Trip From 13/7/2010 to 30/7/2010

This trip has a extended 'trip report' to go straight to the gallery Click Here.

British Columbia

Former British Columbia Railway:
The British Columbia Railway was originally the Pacific Great Eastern and start from Squiamish and went northwards not having a land connection with another railway for most of its existence. The bankrupt railway got taken over by the province of British Columbia and later become British Columbia Railway. The Railway reached Prince George and where it crossed the CN line to Prince Rupert in the early 1950s and was then extended at the south end to meet CN at North Vancouver. The line from North Vancouver to Prince George became the main line with up to 3 through trains per day each way by the 1980s. Lines were built north of Prince George with the aim once being to build a line to Alaska however despite grading 500 miles of line on the Dease Lake extension most of this was never used. The most northern point of the railway is Fort Nelson about 500 miles north of Prince George. The north of Prince George crosses the Rockies at Pine Pass, which is the lowest crossing of any railway in North America. Chetwynd just north of Pine Pass is the Junction for Dawson Creek where BC Rail met the Northern Alberta Railway (now CN) which is currently disused. The province of BC sold BC Rail to CN in 2004 who when rerouted most Prince-George-Vancouver traffic over there own longer but faster route.

Today the former main line only had one through train each way per day. The lines to the north of Prince George still have a fair amount of local traffic normally a train to Chetwynd everyday and another local out to somewhere. Local trains run out of Chetwynd to Dawson Creek and to Fort St John on alternation days. A train runs from Fort St John to Fort Nelson 3 times a week.

The first few days of the trip were spent heading up north to Dawson Creek alongside the former British Columbia Railway much of the time. Despite BC Rail having been owned by CN for the last 6 years quite a lot of BC Rail power still seems to be at home on the former BC Rail System. Train 571 North Vancouver-Prince George and train 569 Squiamish-Lillooet are combined from Squiamish-Lillooet meaning the train has 6 locos on for this portion of the trip. At Lillooet the front 3 locos of train 571/569 come off to form train 568 Lillooet-Squamish back south. On 13th July 2010 this gave way to 3 BC Rail Dash8-40CMs leading train 571 from Lillooet to Prince George leaving Lillooet mid morning.

Despite Lillooet being one of the hottest and sunniest places in Canada train 571 is seen climbing out of the Fraser River Canyon from Lillooet in the dull. Train 571 passed the southbound train 570 near Chasm mid afternoon. Train 571 was booked into Williams Lake around 5pm and Prince George early the following morning.

North of Prince Geroge on 14th July 2010 the tri weekly train 581 Prince George to Mackenzie left early morning with a BC Rail Dash9-44CWL (a standard GE Dash 9 with a Canadian cab) leading the train made it to the Junction for the Mackenzie spur around 11am. Heading east towards Chetwynd the daily train 472 Chetwynd Prince George was seen around Azouzetta with 3 CN locos and a BC Rail Dash8-40CM in the middle of the consist. The tri weekly Train 578 Dawson Creek-Chetwynd was seen ready to leave once we arrived at Dawson Creek which departed around 5pm.
A table of all known trains of BC Rail is seen below:

Canadian National Main:
In Jasper from 15th July to 17th July and the normal regular stream of traffic averaging about 3 trains an hour in either direction meaning you don’t have to look for a train and have a higher chance than not of seeing a train if you just wait lineside. All trains call out there train number over the Radio so with a scanner you know what the train is when it comes. The Canadian Trackside Guide lists all trains on CP/CN so it is known where every train is going/coming from. The line is mainly open to the east of Jasper meaning they are many possible photo opportunities unlike the CP line to the south which is mainly treed in.

Canadian Pacific Main:
In Banff from the 17th July 19th July and in contrast to the CN mainline the CP line seems to almost always be dead during the day due to Maintenance of Way work. When trains did start moving the line did get quite busy this seemed to co inside with the time the Rocky Mountaineer was about as the line had to be open for that. Heading west towards Kamloops more trains were seen west of Golden where coal the coal trains join the main line. East of Kamloops on the Suswap Subdivision about 10 trains were parked waiting for Maintenance of Way work to finsh.


A number of CEFX lease AC4400s were seen which always seemed to be on the front. This one is seen leading a eastbound manifest just west of Rogers where the lines split for the climb over Rogers Pass. The track to the left is the 1980s built Mount Macdonald track which goes through the Mount 7 mile Macdonald Tunnel at a level elevation from the line to the right which is the 1920s built Connaught Tunnel track which goes through a shorter tunnel at a higher elevation. The original 1885 built line went over the top of Rogers Pass.

