Canadian Railroads > Some Northern Alberta Branch Line Action

Yesterday I spend some time trackside around Edmonton Alberta, in the hopes of catching an ex. BC Rail GE leading a westbound freight. When that plan didn't pan out, I decided to follow CN train L591 north of the city. L591 is designated as a Westlock Sub. spotter, and usually runs north from Edmonton as far as Westlock (52.5 miles) spotting and lifting industires as required. Today's train made an infrequent trip up the 12 mile Athabaska Spur starting at Morniville AB. The Athabaska spur is all that remains of the former branch line to Athabasca Alberta. Currently, the branch ends at Legal (pronnounced La-Gal which is French). Power for today's train is all vintage EMD products, an SD40-2, GP40-2W and SD40-2W set.

#1 L591 heads north on the Athabaska spur, a couple miles south of Legal AB
#2 The head end passes one of two remaining wooden elevators on the line
#3 the conductor of L591 and an elevator employee discuss the spotting of empties as SD40-2 #5366 looks on.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/29/15 16:48 by tsokolan.

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#4. The power uses the elevator track to run around the empties
#5 Trying to get a shot through the open elevator door
#6 The conductor guides the cut back.
After completing its work, the crew of L591 ran the light engines south to Edmonton, and I headed home for a late dinner date!
-Trevor

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Cute Conductor, mine were always grumpy old men.   Doug

hoggerdoug Wrote:
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> Cute Conductor, mine were always grumpy old
> men.   Doug

... unlike the Hogger!

Imagine having a girlfriend who could give you cab rides ...  :-?

Trevor, I hope you've left some time to go to Commonwealth Stadium to cheer on our Matilda's.  Remember that Australia has the same colours as the Eskimos.

Rick



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/27/15 12:40 by rschonfelder.

A good photo story!

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