Occasional Canadian photos, mostly from Vancouver area

[newbryford]

11 hours ago, Regularity said:

As a thought, possibly erroneous, but are their driving controls at this end?

 

They aren't all control cars. There is a cab car on the upper middle of the pic - the cab is at the non-yellow roof end.

 

Cheers,

Mick

[pH]

Coming back from playing soccer this morning, I was held up at a level crossing on a Canadian Pacific line by a unit train of potash hoppers. These are common here, and usually not remarkable. However, from away back in the lineup, I saw something unusual, so decided to chase the train to get some photos. Not an easy chase, on city streets with lots of cross streets and traffic lights, plus I had to guess where it was going at a junction. However, I guessed right, and caught it in the very small part of New Westminster that the line passes through. I was just in time for pictures.

 

Here's what I had spotted at the level crossing:

 

 

the pusher was Union Pacific C44AC-CTE #5934.

 

As I said, I just made it in time to get a rather distant picture of the headend units:

 

 

Canadian Pacific AC4400CWM #8032 (a recent rebuild of what was originally just an AC4400CW), plus another Union Pacific C44AC-CTE - #6020.

 

A sample of the hoppers making up the train:

 

 

Where I was standing to take the photos was under the Skytrain (rapid transit) line. Here's a shot of a Skytrain crossing over the potash train:

 

 

and there was P-way maintenance taking place, with a 'hi-rail' crane working with a couple of ballast hoppers:

 

[pH]

No pictures of railways, but pictures of pictures of railways.

 

Chemainus is a small town on the east coast of Vancouver Island. In the 1980s, the sawmill which was the main employer in the town was modernised, and the number of workers greatly reduced. In response to this, the town turned to tourism. A major project was the creation of public art - large murals throughout the town and outdoor sculptures. The art illustrates the history of the town and surrounding area. Here are a few of the murals which include railway scenes:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[pH]

Sorry - no picture, just a lament for a missed one!

 

I have never seen a Canadian Pacific SD60M this far west. This morning, I saw three of them on a long train of grain empties. I haven't moved the 'just in case' camera into the new car yet, so no picture!

 

However, given where they were (between the Vancouver docks and the main CP marshalling yard in the area) and what they were hauling, it's possible that they have been moved here for local heavy trip workings. I may have more chances to photograph them.

[Jim49]

Following on from pH's pictures of picture theme, here are some I took this May at Banff.

The originals are in Banff station building but unfortunately have no captions with dates etc.

 

Jim

[Warspite]

On 02/11/2019 at 20:23, Jim49 said:

Following on from pH's pictures of picture theme, here are some I took this May at Banff.

The originals are in Banff station building but unfortunately have no captions with dates etc.

 

Jim

 

Jim

 

I thought I recognised some of these pictures. The last three photos, the FP7A to the left of the station building, the wide landscape and the last one with a wider view of the station are all by Nicholas Morant, CP's renowned official photographer. The others may also be by Morant.

 

These three photos are in J.F. Garden's book "Nicholas Morant's Canadian Pacific", with the FP7A one in colour. The first part of its caption says: "In the fall of 1951, freight No. 85 approaches Banff station, slowing down to pick up train orders. With FP7A No. 4033 leading, Morant photographed the operator about to pass train orders to the crew using a train order hoop ...".  Morant took the landscape at Massive (west of Banff) "... class T1b "Selkirk" No. 5929 has Train No. 7, the westbound Montreal section of The Dominion in tow ...".  The caption for the last photo starts: "On a summer day in 1947, Morant made a photograph of Train No. 7, the Montreal section of The Dominion as it arrived on schedule at 11.30 a.m. ...".

 

I'm not sure if J.F. Garden's book is still in print (my copy dates from 1993), but it provides a fantastic record of Morant's sublime photography. Well worth getting.

