Canadian Railroads > Train Ride Tuesday

Some dusty old "Kodak Instamatic Memories" taken early April 1973.  I was the head-end brakeman on the BC Rail "Dawson Creek Switcher" and took a few images along the way. In that time era the Dawson Creek switcher was a regular assignment, working 6 days per week with Monday off. Generally departed Chetwynd BC late morning or early afternoon, ran to Dawson Creek, yarded the train, quick coffee / meal break, coupled to the train the yard crew built and then departed back to Chetwynd. On the Sunday trip we would have to spot the TOFC ramp and build our train for the trip back.
images:
dck1.  Near mile 12.5. time table special instruction " watch for sand on track between mile 12.1 and mile 13.4"
dck2.  Aproaching west end of the Pine River bridge at mile 16.8
dck3.  Pine River, still frozen

There is another interesting bridge near mile 46 over the Kiskatinaw River, think it was a Howe Box Through Truss.  TO member "Loleta" posted images of it



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/10/24 03:51 by hoggerdoug.

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During this time era (1973) time table direction on the Dawson Creek subdivision was east and west. A few years later the time table direction was changed to north and south, bringing it in line with the rest of the railway "north and south" timetable direction. Maximum speed was 20 mph on some very light and old rail, some was 60 pound 39 foot stick rail.
On either side of the Pine River there was approximately 6 miles of 2.2 percent grade and some pretty wobbly track.
images:
dck4.  looking down on the Pine River, the railway bridge and Hwy 97 bridge
dck5   wobbly track
dck6   a "dry bridge", not sure if it had slid there or was pushed over the grade during some track re-alignment.

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One last image on the way back to Chetwynd, sunset in the great white north.
A side story, near mile 31 or 32 the track closely parallels Hwy 97.  On a nice sunny late afternoon I noticed a nice new Ford keeping pace with us at 20 mph.  Well, be being young, frisky, full of piss & vinegar as well as hormones noted the cute young lady in the passenger seat and an older lady driving.  I called over to the Engineer and said "toot the whistle, there is a cute honey and the old lady ain't half bad either.  He replied that he knew them both, his wife and daughter... They were driving over to Chetwynd to take him back to Dawson Creek for his day off.  The Engineer took my remarks with good humor and a compliment to his wife and daughter.  I kept a low profile the rest of the way...
thanks for looking.
Doug
 

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Nice look back.
JB

Interesting territory, certainly qualifies for way up north.
Dawson Creek and the Pine River bridge is popular in the model building world.
t4p.

Great Instamatic photos!
Regards, Jim Evans

First-class Instamatic shots.
Bob