Occasional Canadian photos, mostly from Vancouver area

[pH]

Not sure what this is. It looks like a burnt out space capsule sitting in a field. Any ideas?

 

 

That (they remind me of Daleks) is a beehive burner - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beehive_burner . No longer permitted.

 

 

Some PW wagons. Canada's answer to Wickham trolleys. 

 

  

  

Those aren't just trolleys (usually known as 'speeders' here) - they are track maintenance machines. Here's a set on the move: 

 

 

And a couple of individual ones:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Johann Marsbar]

Some non-standard North American motive power that I photographed on a trip to Vancouver back in 2002........

 

 

There were 3 Hunslet shunters which worked a grain terminal down on the waterfront ("numbered" A, B and C).  All have now been withdrawn from service and I'm not sure wheter the terminal exists as such nowadays, not that I have been to Vancouver again since then.

[PhilJ W]

Some non-standard North American motive power that I photographed on a trip to Vancouver back in 2002........

 

02-136.JPG

 

There were 3 Hunslet shunters which worked a grain terminal down on the waterfront ("numbered" A, B and C).  All have now been withdrawn from service and I'm not sure wheter the terminal exists as such nowadays, not that I have been to Vancouver again since then.

Like the bells and the buckeye couplings.

[dibber25]

I seem to recall featuring those Hunslet shunters way back in the 1980s in Model Railway Constructor - probably when Don Townsley, the Hunslet Chief Draughtsman, supplied a drawing. (CJL)

[peach james]

I seem to recall featuring those Hunslet shunters way back in the 1980s in Model Railway Constructor - probably when Don Townsley, the Hunslet Chief Draughtsman, supplied a drawing. (CJL)

 

Yes MRC did feature them in a Datafile, I have a copy downstairs.

 

https://flic.kr/p/7zPRqS

 

That was one of them in 2010, when I had an all access dockyard pass for a couple of weeks- until we got told no more wandering the dockyard because the joggers were a hazard to the trucks.

 

James

[newbryford]

Like the bells and the buckeye couplings.

 

And the extended perspex sheets above the cabside windows - although one appears to be missing on the right hand loco.

[PhilJ W]

And the extended perspex sheets above the cabside windows - although one appears to be missing on the right hand loco.

Its there but not easily spotted due to the angle of the camera/light.

[talisman56]

I hope others don't mind my adding my little bit to this thread...

 

I was in western Canada in September, starting in Calgary and ending up on Vancouver Island. A few railway related pictures were taken.

 

Jasper, AB

 

The first one is of the eastbound 'Canadian' disappearing into the distance after its stop at Jasper. A freight train had just left westbound, releasing the road for the 'Canadian' to continue its journey. If only I'd been about 15 minutes earlier...

 

Later in the day, CN EMD SD75I 5764 and CSX GE C40-8W 7362 wait the road with a westbound manifest train

 

CN U-1-a 4-8-2 #6015 on display at Jasper Station

 

VIARail coach on a spur at Jasper station

 

A hurried snap of CN GE ES44AC 2891 and 3803 on a westbound freight

 

...and finally for this post, we were happy to see our transport for the next day arrive safely. RMRX EMD GP40-2LW 8012 and 8011

Edited December 22, 2018 by talisman56

[talisman56]

2nd batch, pictures from the Rocky Mountaineer approaching and around Kamloops. We were severely delayed leaving Jasper due to a defective locomotive on a preceeding freight train, so later in the day the speed got a bit 'up there' and we seemed to get some priority over eastbound freights. Apologies for the quality of some pictures, as they were being taken from inside a moving train...

 

Crossing CN GE ES44DC 2221 + another on a eastbound grain empty

 

The Rocky Mountaineer loco and rolling stock sheds are just north of Kamloops, RMRX EMD GP40-2R 8016 alone in the yard...

 

...and some of the Red Leaf class coaches in storage.

 

We had a bit of a word about the bogie under the verandah on our Gold Leaf bi-level coach and they obviously did some work overnight, as the very noticeable noise from the wheel flats was missing when we boarded the enlarged train and got moving next morning. A train double the size, but only two locos at the head, a RMRX GP40-2LW and a GP40-2R.

 

We left Kamloops on the CN lines, and on the other side of the lake we could see the CP lines. A pair of CP locos (a SD30C-ECO and a GP38-2 *) head a westbound manifest.

 

And later, a CP GE ES44AC * is a helper at the rear of an eastbound grain.