 

Stephen

[pH]

A couple of weeks ago, I posted that I had seen 3 Canadian Pacific SD60Ms locally, but not managed to get a picture. They are still around, and I managed to get a couple of shots this morning. It turns out there is only one SD60M, which happened to be on the nearer end of the group that I saw on the previous occasion. The other two locos are regular SD60s.

 

They were a fair distance away, and the photos I got of the complete trio aren't great. I hope to get better ones some other time. However, here's a crop of #6240 (the others are 6248 and 6258 (the SD60M):

 

 

 

(Lines in the foreground are grass stalks.)

 

However, that was something better around. I heard a horn, and this appeared:

 

 

GP38-2 #7304, still in Delaware and Hudson colours! I've seen 7309 and 7310 from this series in BC, but they've been repainted in CP colours. This one was a real surprise! The trailer is GP38-2 #3090.

 

Here's a going-away shot:

 

 

Edit a day later to add - this unit and 7303 are apparently the last two in Delaware and Hudson colours.

Edited November 16, 2019 by pH

[pH]

Two flavours of Canadian Pacific GP38s, switching in the yard at Port Coquitlam last week:

 

First is a GP38AC - sort of halfway between a 'straight' GP38 and a GP38-2 - different electrics from a GP38, but not as many changes as a GP38-2. Built for Canadian Pacific, and with dynamic brakes:

 

 

Then a GP38-2 - more internal electrical changes, and a few external differences. Originally built for the Soo Line, later taken over by CP. No dynamic brakes - the Soo system was generally much flatter than parts of the CP.

 

 

The fence at this location is really inconvenient for photography. Up close, you have to try to shoot through the mesh, or by holding the camera above your head - not great for composition.  Plus you're below track level, so the lower parts of the train is hidden. Where I took these from is across a road from the fence, but it still gets in the way.

[pH]

Canadian Pacific GP38-2 #7304 is still around here in Delaware and Hudson colours. Here it is heading a local today with another GP38-2 - #3026. (Rushed phone picture - apologies.)

 

 

I still haven't seen any of the SD70ACus (SD90MAC rebuilds) painted in the heritage (7010 to 7019) or military themed (7020-7023 and 6644) colourschemes. Heritage units have made it to Port Coqitlam, but I've not seen pictures of any of the military themed units west of Ontario (except for their rollout at Ogden Shops in Calgary). I should probably go looking east of PoCo yards - the SD70ACus appear to be used as road units only as far as there.

 

 

[pH]

A shot of the Skytrain in Port Moody today. This train has just emerged from the tunnel section of the Evergreen Extension of the Millennium Line.

 

 

 

This is an ALRT system. ALRT now stands for Advanced Light Rapid Transit. When it was first used, it was said to mean Automated Light Rapid Transit - it is a driverless system - but it was decided that people might not be too comfortable being reminded of that, hence the change. 

[pH]

Canadian National SD60 #5482 on the longest train I have ever seen here hauled by a single unit. Quite a few container cars on the head end, mostly double-stacks as in the picture, followed by a huge tail of empty well cars. Photo taken this morning in Burnaby. It shows how small the locomotive looks (!!) compared to the doublestack containers.

 

[pH]

Canadian Pacific AC4400CW #9803 switching at Port Coquitlam yards on March 8:

 

 

Unusual to see an AC being used for switching. Usually pairs of 4-axle units or occasionally pairs of SD30C-ECoS (or a combination of the two).

Edited March 10, 2020 by pH

[pH]

Lots of action around the Port Coquitlam CP yard this morning. The usual couple of 4-axle units switching, a GP38AC/GP38-2 pair, but I didn't manage to get a good picture of them. However, there was also a pair of heavier units switching the flat yard - SD30C-ECO #5047 and SD60 #6240:

 

 

 

A westbound grain train was waiting for a new crew for the short trip into the port of Vancouver. From left (i.e. lead unit) to right - ES44AC #8742, AC4400CWM #8121 and ES44AC #8771:

 

 

And a very long eastbound train of grain empties passed through.  From lead unit backwards - AC4400CWM #8014, ES44AC #8943 and ES44AC #9368:

 

 

Edited March 13, 2020 by pH
Reduce size of attachment

[pH]

Some pictures from Barnet, a former station between Port Moody and Vancouver on the CP mainline, this afternoon.

