Canadian Railroads > The Canadian in Calgary

One of my first jobs after high school was working on a seismic crew.  The normal procedure was to drive to Calgary, leave your car in the yard and take a company truck to wherever the next job was.  For me it was a 600 km trip to Calgary, so I usually left a day early for train watching along the way.  In early August of 1980 that extra day was spent in Calgary, where I caught the eastbound Canadian approaching the west end of the Shepard siding.  It was a nice way to spend a sunny Saturday afternoon on the outskirts of Calgary before heading north for work.

Cheers,
Dwayne

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Great lashup, and the signals make this even better.
Bob

The second unit looks like VIA's RS-10 #8558..... a little weird to see it so far west! 

BCR_766 Wrote:
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> The second unit looks like VIA's RS-10 #8558.....
> a little weird to see it so far west! 

My notes have it as an RS-10 also, but I didn't record the number.

Dwayne

Blackfoot Wrote:
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> My notes have it as an RS-10 also, but I didn't
> record the number.
>
> Dwayne

I think there was only one, and it didn't last long.  Kind of like the E8s, which also went out west after VIA acquired them.

GTD

cn6218 Wrote:
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> Blackfoot Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> > My notes have it as an RS-10 also, but I didn't
> > record the number.
> >
> > Dwayne
>
> I think there was only one, and it didn't last
> long.  Kind of like the E8s, which also went out
> west after VIA acquired them.
>
> GTD

It is the 8558, the only one VIA purchased, although several CP RS-10 continued to haul The Canadian. They were frequent visitors to Calgary into the earliest '80s, but not normally west of there (for the two E8s, the issue was no d/b).
Fred

Hey, wait a minute, isn't the trailing unit one of the E8s? It's long, the side has something interrupting it at the midpoint (the white handrails for the access door), and the fuel tank skirting extends further down. Thoughts?
Fred

feclark Wrote:
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> Hey, wait a minute, isn't the trailing unit one of
> the E8s? It's long, the side has something
> interrupting it at the midpoint (the white
> handrails for the access door), and the fuel tank
> skirting extends further down. Thoughts?
> Fred

You could very well be right on that Fred, but the picture's not clear enough for me to say either way.  I do know one of the E8s was being used on the Canadian in this area as I have a few pictures of it sitting at Alyth shops a year later in 1981.

Cheers,
Dwayne