Thompson Canyon:
Despite the Thompson and Fraser River Canyons being the busiest line Western Canyon where CP and CN are alongside each other only one train was photographed from mid morning on the 20th July due to work windows and only eastbound trains running which are not photoable in the afternoon. One westbound CP train was seen on the CP line instead of the CN line, which all Westbound should use west of Basque.

Alaska

The 21st July to the 29th July were spent in Alaska. Excluding the scheduled passenger trains, trains were few and far between. Only 2 coal trains were seen which start at Healy north of Denali National Park and go to Seward export. The daily freights in each direction leave Fairbanks/Anchorage leave both ends around 9pm after both passenger trains arrive and arrive at the other end early the following morning. An Oil train was seen leaving Fairbanks around 9pm heading east to North Pole which is likely to of been back in Fairbanks before the following morning. The twice weekly freight to Whittier to connect with the barge was seen at Whittier as well as a work train out of the mainline north of Anchorage was about most days. The weather in general was not good with only one sunny morning and the odd bit of sunshine in the day resulting in only about 3 ‘full sun’ photos of moving trains.


The Whittier freight is seen shunting around at Whittier wagons off the barge connecting with the rest of the North American rail system.


A work train is seen heading back to Anchorage at Cantwell south of Denali National Park with 3 GP40-2s.

BCOL 4621 is seen leading a rare matching consist of fomer BC Rail C40-8Ms north at Pavillon climbing out of the Fraser River Canyon - 13/07/2010	BCOL 4642 is seen leading train #581 the 'Mackenzie Switcher' north into the northern wilds of British Columbia between Odell and Summit Lake. Despite CN taking over BC Rail in 2004 it is still possible to get BC locos on the point in 2010. - 14/07/2010	BCOL 4642 is seen beside the John Hart Highway heading north to Mackenzie on train 581 - 14/07/2010	BCOL 5642 is seen leading train 581 north of McEwan - 14/07/2010
CN 2631 is seen leading train 472 Chetwynd-Prince George south near Azouzetta - 14/07/2010	BCOL 4617 is seen leading train 578 Dawson Creek-Chetwynd out of Dawson Creek, BC - 14/07/2010	BCOL 4617 and 4623 are seen leading train 578 west outside Dawson Creek. - 14/07/2010	CN 2269 is seen leading train 417 west at Henry House outside Jasper, Alberta - 15/07/2010
CN 8912 is seen leading 'hotshot' train number 112 east at Henry House - 15/07/2010	CN 8847 is seen leadaing an unknown eastbound train at Henry House - 15/078/2010	CN 2691 is seen ledaing eastbound 'hotshot' number 112 just outside Jasper - 16/07/2010	CN 8872 is seen leading intermodel 198 from Prince Rupert east leaving Jasper - 17/07/2010
CN 8803 is seen leading a westbound coal number 779 into Japser - 17/07/2010	CN 8870 is seen leading eastbound train 302 out of Jasper - 17/07/2010	CP 8648 is seen leading a westbound double stack out of Lake Loiuse, Alberta climbing Kicking Horse Pass - 17/07/2010	RMRX 8012 is seen leading the eastbound Rocky Mountainer into Lake Loiuse on the orignal track alingment now the eastbound track the 1980s westbound track can be seen above - 17/07/2010
CP 8606 is seen leading a westbound intermodel out of Lake Loiuse - 17/07/2010	CP 8606 is seen desending Kicking Horse Pass just west of Stephen at the start of the 2.2% grade down to Field - 17/07/2010	CP 8737 is seen leading a westbound intermodel downgrade just west of Stephen - 17/07/2010	CP 8640 is seen with an eastbound intermodel waiting to leave Field to climb up the 2.2% grade to the summit at Stephen - 18/07/2010
CP 8732 is seen leading a westbound coal out of Revelstoke heading to Roberts Bank - 19/07/2010	CN 8855 is seen leading a local freight south out of Ashcroft alongside the Thompson River - 20/07/2010	Alaska 2001 is seen leading the daily Anchorage-Seward passenger train south desending Moose Pass - 23/07/2010	ARR 2001 is seen crossing the Snow River on the approach to Seward - 23/07/2010
ARR 2001 is seen at Seward having arrived from Anchorage - 23/07/2010	Alaska 4325 is seen leading the daily northbound Anchorage-Fairbanks passenger north out of Denali Park Depot - 27/07/2010	Alaska 4325 is seen leading the Anchorage-Fairbanks passenger train north past Healy (3rd time lucky at getting this shot in sun) - 27/07/2010	Alaska 4009 is seen arriving at Healy with an empty coal train to be loaded for export at Seward - 28/07/2010

All Photos © Copyright Jonathan Lewis and may not be re-used without permission. Please e-mail jonathan@milepost39.co.uk if you require a high resolution image.