 

Just to prove that's where I was:

 

 

Signal posts for westbound trains on both tracks:

 

 

First eastbound West Coast Express of the evening service. F59PHI #902 leading.

 

 

Grain empties from the port of Vancouver to Port Coquitlam yards. ES44ACs #8908 and 9368, very unusually both running backwards (reverse elephant style?):

 

 

Closer shot of the locos:

 

 

and one for Newbryford - parked track maintenance machines. (Sorry, Mick, I couldn't get a better shot.)

 

Edited March 20, 2020 by pH

[pH]

Canadian Pacific ES44AC #8798 in Port Coquitlam this afternoon. I think these big AC units look impressive from this angle. (Plus, the 'approaching' shot was against the light and pretty washed-out .)

 

[pH]

Yesterday, we went for a walk near where eastbound trains leaving the CP Port Coquitlam yards cross the Pitt River at the beginning of their journey. There was obviously a train being built, but we carried on walking, under the CP tracks to the north side. Then I heard the train on the move, onto the bridge over the river. I ran back to the tracks, but didn't have time to cross under the tracks again to the south side, so could only shoot against the sun. Here's the best of the pictures I got:

 

 

The train was massive, completely made up of grain empties. Unusually, it had 2 CN units and 2 CP units and, more unusually since it was running on CP tracks, the CN units were leading.

 

From front to back (i.e. left to right in the picture) CN SD70M-2 #8833, CN SD75I #5772, CP ES44AC #8756 and CP AC4400CW #9740.

[pH]

A few pictures from Nelson, BC taken over the last few weeks.

 

Canadian Locomotive Company (CLC) CPA 16-4 #4104 'stuffed and mounted' at the former Nelson passenger station. I've seen it several times before, but this was the first time I could get a clear side-on shot without parked cars. This is a license-built Fairbanks-Morse design:

 

 

SD30C-ECO #5003 and GP20C-ECO #2291 building a train in the Nelson yards, which they would take out eastwards later in the day:

 

 

 

 

 

A threequarters-front shot of SD30C-ECO #5002 outside the yard office:

 

 

 

[daveyb]

On 09/03/2018 at 19:34, pH said:

No active trains today. However, here's a picture of a picture on a local information board. There were several lumber mills in the area (the last one is about to be closed, and condos built on the site) and this is a picture of the log dump at one of them:

 

 

Anyone like to guess at the builder of the loco? (I don't know.)

 

And here's the boiler and firebox of what I presume (given where it is) was one of the engines used on the line to that same mill:

 

 

I have posted a picture of this before, but it's been absorbed into the forest even more since then.

 

I said when I dug out my copy of Logging by Rail: The British Columbia Story by Robert D Turner, that I might be able to identify the loco.  I have finally gone through the boxes and found the book but not the photo!

 

The similar picture I was referring to (in post nearly 2 years ago) in the book is a different loco.  Who knows? I may even have been looking at the same photo as pH when I said it was familiar. 

 

I suspect it may have been a Baldwin as suggested as they were commonly used in the area and would have been passed down to logging companies as the mainline work and even shunting became too heavy.  Two documented examples that are similar and had a mainline past were Comox Logging Nos 7 & 16, both dating from 1910 and both starting with the Pacific Great Eastern before being transferred to logging subsidiary and sold to Comox in 1920.  Both were initially preserved on static display but have now been either broken or moved in pieces.

 

 

[pH]

3 hours ago, daveyb said:

I said when I dug out my copy of Logging by Rail: The British Columbia Story by Robert D Turner, that I might be able to identify the loco.  I have finally gone through the boxes and found the book but not the photo!

