Canadian Railroads > "All dressed up and no place to go"

After pretty much a straight shot from Edson recently, Q197 cools it's heels at Henry House with 3 w/b trains ahead to perform a crew change in Jasper before it will get a permissive signal to proceed West and do the same. At left foreground is the infamous "Hunter Highway" aka the roadbed of the former double track between Devona and Henry House that was removed by E. Hunter Harrison during his tenure as CEO of CN.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/13/18 17:07 by xcnsnake.

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What and "ASS HOLE " may he rest in peace and good riddance from this earth...

gaspeamtrak Wrote:
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> What and "ASS HOLE " may he rest in peace and good
> riddance from this earth...

I remember some of the double track being placed around Snaring AB in the 1980's.

Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau initiated a double tracking project on the then Government owned CN.

Once privatized, it seems that some of the western Canada capacity improvments were targeted for removal by CN managers who as Conservatives may have viewed the Trudeau double tracking as rampant socialism. Never mind that double tracking helped the CN bottom line.

While the share holder owned CN was removing double track, the always share holder owned CP was adding double track a hundred miles south.

Politics ahead of common sense railroading?

 

Same thing happened on Donner Pass with the SP. Short sighted CEO removed an "unneeded" second main track. His successors have paid dearly for that arrogance.

One thing you can say about EHH, he is a perfect symbol of Wall Street these days; the company be damned, it's all about short term profits so the "robber barrons" can cash in and run.

One thing about this part of CN represented here, compared to UP on Donners Pass, this main line has been a very busy corridor on CN for the past few decades at least.  Granted, CN doesn't really have much of a mountain grade here, but the shear volume of trains can be incredible.  Makes one wonder how any one in their right minds (oh wait, talking about EHH here), could have justified removing the second main track through here, particularly, since a lot of it is in provincial parks and will be very hard, if not impossible, to put back in.

I have nothing to say about RR managers (just a dumb foamer) but I will say very nice shot...

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