Canadian Railroads > Laggan Sub - Feb 15

Around 10:00 MT an eastbound manifest passes between the Bow River and Gap Lake. I was westbound on the 1A when I heard the scanner at 65.6 go off and I didn't feel like heading back eastward to get to a good photo spot so I parked on the shoulder of the 1A where the tracks are near the road and went out onto the frozen edge of the river to the sunny side of the tracks. Never tried that before and with all that brush blocking the view ..... meh.

---

---

---

This afternoon I got 2 almost identical eastbound grain empties.

1st - led by ex-Christmas Train unit 8642 by Canmore East at 14:00 MT
492 axles

---

---

---

2nd- CP 8766 crosses Cougar Creek at 14:20 MT
492 axles



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/15/18 15:32 by KickingHorse.

---

---

---

Wonderful mountain shots
Brian

Posted from iPhone

Very nice shots, especially the first one. A lovely photo, even if I couldn't see the train. (Glad the ice was thick enough to safely stand on, but with the frigid temps up there, I shouldn't worry.)

Beautiful country you have up there! Thanks for posting these photos here.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/16/18 19:43 by Margaret_SP_fan.

Will you please stop putting these wonderful photos on TO or I'll have to go onto West Jet bookings!! I'm looking out of my window here in Kent UK and although it's cold & sunny nothing to compare with your shots. Just the occasional SouthEastern Trains class 395 140mph Javelins going past.

Nice shots!

How many trains, roughly, does CP run over the Laggan Sub per day these days?

Thanks in advance.

It seems like every couple of months there's a local news story involving CP and the wildlife of Banff National Park through which the Laggan Sub traverses. The stories always say "25-30 trains per day".

I think it definitely was that in the past but with the longer trains now I would say the average is in the 22-25 range.

There are 3 pairs (6) of intermodal trains daily -
100/101 - Vancouver - Toronto
112/113 - Vancouver - Montreal
198/199 - Vancouver - Chicago

There is a manifest pair that does the lifting and setting off for the industries between Vancouver and Calgary - 400/401.

There is a manifest pair that is Vancouver - Edmonton that will also occasionally do lifts/set offs along the Laggan but then does a lot of it between Calgary and Edmonton. Sometimes these trains can have enough to be split into 2 sections.

Then there are the unit trains - grain, potash, oil and sulphur. By far, the big one is grain. It is not uncommon to see grain train after grain train after grain train.

There is one local switcher based in Exshaw that operates 2 shifts -
Day shift - the Exshaw switcher switches the Lafarge, Baymag and Graymont plants.
Afternoon shift - the Copithorne switcher heads east with empty tankers for Suncor's Wildcat Hills gas plant and/or Shell's Jumping Pound gas plant and returns to Exshaw with loads.
The switchers do the setup for 400/401 to do the lifts and set offs at Exshaw or Gap.

There is no coal on the Laggan