I’ve actually had that book on hold at the library since immediately before the lockdown. They’ve just opened up a bit, and you can ask at the front desk for them to bring your holds out to you. I’ll be interested to see if there’s anything in it about that logging railway.

 

I also have on hold “The Fraser Valley Challenge - An Illustrated Account of Logging and Sawmilling in the Fraser Valley”. That might also have something. Although Port Moody isn’t actually in the Valley, I do know that line went some way east, so may be mentioned.

[pH]

On 13/07/2020 at 19:49, daveyb said:

 

I said when I dug out my copy of Logging by Rail: The British Columbia Story by Robert D Turner, that I might be able to identify the loco.  I have finally gone through the boxes and found the book but not the photo!

 

Daveyb, I think I've found the photo you were referring to. It's on page 54 of “Logging By Rail”. It is taken from closer to (on?) the approach to the log dump but the loco looks the same, and details of the approach are the same (wooden ladder down from the deck near the slope of the dump, single-plank platform to the side under the second log car from the camera). However, the caption in “Logging By Rail' says this dump is near Campbell River, not Port Moody.

 

Our local library (Port Moody) has an online exhibit called “Lumbermills of Port Moody”. In it, there is a picture titled “A train dumping logs at McNair Mill” (the original photo I posted is part of an information board at the site of McNair's mill):

 

http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/sgc-cms/histoires_de_chez_nous-community_stories/pm_v2.php?id=display_original&lg=English&fl=0&rd=106614&ex=414

 

This is obviously taken at the same place as that original photo (the wooden ladder is there again) – so we have 2 pictures saying it's at Port Moody, and Turner's book saying it's near Campbell River. The background could certainly fit Port Moody, but it is pretty indistinct.

 

The engine in that photo is different – it's a Climax. McNair's did have a Climax. Again from the Port Moody museum exhibit, titled “McNair's Logging Railway”:

 

http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/sgc-cms/histoires_de_chez_nous-community_stories/pm_v2.php?id=display_original&lg=English&fl=0&rd=106657&ex=414

 

but this looks different from the one at the log dump – different stack (perhaps removable)and differences in the bunker.

 

So who built the loco in the original picture I posted? I think it came from the Canadian Locomotive Company. The caption to the picture on page 54 of “Logging By Rail” does not give the make of the loco in the picture. However, the index to the book indicates that there is picture on page 54 of a loco built by CLC – I think it's this one, not the Shay. There is a picture of a CLC-built engine with McNair's name on it:

 

https://www.alamy.com/canadian-forest-industries-1916-lumbering-forests-and-forestry-forest-products-wood-pulp-industry-wood-using-industries-logging-locomotives-made-in-canada-our-fifty-years-ex-perience-in-the-design-and-manufacture-of-logging-locomotives-is-at-your-disposal-many-of-the-largest-logging-operators-in-canada-are-using-our-canadian-madequot-locomotives-our-logging-models-are-as-carefully-design-ed-and-built-as-our-200-ton-sizesoil-or-coal-burning-may-we-send-you-specifications-this-engine-is-34-ins-x-18-ins-and-weighs-35-tons-canadian-locomotive-company-limited-kingston-o-image233528372.html?pv=1&stamp=2&imageid=EDD4D4E0-529C-4AEF-8DBC-D5F268FF79D5&p=792984&n=0&orientation=0&pn=1&searchtype=0&IsFromSearch=1&srch=foo%3dbar%26st%3d0%26pn%3d1%26ps%3d100%26sortby%3d2%26resultview%3dsortbyPopular%26npgs%3d0%26qt%3dcanadian%20locomotive%20company%26qt_raw%3dcanadian%20locomotive%20company%26lic%3d3%26mr%3d0%26pr%3d0%26ot%3d0%26creative%3d%26ag%3d0%26hc%3d0%26pc%3d%26blackwhite%3d%26cutout%3d%26tbar%3d1%26et%3d0x000000000000000000000%26vp%3d0%26loc%3d0%26imgt%3d0%26dtfr%3d%26dtto%3d%26size%3d0xFF%26archive%3d1%26groupid%3d%26pseudoid%3d%26a%3d%26cdid%3d%26cdsrt%3d%26name%3d%26qn%3d%26apalib%3d%26apalic%3d%26lightbox%3d%26gname%3d%26gtype%3d%26xstx%3d0%26simid%3d%26saveQry%3d%26editorial%3d1%26nu%3d%26t%3d%26edoptin%3d%26customgeoip%3d%26cap%3d1%26cbstore%3d1%26vd%3d0%26lb%3d%26fi%3d2%26edrf%3d%26ispremium%3d1%26flip%3d0%26pl%3d

