Canadian Railroads > The Canadian (and a cab ride) - Field,BC -- Dec 82

(1-2)  I was riding from Montreal to Vancouver and got a few shots at Field, British Columbia on the Canadian Pacific

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(3-5)  ex CP FP7A #6566 and company are getting some fuel .
        My roomette was in the next to last car - a long walk back so I thought it doesn't hurt to ask.
        I was granted a cab ride to Golden.

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(6-7)  From the cab (on the dark side of the mountains), a lone elk makes its way across a frozen pond or river.

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(8-10)  I was having an interesting conversation with the crew and almost missed the eastbound Canadian.
The last shot is arrival in Golden,BC.
A  memorable cab ride throught he Rockies !

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Great shots!  You got lucky.

Randy Lundgren
Elgin, TX

Absolutely outstanding!  It doesn't get any better!
ALLEN

gcm Wrote:


>         I was granted a cab ride to Golden.

​This kind of stuff is why they are referred to as the good old days. 

That would never happen today. But apparently was not an infrequent occurrence on the Canadian back in the day. I was invited up once by the Conductor but needed to clear with the Engineer first. He said no. 

I was making a trip from Toronto to Vanouver in March of 1975 in an upper Duplex Roomette in Chateau Varennes.  A conductor asked me if I was interested in a cab ride from Banff to Field over Kicking Horse Pass.  Yes! I said.

​I was instructed to go speak to the Engineer, Mr. Johnny Yates at Banff.  He told me to climb on up to the cab.  The power that day, and for that segment, was a pair of Geeps.  One was is CP Action Red, the second unit was in the original Maroon and Gray paint.  I sat behind the engineer and photographed forward and back from the lead Geep.  I was very, very lucky to have that opprotunity. 

Hu 

Let me add my cab ride experiences on a trip on the Canadian in May 1977. First ride was from North Bend to Kamloops. The next day I was offered a cab ride east out of Field but I decided that I preferred to see the spiral tunnels from the dome in the Park Car. What a rookie mistake. I did ride the head end from Banff to Calgary though. My recollection was that the engine crews were so happy to have someone else in the cab with them to chat away the hours on the railroad.

WP17

Pretty sizable consist for an "off-peak" period train, even though it is December. The Canadian was running daily at this time.

Imagine if the train was running daily now in offpeak season? No way the consist would look like this now. I know that road improvements and other factors led to the declining patronage on the Canadian, but the fact that the train only runs two or three days per week on a lengthy schedule has also got to have something to do with the drop in patronage for the train.

jp1822 Wrote:
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> Pretty sizable consist for an "off-peak" period
> train, even though it is December. The Canadian
> was running daily at this time.
>
> Imagine if the train was running daily now in
> offpeak season? No way the consist would look like
> this now. I know that road improvements and other
> factors led to the declining patronage on the
> Canadian, but the fact that the train only runs
> two or three days per week on a lengthy schedule
> has also got to have something to do with the drop
> in patronage for the train.

Perhaps these consists were during the Christmas season. The passenger loads of The Canadian and the Super Continental dropped sharply around 1972. The off-peak consist of The Canadian was generally one Chateau sleeper to/from Toronto and one Manor sleeper plus Park car to/from Montreal.  The CPR dropped the off-peak Toronto - Sudbury Park car in autumn of 1972. CN's Super Continental was often just one sleeper on the Toronto section.

There were trips in the 1970s when my wife and I thought we were the only people in the sleeper ex-Toronto, although there was usually at least one or two others. A sleeping car conductor told us The Canadian was a "ghost train" from November to March except for a fortnight around Christmas/New Year when the consists swelled to summer-length.

It wasn't much better in the early days of VIA operation. I was on many consists where the total in sleepers was 12 to 15 - and that was west of Sudbury when the Toronto and Montreal sections were combined. When the train was reduced to tri-weekly service in January 1990 there was some increase in the number of sleeping car passengers from my observations, but it didn't last.  I had a trip in December of 2002 and in February of 2004 when there were just 15 in sleepers.

Now that the Canadian is only twice-a-week in winter the number of passengers in sleepers seems better, but I have no statistics to back this up.

BuddPullman Wrote:
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> I was making a trip from Toronto to Vanouver in
> March of 1975 in an upper Duplex Roomette in
> Chateau Varennes.  A conductor asked me if I was
> interested in a cab ride from Banff to Field over
> Kicking Horse Pass.  Yes! I said.
>
> ​I was instructed to go speak to the Engineer,
> Mr. Johnny Yates at Banff.  He told me to climb
> on up to the cab.  The power that day, and for
> that segment, was a pair of Geeps.  One was is CP
> Action Red, the second unit was in the original
> Maroon and Gray paint.  I sat behind the engineer
> and photographed forward and back from the lead
> Geep.  I was very, very lucky to have that
> opprotunity. 
>
> Hu 

I suspect you've got the Christian name incorrect. There were two Yeats brothers who worked out of Calgary; Floyd and Bill.  I do not ever recall a "Johnny" but I could be wrong.

To the original poster, that meet is at Palliser and would say the trains were pretty much on schedule for that year.

Rick



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/25/16 06:47 by rschonfelder.

The locomotives were receiving water for the steam generators at Field. Notice the very large gong on the end of the station to warn passengers that the train was about to depart.

The boilerhouse was still functioning, note the plume from the stack. This heated the station,bunkhouse  and several company houses in town. By that time, only a few stalls of the roundhouse remained.

The boilerhouse was much newer than the rest of the shop complex because a previous stationary boiler suffered a catastrophic failure while unattended. The previous boiler heated the CP "Mount Stephen" hotel which lasted as a rooming house until the 1960's. It was an original 1880's structure which served as both an hotel and as a meal station for early passenger trains.

Until the 1980's, Field was not on the power grid and generated its own electricity.  The roundhouse had a pair of "Vivian" diesel engines that worked a generator. Later Yoho National Park took over responsibility and built a generator shack west of the village.  This contained a pair of "Lister Blackstone" diesels running a generator.  I think both Vivians and Lister Blackstone diesels were both UK companies which built ship engines. I know that the Blackstones from Field were purchased by fishing vessels.

Thanks for the information !

Rick,

​Thank you for that detail.  It has been 40 years so I suspect the first name could be clouded with a different experience and recall.  Mr. Yeats had a full head of grey hair and a kind smile. I am forever grateful for his hospitality that day!

Hu

VIA 6566 was the leader destroyed in the 1986 head-on at Hinton, AB.

I rode with Floyd Yeats in 1979 from Field to Banff, what a time that was.

Bill Miller
Galt, ON

rschonfelder Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> BuddPullman Wrote
> > ​I was instructed to go speak to the
> Engineer,
> > Mr. Johnny Yates at Banff.  He told me to
> climb
> > on up to the cab. 

> There were two Yeats brothers who worked out of
> Calgary; Floyd and Bill.  I do not ever recall a
> "Johnny" but I could be wrong.


It it was probably my uncle Johnny Gates, he retired off the Canadian in January 1983. He worked with the Yeats brothers out of Calgary. My uncle was always friendly and welcomed many a rider up front, including Johnny Cash through the Spiral Tunnels one trip.

Chris
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/26/16 08:17 by Locotrol2.