Canadian Railroads > Yoho station

This little station survived at Yoho BC until the late 1970's.

Yoho is located between the Upper and Lower spiral tunnels east of Field.

Yoho was a short siding and was not included when CTC was applied to the Laggan Subdivision in the 1960's, however it remains as a storage track.

Yoho has been an operating point since 1885, being an operating point on the original 4.4% grade also. Very shortly after the line was opened, a staff system of train control was applied to the hill operations. Field,Yoho,Hector, and Laggan were the staff machine locations.

When the spiral tunnels were being built, Yoho was the interchange station between the two tracks.

The original Yoho station suffered a strange fate. A mud slide frequently comes down from the flank of Mount Stephen. Locomotive engineer Seth Partridge was stopped at the siding east of the top spiral. He spotted a slow moving slide coming down the hillside. He ran down the hobo trail that bypassed the tunnel, and roused the employees sleeping in the station before the slide demolished the station. For his heroism, the siding east of the top spiral was renamed Partridge in his honour.

The slide came down several times over the last century until CP and Parks Canada found a way of draining the glacial lake that occasionally overflowed.


 

Thanks ! Never heard the story about how Partridge got it's name.

Where did the operators live?

Thanks for sharing this Phil. When I used to work the Laggan, I often wondered what it must've been like to have been stationed a Yoho in the old days.

Posted from Android

Great shot, and a wonderful little modelling project; could you bring yourself to build it with the cockeyed chimney?
Fred

millerdc Wrote:
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> Where did the operators live?

In CP dwellings at Field, rode trains to work

Very nice photo and interesting narrative.  Thanks.
ALLEN

Very interesting and great photo.  Especially since we have heard much about Partridge and Yoho area lately.
 

I had not noticed the flower box with the cut out letters YOHO before.

Back in steam days when pusher (helper) engines worked Field hill, Yoho was a busy place with pusher engines returning light to Field.