Nostalgia & History > CP Rail on a 4% grade -- Mike Bergman

CP Rail on a 4% grade, Warfield, BC on January 16, 1977.

Thanks Mike,
Marty Bernard

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besides a great image, even better to think there were 2 employees (maybe 3) on the head end and 2 on the rear.  better times to be a rail for sure.........

66



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/14/20 15:10 by goneon66.

Rogers Pass?

tomstp Wrote:
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> Rogers Pass?

Sorry.  The 4% Rogers Pass line was replaced by the present 2.2% Spiral Tunnels line in 1909.

-LD

LarryDoyle Wrote:
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> tomstp Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Rogers Pass?
>
> Sorry.  The 4% Rogers Pass line was replaced by
> the present 2.2% Spiral Tunnels line in 1909.
>
> -LD

The Spiral Tunnels are in Kicking Horse Pass not Rogers Pass. Warfield is on the ex spur line between Trail and Rossland.
 

Kinda cool- if you look close there are actually 3 variations of the paint scheme there.
SR

BoilingMan Wrote:
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> Kinda cool- if you look close there are actually 3
> variations of the paint scheme there.
> SR

Wide and narrow stripes on the nose and large and small pacman emblem.  Good eye!

The train is interesting, UP covered hoppers containing phosphate rock from Phosphate MT. (on the BN now MRL), going up to the Cominco fertilizer plant at Warfield BC, to become an ingredient in Elephant Brand fertilizer. Some of those hoppers had Spokane International markings. 

When the lead zinc smelter in Trail was told to clean up the stuff coming out of its stacks, the crud from the stack mixed with phosphate made a great fertilizer.

The fertilizer plant was built uphill from the smelter, so that some of the gases could be piped directly to the new plant from the smelter. It was about half way up the 4% grade to Rossland, a silver mining community. 

A secret divulged after WW2 was the fact that the fertilizer plant was engaged in helping to produce material for the "Manhattan Project" which produced the atomic bomb that ended WW2.

The Canadian Government built housing for the people engaged in the secret project. Because Trail was a smelter town, many of the buildings were grey and dreary. The Government painted the houses in bright colours and added turrets and so forth to make them jolly.  After the war, the houses were presented to the City of Trail by the Canadian Government.  The Mayor thanked the Member of Parliament for donating "Mickey Mouse Town" to them. The name stuck. Some of the Micky Mouse houses were beside the Rossland Subdivision.

 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/15/20 14:15 by eminence_grise.

Sadly it was on this piece of trackage that C.P.Rail had a runaway 12 years ago that tragically killed the engineer. If you type in C.P.Rail runaway on Warfield Hill on Trainorders story will come up. Greengrocer