 

* I'm open to correction on this...

Edited December 22, 2018 by talisman56

[pH]

* I'm open to correction on this...

At that distance ☺ ????

[talisman56]

At that distance ☺ ????

 

Click on the photo, make it bigger - then zoom in...

[talisman56]

More of day 2...

 

Approaching Black Canyon, got a better picture of the head of the train...

 

CP eastbound intermodal (1) - CP GE ES44AC 8854 and GE AC4400CW 9770 at the head...

 

(2) CP GE ES44AC 8766 as a mid-train helper

 

(3) I took this shot, then realised the CP train had another mid-train helper, GE AC4400CW 8133

 

(4) ...and at the rear, a few autoracks and a rear end helper, CP GE AC4400CW 9737

 

Another eastbound intermodal, this time with CN motive power, GE C40-8M 2437 and EMD SD75I 5681

 

I could only get one shot of this one, CN (ex-BC Rail) GE C40-8M BCOL4615, graffitied UP-liveried GE C41-8W 9497 and CN GE ES44DC 2233

Edited February 9, 2019 by talisman56

[pH]

Click on the photo, make it bigger - then zoom in...

I'll agree with the SD30C-ECO, but I don't know about the GP38-2! Half-seriously, it could be a GP38AC - CP have some, and I've seen one in Kamloops. Not at all seriously - I can't see whether or not it has a sight glass to confirm .

[talisman56]

I'll agree with the SD30C-ECO, but I don't know about the GP38-2! Half-seriously, it could be a GP38AC - CP have some, and I've seen one in Kamloops. Not at all seriously - I can't see whether or not it has a sight glass to confirm .

 

At least I got the GP38 bit right...

[talisman56]

Last lot, a couple of infrastructure pictures and Thornton Yard, Vancouver.

 

Approaching Cisco Crossing.

 

The CP bridge.

 

Our train on the CN bridge.

 

CN EMD SD60 5473

 

CN EMD SD60 5460 with some battle-scars.

 

CSX-liveried GE C40-8W GECX7329.

 

BNSF GE ES44C4 7922, with a couple of CN yard slugs in the left background (#248 + another).

[Wendell1976]

Approaching Cisco Crossing.

_DSC4917.JPG

 

The CP bridge.

_DSC4924.JPG

 

I really like the pictures that you had shared of Cisco, British Columbia, Canada(with the bridge over the Fraser River). Model Railroader magazine had just started an article series(in the January 2019 issue) that will span over the next few months about the N scale Canadian Canyons layout. The layout features the Fraser and Thompson River canyons in British Columbia.

 

Wendell

Idaho, USA

Edited January 1, 2019 by Wendell1976

[Johann Marsbar]

One going back almost 30 years - to my first visit to Canada- BC Rail RS-18 #601 (still in BCR livery) at North Vancouver on 21st July 1989....

 

[pH]

A few recent pictures.

 

A picture window at Port Moody Skytrain (rapid transit) station, showing a famous Canadian photograph of the first transcontinental arriving in the original Canadian Pacific terminus in Port Moody in 1886: 

 

A couple of BNSF locos parked in the 'old yard' at New Westminster. #2359 is a GP38-2 and #2133 is a GP38AC. Both built in the 1970s for the Saint Louis-San Francisco Railway, absorbed into Burlington Northern in 1980 (and so into BNSF in 1996).

 

A wider view of BNSF engines at New Westminster. The two in the picture above are second and third from left in this picture. The one in the distance on the right is a modern AC engine. The one on the left is a FURX 'leaser'. It is a GP38-2, which has been rebuilt from what was originally a Southern Railway (no, not that one!), then Norfolk Southern GP38AC. I saw another couple of engines from the same batch at a grain elevator in Saskatchewan a couple of years ago. Skytrain on elevated track in the background.

 

One of a batch of coaches 'preserved' in a factory yard in New Westminster. They've been there for years, and used to be tarped, but they are uncovered now. As you can see, they're hard to photograph due to the jungle that's gradually grown up in front of them.

 

A view over the furthest west Canadian Pacific yards in downtown Vancouver, taken through a hotel window - hence the reflections from inside the room. The flat floating platform on the left is a heliport, the building at the left end of the long walkway is the terminal for ferries across Vancouver harbour and, on the right, the walkway comes from the former Canadian Pacific station. That station is now the terminal for the Westcoast Express suburban service, and two Skytrain lines. 4 of the 5 Westcoast Express trains (into Vancouver in the morning, out in the evening) are in the picture. Between the two rightmost ones, you can see a Skytrain (4 blue cars, two white) reversing at the end of its run.