 

That is a catalogue picture, and the same loco appears with different names on the tank. However, I think it does show that CLC probably did build an engine for McNair's. So I think the loco in the original picture I posted was built by CLC.

 

(Edit - huge links like that one used to be shortened on upload - does that not happen anymore, or am I not doing something I should?

Edited July 19, 2020 by pH

[daveyb]

I agree that it would be that Pg54 is the same loco you posted and it does suggest a CLC product.  I don't think it is the same loco as your Alamy stock link above. The generator is not visible on the link above the front of the cab.

 

Unless we can find a further corroboration as to which location is correct... A whole other hunt. If you can still stand on the Port Moody location you may be able to match the skyline beyond against your earliest photo.

 

It's a fascinating area.

 

 

[pH]

Port Moody this afternoon. A container train, with CN locos, heading east on CP tracks from the terminal in Vancouver, was being held on the north track west of the crossovers at Port Moody station. A westbound CP grain train was also being held on the north track, east of the crossovers. An eastbound Westcoast Express commuter train passed on the south track, stopping at Port Moody. Once it had cleared, the container train was crossed over on to the south track. Fortunately, it was a relatively short train and should have been able to stay ahead of the next Westcoast Express, due in 30 minutes, to the yards in Port Coquitlam. Once it had crossed over, the CP grain train proceeded towards Vancouver.

 

Here is the CN container train crossing over, with the CP grain train visible in the distance. Locos on the container train are ES44DC #2227 and ET44AC #3189.

 

 

[pH]

In the carpark of a garden centre in Burnaby this morning, I heard a train approaching on the rail line along the side of the carpark. I had to run back to the car for the camera in the glovebox, and so I missed the headend locos, but it was a long train, and I got back in plenty of time to photograph the two pushers. The train was potash empties going east. The pushers were Union Pacific ET44AH #2679:

 

and Canadian Pacific SD70ACU #7043:

 

This is the first SD70ACU I've seen. They are a group of locos rebuilt from Canadian Pacific SD9043MACs, which were almost complete failures and had been stored out of use for some time. They're still arriving from the rebuilders, Progress Rail in the US.  

 

There was also a westbound train of potash loads waiting to move. Potash appears to be very corrosive. You can see the heavy streaking on the car in the picture of #7043 above. However, that is nothing compared with this car in the train:

 

Anybody want to try reproducing that weathering? Most, but not all, PTEX cars have a logo and the name 'Canpotex' in that clear area. I wonder if it's treated with something in preparation for a decal/vinyl being applied.

[DavidLong]

Deeply envious! I wish that there was a garden centre like that near me and, even if there was, the view would be blotted out by Network Rail's accursed eight foot high paling fence.

 

David

[pH]

42 minutes ago, DavidLong said:

Deeply envious! I wish that there was a garden centre like that near me and, even if there was, the view would be blotted out by Network Rail's accursed eight foot high paling fence.

 

David

I will agree that it’s a good place for train watching. I can’t remember the last time we visited and I didn’t see at least one train passing. (Though that may have something to do with the length of each visit!)

 

But the view isn’t unobstructed for photography. The two pictures of the units were taken from the top of a pile of dirt which was in the way of a shot from the car park itself. And the picture of the hopper was taken through the mesh of a chain-link fence.