Canadian Railroads > Vestiges of the GTP on the Wainwright Sub - Ryley and Amisk Creek

Yesterday I was out east of Edmonton on the Wainwright Sub, hoping to get a few photo locations in particular, which I had not gotten so far, as it turned out, still don't. It was a cloudless day, but of course haze from the BC fires was in the air, so although you could see the sun, I was using f8 to as open as f6.3 instead of my usual 11. In addition, the Loram grinder was working near Ryley, so I ventured that far to see if I could get some shots of it, which I did. Ryley is at mile 214.7, officially.
1. I have been through Ryley before, but never shot there. On the south side of Highway 14 is Grand Central Pub & Roadhouse; I can't imagine it's anything but the old Ryley station, relocated from trackside on the north side of Highway 14. It would be a Grand Trunk Pacific structure if it's of sufficient vintage; maybe someone knows for sure (there are resources and I'm not a station architecture aficionado). You have to love the old truck as well; the building is up for sale.
2. In driving through Ryley to scout opportunities, I saw that if you were on the north side of the tracks at the edge of a gravel patch, and a WB came, you could get the station in the shot. The catch is, the light angles on a sunny day are no good at all, especially at this time of day, but this wasn't a sunny day. Next I needed a train, which came in the form of stack train #199, at 1105, behind 2586 and 2530. The lens is set at 28 mm, to fit in the grade crossing signals as well. The one element over which I had no control, but I got lucky, was that no vehicles came by on the intervening highway to block off the station at the wrong moment. One and done!
3. I have taken many photos of the old elevator at Shonts, mile 221, in past years, mostly my K64 days, but one feature I'd never taken the time to get was the short bridge over Amisk Creek, just east of there at mile 219.9 (so says the tag on the east end of the bridge). I found a convenient place to park off Range Road 182 and walked the side of the highway to set up. This is the new bridge, but you can see the remains of three posts that I presume supported the original structure. I did not crawl around to see if I could find a date in the concrete work. Lens is set at 30 mm i.e. it's close to the highway, so hard to get the angle I'd like. Some day I'll do the broadside from this spot, but they do 50+ mph and it'd be hard to freeze the train properly. So I had to content myself with the three views that make up the continuation of this post.

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To continue, here are the three trains I was able to shoot crossing Amisk Creek.
4. CN 5783 (a GM leader!!!), 2098, and BCOL 4619 (compare the side sill to the bridge's railings and you'll see the swayback) lead #101 at 1331, with 418 axles of stack train at 58 mph and 22 degrees. The railings are of course less than ideal, and you'll see that it's hard to get a good sense of the bridge's construction in this angle.
5. At 1409, consecutively numbered CN 2525 and 2526 bring 113 oil tanks plus a pair of buffer cars at 57 mph (at least that's what the scanner at 221 said, but it didn't seem like they were honking that fast) as #761. Lens is set at 20 mm, which I had to do to fit this in from the safe side of the highway barrier, and live with the railings in front of the train.
6. Eventually I heard 761 call "Clear to stop, take siding" at Lindbrook, so I knew I'd get my EB, which was #302. At 1340, the RTC had told 101 that 302 was coming up to Bailey; at 1454 it finally materialized behind 2298 and DPU 2248, with 466 axles dominated by auto racks, at 49 mph and 23 degrees. Lens is set at 26 mm, and you see the problem the stand of trees poses on the east bank of Amisk Creek. I was still able to get away with f8 at this point in the day, but the peculiar colour and lack of shadows are pretty evident. No doubt I'll be out this way again, maybe clear sun, and maybe early spring when there's less vegetation.
Fred

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Really like the shot of 101.

KG

Neat stuff-thanks Fred!

Mike Bannon
St Catharines, ON