Canadian Railroads > A Hard Days Night

The tiny ranching hamlet of Walhachin, British Columbia was quite the hub of activity on the evening of January 22nd.  A CN rail gang was  in town, replacing rail in the siding, an all night job as it turned out.  The glow from their portable light towers on the far side of the bluff from my position was bright enough to challenge any residents attempt at sleep that night.  Despite a prolonged streak of cold temperatures for the region, CN pressed on for several weeks with a major rail replacement program on both their sidings and main track along the Ashcroft sub.

CN empty coal train C730-52-22 heads eastbound through the work area in this scene.  The streaks in the foreground are from the rear DPU, while in the distant background the line ahead is lit up by the headlights of the lead unit, 8,290 feet ahead.  The low cloud, which had stymied my attempts at photography for much of the day finally proved useful, and reflected some of the colour of the unnatural lights below.

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Beauty.
JB

Interesting photo for those that know the area.
Didn't think anybody was living there but I haven't been there for a long time.
On one of my visits CN was doing some evening work replacing wood ties with concrete near Boston Bar and I remember the medieval lighting and heavy smoke. Trip was completely skunked with work windows.
t4p.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walhachin



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/25/25 17:36 by TCnR.

TCnR Wrote:
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> Interesting photo for those that know the area.
> Didn't think anybody was living there but I
> haven't been there for a long time.
> On one of my visits CN was doing some evening work
> replacing wood ties with concrete near Boston Bar
> and I remember the medieval lighting and heavy
> smoke. Trip was completely skunked with work
> windows.
> t4p.

Thanks for the comment Clive.  The village itself has about 40 residential structures, though I can't really say how many are inhabited year round.  On the opposite side of the river though, there have been several luxury 'ranch estates' built over the past few decades, which seem to be thriving.

CN was running 5-6 hour work blocks on the main during my visit, with siding work overnight.  Once I adjusted to that, I had a bit more photographic success, though primarily at sunrise and near dusk.

Now that is a great shot!
Fred

Very nice..!!

Very cool image, nicely done! It just reinforces my frustration that there is only 24 hours in a day. I wish I had time to surf through all of the threads on several of the forums. That said, I’m sure glad I saw this one… 🤗

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ns1000 Wrote:
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> Very nice..!!

feclark Wrote:
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> Now that is a great shot!
> Fred

Thanks guys!

santafe199 Wrote:
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> Very cool image, nicely done! It just reinforces
> my frustration that there is only 24 hours in a
> day. I wish I had time to surf through all of the
> threads on several of the forums. That said, I’m
> sure glad I saw this one… 🤗

I appreciate your kind words Lance!  This was one of those days where daylight didn't line up with the trains, so it was necessary to stay up to get my photographic fix.

Really outstanding photo! I know the challenges of taking those types of pictures, so my hat's off to you!

Regards,
SkokieSwift