Canadian Railroads > As Far North as the Trains Go...

... on the former BC Rail, at least, is Fort Nelson (see http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?15,4104855), nearly 1000 rail miles north of Vancouver. Actually the tracks end a few miles south of Fort Nelson "proper" (such as it is), in a sprawling industrial park with about half a dozen customers. BC Rail completed the Fort Nelson Sub., 250 miles from Fort St. John to Fort Nelson, in 1971, and though the trains were pretty long for a couple of decades, the closing of a large mill in Fort Nelson and the dwindling of other traffic now makes construction of the line seem, like the old Carson & Colorado, "either 300 miles too long, or 300 years too soon." CN runs a train to Fort Nelson just once a week, and in recent weeks that train has varied from as few as 10 to as many as 89 cars, the norm being somewhere around 25. But business actually seems better than it did five years ago when I last saw this train, so maybe the Fort Nelson Sub. will stick around for a while, or perhaps some shortline will try to make a go of it.

Train 479 left Fort St. John on a Thursday, while I was photographing the train to Dawson Creek (see http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?15,4108365). They would start switching the yard in Fort Nelson sometime Friday morning, so on Thursday night I made the 300-mile drive from Dawson Creek, which featured what was either a glimpse of the northern lights or a fatigue-induced hallucination. I arrived Fort Nelson at 1:30 Friday morning, checked to make sure the train was there, parked next to the yard office, and went to sleep.

1. In the morning, BCOL 4651 sat idling with its train.
2. The crew arrived mid-morning and got to work.
3. 4651 was blowing a lot of air and making a lot of dust.

Loleta Fernbridge



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/29/16 19:32 by loleta.

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4. Train 478 snakes through the spurs in Fort Nelson, surrounded by the accessories of oil drilling: large tanks and portable camp buildings.
5. Meanwhile, something that doesn't happen often on the Fort Nelson Sub., a second train makes its way northward: Train 936, an empty rail train, stops before crossing the joint rail/road bridge across the Fort Nelson River.
6. Train 936, CN 8000 north, climbs upgrade toward Fort Nelson.

- L.F.

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7. CN 8000 passes a BC Rail speeder as it enters Fort Nelson yard.
8. Not exactly a caboose, but better than a FRED.

Part 2 tomorrow.

- L.F.

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Wow you're WAY up north! Lots of interesting things to see, especially that shared rail/road bridge. Nice shots!

Seems like an odd place for an empty rail train. Is it picking up or delivering?

I've often thought of making the same trip, how are the mosquitoes? I've heard they not so bad later in the summer.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/29/16 22:04 by TCnR.

loleta Wrote:
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> But business actually seems better than
> it did five years ago when I last saw this train,
> so maybe the Fort Nelson Sub. will stick around
> for a while, or perhaps some shortline will try to
> make a go of it.

Prior to putting BC Rail as a whole up for sale, the B.C. government first tried to solicit a shortline operator for the Fort Nelson Sub., but this proved unworkable owing to the municipal taxes that a private operator would have to pay. As a Crown corporation, BC Rail did not pay municipal taxes; instead the municipalities it passed through received grants in lieu of taxes, which amounted to considerably less than what they would have received in property taxes.

At the time (2002), that represented a significant difference on the Fort Nelson Sub. -- $145,000 in grants in lieu paid by BC Rail compared with about $1 million that would have to be paid by a private operator. That was enough to kill off potential shortline operation. Presumably, CN was prepared to fork out this amount as a cost of acquiring the entire BC Rail system and the traffic/revenue that came with that.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/30/16 01:33 by railsmith.

TCnR Wrote:
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> Seems like an odd place for an empty rail train.
> Is it picking up or delivering?
>
> I've often thought of making the same trip, how
> are the mosquitoes? I've heard they not so bad
> later in the summer.
.
The rail train had dropped rail somewhere along the Fort Nelson Sub., and was coming to Fort Nelson to turn on the wye in order to head south again the following morning.

The mosquitoes weren't as bad as I'd expected, though of course I was covered in DEET from head to toe so they weren't really interested in me. The worst of them were at Taylor, though even there they weren't as bad as on previous trips--when swarms of them would hurl themselves against the windows the minute I stopped my car.

- L.F.

Never heard of a shared bridge before---neat idea for a sparsely populated area with limited traffic.  Nice coverage and photos.
Brian Stevens

Just curious......some years ago there seemed to be some interest in a land connection between the Alaska RR and CP/CN. Not being that familiar with the area, was this line perhaps considered for that rumored connection?

BB

Posted from iPhone

No, that was the Dease Lake extension which was proposed to (eventually, with a couple hundred miles of wilderness in the way) potentially connect with Alaska. It angles northwest across the northern half of BC, while this line heads up towards the far northeast corner (including a connection with what used to be the Northern Alberta Railways)

Darren Boes
Lethbridge, AB
Southern Alberta Railfan