Canadian Railroads > Prairie Meanderings

Last week I wandered around the prairies taking pictures of trains and grain elevators, and got a few shots that might be of interest to some folks:

1.  CPR Eastbound on Bredenbury Sub near Minnedosa MB.
2. Thunder Rail 2004 at Arborfield SK.  It wasn't clear to me if this unit was active anymore.  It was attached to some ballast cars on the wye in Arborfield, but there appeared to be some trackmobiles that looked active moving cars around.
3. Torch River Rail GMD-1 #1432 switching grain cars at Choiceland SK.  

Magellan

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4. CN Eastbound on the Blackfoot Sub at Maidstone SK.
5 and 6. Fabyan Trestle on the Wainwright Sub - a stunning location to sit and enjoy the show!

Magellan

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7. Big Sky Rail 70-Tonner #602 at Eston SK.  I didn't see any indication of local markings on the railroad - just its previous owner Modesto & Empire Traction Company.

8. "Splitting the Uprights"!  CP Northbound with grain empties at Tuxford SK on the Outlook Sub.  I assume this was headed up to the Viterra Terminal at Loreburn.  A single unit pulling 115 grain empties - but how does it bring them back?  Can one unit pull 115 loads back to Moose Jaw, or would they have other units farther up the line?

9. Interesting combined rail / road bridge over the Saskatchewan River at Nipawin SK.  Torch River Rail on the upper deck, and old Hwy 35 on the lower deck.

Hope those are of some interest to folks.

Magellan

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Nice variety, and a fine post! The sunlit 70t is a treat, and your elevator shot at Tuxford is wonderful, with the old and the new.
Fred

Thanks, intersting set!

Bob

i enjoyed your "prairie" images.

was that a w/b on the fabyan trestle?

66

Those were eastbounds on the Fabyan trestle, and when I was there the traffic flow was heavily asymmetric in that direction.  It was as much traffic as I've ever seen on a single track line - an observation that has been made by many other posters about CN's Winnipeg - Edmonton mainline.  Yes, I suppose the photos don't have much of a "prairie" feel - I was just referring to the fact that it was in the prairie provinces.  The northern part of the prairies in Canada is fairly heavily treed and quite green in the summer, though the southern part (along the CPR mainline) is more open and dry.  But I didn't get as many pics in the south as I did in the north on this trip.

Magellan

Beautiful photo with the trestle.  Another thought occurred to me was that this train looked like it could be a "hot" one, but CN must still keep the HPT pretty low on even the hot trains.  I'm sure there's a DPU engine some where in that train, but that would still be a pretty low HPT, even for the some what flat prairies and CN's lack of mountain grades - "slow moving land barge".

Nice series, I did some of these same places on my drive back from Alaska last year. I especially liked my time at Fabyan bridge. Did you check out the Northern Lights RR at Kinistino ? I ran into several of those ex M&ET 70 ton units as well on the Mobil Grain, odd to see them up there...

Roger Durfee
Akron, OH

I drove right through Birch Hills, but honestly wasn't aware of Northern Lights Rail - a missed opportunity!

Magellan