Canadian Railroads > F-Unit Friday - CP/VIA Mongrel Canadian at Cochrane, AB

From the transition years, especially with former CP power, the Fs ran around for years in their CP livery; mix in some steam generator-equipped GP9s, and this is what you got. This is VIA #1 at Cochrane, AB, on October 18, 1980. The power is CP 1424 and 8527, with VIA 1402, and the train has just come under Highway 22 on the west end of Cochrane, at 1113. I don't know if the grade crossing still exists; so much has apparently built up here since then.
Fred

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I really like that lead unit. Thanks for posting!

Posted from iPhone

That curve certainly adds to the interest.
Bob

That is a really nice fall-color photo featuring a passenger train and F Units.
Thanks for posting.
ALLEN

Great coverage of the Winter 1980 consist of The Canadian! This train shows signs of being combined and switched respectively in Sudbury and Winnipeg as was standard protocol at the time. The Ex-CN cars, in this case the baggage and coach and E and River series sleepers, would have been sent from Toronto, and the Ex-CP stainless coach, Skyline and Dayniter are almost certainly from Montreal. The Diner would have been added to replace another Ex-CN car in Winnipeg.

Nice photo Fred!

Mike Bannon
St Catharines, ON

On many of my trips aboard the Canadian in the early days of VIA operation, the ex-CP coach was used as a Dayniter. The generous leg-room and leg and foot rests were similar to the ex-CN Dayniters. The Dayniters were sometimes used for a lower level of club car (formerly parlour car, later VIA 1) service. I believe they were called "Club 52" because they had 52 seats arranged in 2 + 2 configuration. Meals were not served in those cars, just a snack, at a much lower price than the full-service Club cars.

I note in the photo VIA has not yet refurbished the Skyline car. I think that came a few years later when the coach seats were removed, tables and chairs installed as a dining room. Then the dome seats were reversed, except the first row, and the Skylines have since been run in the opposite direction.

Mongrel or not that's a good clear sharp shot. Nice.

Ken

Posted from Android

Beautiful photo.
Gary

That Highway 22 overpass at the west end of Cochrane was as far west as Calgary had spread in those days.

There was a fine photo location of eastbound trains with open fields in the foreground and the Rockies behind. By the late 1980's, a subdivision of houses had appeared on the hillside.

Going further back in time, Cochrane had the last trackside grain elevator of the westbound journey of the "Canadian" of the 1970's, and for Calgarian's, there was a fondly remembered ice cream shop on main street, the destination for short "out of town" trips for young children.

eminence_grise Wrote:
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> That Highway 22 overpass at the west end of
> Cochrane was as far west as Calgary had spread in
> those days.
>
> There was a fine photo location of eastbound
> trains with open fields in the foreground and the
> Rockies behind. By the late 1980's, a subdivision
> of houses had appeared on the hillside.
>
> Going further back in time, Cochrane had the last
> trackside grain elevator of the westbound journey
> of the "Canadian" of the 1970's, and for
> Calgarian's, there was a fondly remembered ice
> cream shop on main street, the destination for
> short "out of town" trips for young children.

Phil,
I remember both. The ice cream shop was McKay's, and indeed my wife and I would travel out to Cochrane on a sunny weekend day to enjoy the drive and the ice cream. One day we're standing in the long line-up, and my nose detected frying fat. The unmistakable smell of a chip truck across the main street! I hadn't had any of that wonderful food since moving from Ottawa in 1979 (back then New York Fries wasn't around in every food court), so we abandoned the line-up and got a real treat - hot chips doused in vinegar! The elevator was a dark brown P&H, as I recall, and I did fluke a shot of a WB behind GPs and a B passing it. Some century when my backlog clears up, I'll see if I can find and scan it.
Fred

My old hometown of Cochrane! Nice shot.

The crossing west of the overpass lasted into the early 90's, now there's plans to upgrade the Hwy 22 & 1A interchange.

There's development 360 degrees around your photo location. It's not the quiet little town west of Calgary anymore.

Locotrol2



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/16/17 13:28 by Locotrol2.

As late as 1982 (when I took a transcontinental trip across Canada to ride the Newfoundland narrow gauge) it was possible to ride behind an all-CP set on the Canadian. I'll have to dig out my slides, which also include both the aforementioned "never-seen-today" scenes...plus the VIA Rail trains...both of them...the train from Winnipeg and the local-service train...at Churchill.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/16/17 23:30 by GenePoon.