[dibber25]

Some golden oldies, recently scanned from transparencies. Apologies for quality. British Columbia Railway RS3 and the ex-GMO passenger car 'Budd Wiser' forming the First Nations school train laying over in Lillooet yard. Southbound Cariboo Dayliner at the old Lillooet station, en route from Prince George to North Vancouver. Lincoln Grain centreflow hopper in a car park on Store Street in Victoria BC in 1976, and along the Green River from the rear cab of  a BC Rail Budd RDC. 

[newbryford]

On 03/02/2019 at 01:16, pH said:

A few recent pictures.

[snip]

 

A view over the furthest west Canadian Pacific yards in downtown Vancouver, taken through a hotel window - hence the reflections from inside the room. The flat floating platform on the left is a heliport, the building at the left end of the long walkway is the terminal for ferries across Vancouver harbour and, on the right, the walkway comes from the former Canadian Pacific station. That station is now the terminal for the Westcoast Express suburban service, and two Skytrain lines. 4 of the 5 Westcoast Express trains (into Vancouver in the morning, out in the evening) are in the picture. Between the two rightmost ones, you can see a Skytrain (4 blue cars, two white) reversing at the end of its run.

 

Would that photo be taken from the hotel in the background of this? (Taken from near the brick building in your pic)

F59PHI #902 in May 2017.

 

 

A different view of #902

 

And one from the walkway from the Skytrain terminal.

 

What does the yellow section on the roof of the double deckers denote?

 

Cheers,

Mick

Edited February 7, 2019 by newbryford

[pH]

5 hours ago, newbryford said:

 

Would that photo be taken from the hotel in the background of this? (Taken from near the brick building in your pic)

F59PHI #902 in May 2017.

 

To quote my almost-two-year-old grandson - "Nope!". (He's found out he can disagree.)

 

That isn't actually a hotel. It's an office block. On the roof - you can just see it - is a control tower handling the seaplanes landing and taking off in the harbour, the helicopters using the heliport, the cross-harbour ferries and the other shipping in the harbour.

 

The hotel the picture was taken from is the one on the cruise ship pier. From where your picture was taken, it's hidden behind that office building.

 

(Edit - having re-thunk, and looked again, the hotel is actually hidden by the loco, not the office building. The round bump on the roof of the loco is the top of the hotel - the Pan Pacific.)

 

Quote

 

 What does the yellow section on the roof of the double deckers denote?

 

 

Sorry, Mick, I don't know. Since it's not visible from platform level, it wouldn't seem to be intended to mean anything to passengers. 

Edited February 7, 2019 by pH

[talisman56]

On 07/02/2019 at 02:15, pH said:

 

On 06/02/2019 at 23:53, newbryford said:

What does the yellow section on the roof of the double deckers denote?

 

Cheers,

Mick

 

Sorry, Mick, I don't know. Since it's not visible from platform level, it wouldn't seem to be intended to mean anything to passengers. 

 

Seeing as every coach has it, and they're all in the same direction - 'This is the front' ?

Edited February 9, 2019 by talisman56

[pH]

3 hours ago, talisman56 said:

 

Seeing as every coach has it, and they're all in the same direction - 'This is the front' ?

 

But it's only "the front" going eastbound. Going westbound, it's "the back".

 

If it was to denote the way the car should be facing, covering that proportion of the roof in yellow paint seems a bit excessive. A 2x2 yellow panel on both sides of the car, at one end, would work as well. If necessary, include an 'E' for the eastbound end.  Also, since all the trailer cars (i.e. not the few control cars) appear to be symmetrical - I think they have toilets in both ends, though it's a while since I've been on one - why does it matter which way they are facing? Even if there's only a toilet in one end, orientation shouldn't matter.

 

As I said above, the yellow roof doesn't appear to be visible from platform level, so who is the indication (whatever it's indicating) meant for? To me, it's something for employees, not passengers, but who is looking at the cars from above?

 

I'm trying to think who I might ask. I don't think station staff would know, and you don't really come in contact with other staff.

Edited February 9, 2019 by pH

[Regularity]

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

[dibber25]

Similar cars used by GO Transit in Toronto have areas marked on the roof where emergency services can cut to gain access in emergency. The yellow areas may indicate that it's the easiest way in if the roof needs to be cut. (CJL)