Canadian Railroads > Pavilion on BCR - Making the Grade

It's taken me a while to make the scans, but this is a follow-up to arwye's "MLW Monday" post of 11/28 on Pavilion, and hoggerdoug's "On This Day" post for 11/29. The discussion accompanying Richard's post reports the grade around Pavilion is 2 percent or higher, and Doug noted a 93 mile trip took 7 hours. These two photos give a sense of how slow-going this section of the line was, and how severe the grade is.
1. This is NB at Pavilion, 58 lumber cars, behind BCOL 4622, 746, HLCX 6077, and BCOL 4606. The time is 1612 on July 12, 2000, and it's shot with a 200 mm lens from the side of the highway. As the train wrapped around the point, I thought it might be neat to see if I could get a distant shot of it coming around the next point we could see, way up the valley. My fellow-traveller shoots video, so we often hang in at a location to let him complete a train's passage; I figured I could prevail on him to wait for me.
2. We had no idea how far the next point of land was in terms of rail miles, so I was on edge for what seemed like an eternity, primed to bring the camera up and shoot in that brief window when the power would pop into view before disappearing around the point. So it finally showed, nine (9) minutes later, at 1621. I labelled the location as Moran, which is MP 181.0 on the Lillooet Sub, but I don't think it's actually that far along; Pavilion is MP 177.9. This is the most distant I've ever shot a train, I think, and remember it's using a 200 mm (real focal length). Yes, it's a bit daffy, but I couldn't resist the sense of scale; you can see the rail line on the side of the nearby point. Who builds a railway in a place like this? Insane.
Fred



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/02/16 23:18 by feclark.

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That's a pretty cool pair of pics.  Hard to believe those two points are so far apart...

feclark Wrote:
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>Who builds a railway in a place like this?

British Columbians; that's who...

Keith Robertson
Langley, BC

First image the units would be very close to mile 179.  Second image were the head end is reminds me very much of the bluff at mile 182.5, where the locomotive plunged over the bank, June 29, 2006.  Distances can be deceiving in that terrain.  Doug

Very interesting perspective in those shots.

KG

Great stuff Fred! I got out a lot (for myself) that year to shoot the Squamish sub, I didn't venture up to the Lillooet sub though.  I liked that year, just before the last group of Dash 9 s showed up and there was lots of lease power around.

Hope to see more of your BC Rail photos, Thanks for posting.

Who builds a railway in a place like this? That's a big part of the BCR's appeal.

Mike N.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/04/16 15:20 by Helo-Mech.