 days of photos got lost. The next day I did another short training ride to find a way north out of town that didn't take me onto the interstate. Then on the 5th I set off north, following the UP line to Greeley, heading down the South Platte Valley.  At Greeley the motel clerk apologised for giving me a room overlooking the tracks.  On the 6th I headed from Greeley, 4500' to Cheyenne, 6'600'.  Again following the UP line most of the way through Nunn and Carr.  It was quite a hard day but this was the sight that greeted me as I entered Cheyenne from the south. Note the yard control tower with the huge UP shield in the middle of the overpass.

After booking into my motel and riding round the top end of town to buy a new inner tube it was time for some serious train watching. I am fairly sure that tis is a Denver bound portion of a double stack train about to go under the Colorado and Southern bridge, where BNSF had helpully parked a train.

And this is it as it headed past me at one of my favourite trainspotting locations.

Jamie

 

Edited April 12, 2022 by jamie92208

[pH]

Rio Grande 3100 and 3129 were GP40-2s.