Canadian Railroads > Road Trip 2018 - Day 2 Ashcroft and Basque Part 1

Back on August 31 I posted up the first day of a road trip, Edmonton to Ashcroft and return, at https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?15,4624016. This post is the first part of day 2, with 23 trains photographed, and another 3 seen. The weather pretty much characterizes most of our trip, with lots of cloud and the occasional sunny break, or thinner cloud so we at least got shadows. This is the morning of June 21, a Thursday; 11 photos, with some verticals which will need rotating (maybe done by the time you read this).
1. It's hard to get out of Ashcroft without taking this shot, from the bridge over the Thompson River that splits the town. Grain empties 834 had come into the siding, and this allowed 2650 and PRLX 205, a former Sante Fe warbonnet, to take #311 west at 0741, with a unit train of auto racks.
2. A side trip to the east side of town got us ambushed by a CN WB, so we shot it there, then chased through town and started up the 97C highway toward Merritt. You pull in to the entrance to a municipal gravel pit, and get this view heading in toward Black Canyon. This is not the classic Black Canyon, but a meander north of that one that exposes the same geology, essentially. This is an unidentified WB grain train at 0833, behind 8820, 5486, GECX (ex-CSX) 7355, 5476, and 2926.
3. In short order, CP intermodal #199 showed up behind 9761 and 9518, and so we were able to shoot its head-end chasing the tail end of the grain train. This worked out well for the CN RTC, who could keep CN going, and allow CP to drop down from Nepa onto CN rails at Coho, without anyone getting held up.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/20/18 13:50 by feclark.

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4. The real objective for the morning was Basque, or rather, just south of Basque. If you look at Google Maps, the 97C has a big loop south of Ashcroft, and just before you reach its southern tip, a gravel road takes you down to Basque sidings, where the shared trackage arrangement has already begun. If you continue on that road, you climb south out of Basque and end up here in a short distance with a nice view of the CN Ashcroft Sub across the river, and CP's Thompson Sub below you on the east side. Oddly enough, of the seven trains we shot here, none were on "foreign" rails. First up was a WB stack train, no chatter to tell us its train number, and I can't make out the road numbers of the power, either. This was at 0932, with an 8xxx on the point, and 8xxx as DPU pusher. About as close to clear sun as we got.
5. As the tail end of CN was clearing, CP showed up at 0935, with 9589 and two more in charge of mixed freight.
6. Almost an hour elapsed before our next subject showed up, shot with the lens at 116 mm. In spite of appearances, this is #417, with a cut of potash trailing 3052, after which DPU 2909 led the mixed consist, with lots of auto racks at 1026.

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7. The main reason we chose this day to do the drive in to this location was to catch the Rocky Mountaineer. In due course, the pair of 8000s (never managed to make out the road numbers) arrived with #609 at 1045 and 18 cars. The greenery in the background is the south end of Basque Ranch.
8. I'm not always a fan of the going-away shots I inevitably shoot with digital, but I like the setting of this one.
9. EB coal empties behind CP 8924 and 8862 showed up at 1102, with a mid-train DPU and another one shoving on the rear. This is getting close to the sun angle limit here for EB on CP; not the easiest to tell with the cloud/sun mix we were working with.

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10. Again with breaking my inhibitions about the going-away shot, but this gives people unfamiliar with this area a better sense of the overall layout, with the CN trestle visible on the left side. The one downside to the shared trackage is that you just don't get certain angles any more, or at least, very rarely. CP coming at you here would look very nice.
11. The morning was closed out by what was the clearest gap in clouds that we got, so nice light on CN 30xx in charge of an unidentified stack train at 1152, with DPU pusher 3063. The lens set at 22 mm allows me to get the train wrapped nicely around the point bar, and the bridge visible as well.
Fred

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when  i  was working as an operator for the cn at spences bridge in 1963  we had three or foor thru freights a day in each direction and for psgr trains plus a wayfrt every second day. there were no long sidings  on the ashcroft sub. the cpr ran more trains, but each train had less cars than the cn. there sure has been a big change in 55 years. spences bridge was a 24 hour train order station.

ozzie korsnes
trondheim norway

Awesome all
Brian in Keizer

Posted from iPhone

Very nice series - makes me want to get the ol' passport dusted off.

BB

Fantastic series 

Awesome series!

Hard to believe there's a better place in North America to take train pics than this!  I was there s couple of times in the 90s, and would estimate 25-30 trains a day on each line back then   Some day I hope to scan a few slides and post them on the Nostalgia & History board. 

Bob

Bowled away by some of these, thanks so much, and thanks for the descriptions too.

Yep, interesting descriptions. Any locked gates or access problems?
t4p.

Great stuff..!!  Thanks...

TCnR Wrote:
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> Yep, interesting descriptions. Any locked gates or
> access problems?
> t4p.

In this post, no issues with access. All are shot from public roads and overpasses, wide open. Thanks, and also previous replier (is this a word?), about descriptions. I feel like part of the point is helping others out. Especially if people get there, and shoot it in better weather. I'd like to see those shots some time.
Fred

Great write-up and shots from one of the best locations on the continent.

Posted from Android