Western Railroad Discussion > Help regarding Trail BC?

Does anyone know if CP still run trains to Trail BC and if so how often? Any info would be appreciated.

Yes, CP still runs in there through Nelson. I would guess they have at most one train a day.

Traffic in and out of Trail isn't very busy right now, and not even close to what it once was in the past. Currently there are around 3 or 4 trains per week running into Trail from Nelson. The crew for the train in and out of Trail is based in Nelson, and another Nelson based crew takes the same train to and from McConnel to hand off with a Cranbrook based crew. There is a crew that works the yard at Trail, and another crew that works the Kraft pulp mill next to Castlegar, usually called around 0800. Power for the road freight between Cranbrook and Trail is normally two CP SD40-2's; the yard power in Trail is usually one or two GP38-2, and the power for the Kraft switcher is a SW1200RS. It is possible to photgraph the road freight between Nelson to Trail and return, because the train when running is called for in the daytime, usually around 0800 in Nelson westbound, and 1500 eastbound out of Nelson. As for taking pictures in the Trail yard itself, that is almost impossible, due to the yard being located right in the middle of the Cominco facility, out of site from the highway, and the facility is fenced off along with security gates, etc. In Nelson there isn't much left there, the station remains, some yard tracks have been romoved, the old diesel shop building is still there, but in very much in sad shape with most of the tracks in and around it removed and the shop building itself gutted and vandalized. The best place to see trains and photograph them in the Kootneys would be to go over to Cranbrook, where there are plenty of trains to see coming and going through there, yard jobs, and coal trains in nearby Fort Steele. And right now would be a good time to photograph any trains that might be running up the Kimberly branch from Cranbrook, because the mine up there is going to be shutting down at the end of this year, and that will have a somewhat impact on car loadings and traffic to and from Trail also. I hope some of this info can be of some use for you and anyone else.