Canadian Railroads > Saskatchewan Adventure Part 1

Last week I headed to Saskatchewan to join a friend for some of the NARCOA Saskatchewan Shortline runs. I headed east along the Yellowhead Hwy 16 stopping for trains on the way to Saskatoon. CN's Prairie North Line, or PNL for short, is close to the highway for much of the drive. 

1) CN L507 works around the Lloydminster area serving the customers, switching the yards and building lifts for the through freights. It took me some time to find this job as I wasn't aware CN built a decent sized yard east of Lloydminster for customer car storage and switching mainline blocks. Two of the former NAR SD38-2s usually hold down this assignment. There are only 3 SD38-2s left on CN and 1650 (exCN 5700; NAR 401) and 1652 (exCN 5702; NAR 403) were switching on this day. 

2) CN 1650 had some rather interesting made in Saskatoon cab side numbers applied.

3) Train G829 was just departing Marshall after lifting the big Pioneer elevator just east of this spot.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/28/15 10:42 by CP9300.

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After a quick visit in Saskatoon, I ended the night in Assiniboia. The next morning looked promising with plenty of trains on CP's Weyburn Sub that runs from the US border at North Portal to Moose Jaw,SK.

4) First up was train 295 heading north through the iconic (to fans of the show Corner Gas) town of Rouleau,SK, better known as the fictional town of Dog River.

5) The gas station and the Ruby restaurant where a lot of the filming for Corner Gas took place.

6) We relocated north to Pitman where the next northbound, grain load 369 led by UP 3744, met empty counterpart 368.

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7) Train 368 gets underway leaving Pitman with UP 5513 leading.

8) Saskatchewan colors.

9) CP 369 passes the other side of the Dog River elevator in Rouleau.

 

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10) Milestone, SK

11) Lang, SK

12) The last shot of 369 was passing the 2 big elevators in Weyburn, SK. This train would continue on to North Portal for a crew change and head to the US for loading.

Hope you enjoyed Part 1, there is much more to follow.

Cheers, A.J.

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CP9300 Wrote:
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> 5) The gas station and the Ruby restaurant where a
> lot of the filming for Corner Gas took place.

I thought that gas station looked vaguely familiar. Nice series of photos!

KC

Good stuff A.J. Looking forward to the rest.

Bob Ritchie
Chase, BC

Great photos, neat area to see represented. Are those open hoppers on the siding in photo #3? If so, what do they carry; is it related to the elevator?

I loved that show.  We only got three seasons down here in Aus.  It always killed me that they were going to the Grey Cup in Regina with only a jacket on; clearly filmed in the summer.

Great photos. 

Rick

inCHI Wrote:
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> Great photos, neat area to see represented. Are
> those open hoppers on the siding in photo #3? If
> so, what do they carry; is it related to the
> elevator?

Those hoppers are indeed open top hoppers and are being stored there at Marshall. I believe they are used to haul petroleum coke from the upgrader at Lloydminster. I will add a close up of one of the unique blue cars in the next day or so.

A.J.