Canadian Railroads > East Wye Switch, Ft. Steele

What a beautiful location!

Just another photo from AltaMont 2014 from a nice Cranbrook weekend.

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Photos from Canadian Thanksgiving on American Thanksgiving. Good one Al.

Rick

It always blows my mind away how different this stuff looks away from the tracks. Tested through here a couple times.

Almost forgot, awesome picture!

Jim



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/28/14 06:02 by tq-07fan.

Beautiful! Interesting trackage as well. Note the curve in top of the picture allows a train to reverse direction.

Great shot.
JB

I'm sure the maintenance workers at the park were wondering where all the crazy fans came form that weekend!
-Trevor

The workers took it all in stride, even Steamer the cat came over for a meet and greet as long as we were there.

Crews in Cranbrook yard were radioing reports of 6-8 people on the property with cameras but I think they were gone before the SAs showed up. It was a very good time with a good level of traffic.

Posted from Windows Phone OS 7

This wye type junction between the Cranbrook and Windermere Subs. was new in the early 1970's.

When the Libby Dam was built near Libby MT, the Kootenai River behind the dam widened to become Lake Koocanusa (Kootenay-Canada-USA). Famously, this caused BN to relocate their main line between Stryker and Libby MT.

It also caused CP to relocate twenty or so miles of the Cranbrook Subdivision from Cranbrook to Wardner BC from the south shore of the Kootenay River to the north. Also, the junction between the east-west Cranbrook Sub. and the north-south Windermere Sub. was moved from Colvalli BC near Wardner to Fort Steele.

At the same time, BC Highway 3 was also re-aligned, hence the clover leaf style junction just south of Fort Steele.

Guess who paid for all these changes? Whoever built the Libby Dam, most likely the US taxpayers. Thanks.

I noticed the old row on the south side of the river coming into Cranbrook from the east. It seems there is now a pipeline buried there and a walking path on top.

The dam is either US Army Corps of Engineers or the US Bureau of Reclamation. So you get a lake whether you want it or not. Enjoy the fishing and recreation opportunities.

EDIT:
The dam was built and is operated by the US Army Corps of Engineers.

http://www.nws.usace.army.mil/Missions/CivilWorks/LocksandDams/LibbyDam.aspx


Posted from Windows Phone OS 7



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/29/14 21:03 by fbe.

fbe Wrote:
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> I noticed the old row on the south side of the
> river coming into Cranbrook from the east. It
> seems there is now a pipeline buried there and a
> walking path on top.
>

CP kept ownership of several rights of way to lease out to fibre optic cable companies and pipeline companies.

The Libby Dam relocation eliminated a small but difficult summit at Eager between Cranbrook and Wardner in a scenic little canyon.

Part of the town of Wardner was relocated, and two parallel truss bridges (highway and railway)at Wardner were removed. The CP reused the truss spans on the Fording Sub,, but the highway trusses remained standing in the river without approach spans for a decade or so.

The Libby Dam also put to rest any chance the BN would build a line into the Crowsnest Pass in competition to the CP. BN would have used the long abandoned GN right of way from Rexford MT to Elko BC. In Canada it would have been the Kootenay & Elk Railway which was granted a charter by BC Premier W.A.C Bennett.

BN got paid to relocate over the Flathead tunnel line. I think both the BN and CP relocations were carried out by Morrison Knudsen.

I also noticed that right of way east of Cranbrook, but didn't think much about it until reading this thread. Thanks for the detailed information on the line relocations, Phil. I just spent far too much time tracing it on Google Maps and also looking for some online maps, but have not found anything yet.

Paul Birkholz
Sheridan, WY

VERY NICE....!!!