Canadian Railroads > Southern Alberta intermodal

Last week I was in southern Alberta for several days, seeing the province for the first time. I'd been inspired to see the area after viewing great pictures on T.O. of CP action around Lethbridge, the Crowsnest Subdivision and Medicine Hat, and I finally did it.  But anyway, I wanted to ask about a couple things I noticed while I was driving around the region.

1. While driving from Lethbridge to Calgary to catch my flight home, I took Highway 23 to 519 and took that road west to Highway 2.  While I was on 519 I must have seen 8 to 10 trucks with ocean containers headed in the direction of Lethbridge - very noticeable as there was little else in the way of vehicle traffic --  and as I was going north on 2 there was a steady flow of ocean containers moving south. My thought was a bunch of trucks must have picked up the containers from an intermodal yard in Calgary. I'm guessing those containers were going to Lethbridge businesses or to agricultural facilities in the countryside?  

2. The day I arrived in Lethbridge, I drove in from the south, and I noticed that at several small grain elevators there were one or two CP 53' intermodal containers that looked like they were being filled with bulk grain or hay. Assuming that was the case, were they likely to be shipped to the Vancouver area and their contents transloaded into ocean boxes bound for Asia, or would they be shipped to end users in Canada or the States? 

Thank you.

CP does not have any intermodal facilities south of Calgary, so any containers for Lethbridge and area businesses get trucked out of Calgary Intermodal. The containers south of town were at LA Grain, they handle pulse crops for a variety of customers (small batch grain and lentil products).

Posted from Android

Darren Boes
Lethbridge, AB
Southern Alberta Railfan

Thanks, Darren.  Here a few photos from the trip. The first is a mixed freight heading toward Lethbridge, photographed near New Dayton.  The next two are a westbound unit train at approaching Monarch. It had a BNSF locomotive trailing. Great country in which to watch and follow trains.  

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