Canadian Railroads > Road Trip 2026, Day 2 - A Rocky Chase From Valemount to Kamloops

Quite a few days ago I left off at the end of Day 1 of the trip (https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?15,6198378). This is Day 2, Valemount to Kamloops on Sunday, June 7; 11 photos. The framework of the day would be chasing the WB Rocky Mountaineer out of Jasper, headed to Kamloops. This leg of the CN main, Albreda and Clearwater Subs, has not been friendly to us in the past. There are too many trees, and then we had no sun. First stop was the trestle at Canoe River, BC, MP 80.7. We arrived as EB sulphur empties #716 was thundering through at 0816, so that was a write-off.
1. At 0938, the Rocky Mountaineer, #609, pulled across the trestle behind RMRX 8019 and HZRX 5003, with 10 cars in tow. I had opted for monochrome in honour of the low-hanging cloud, and was pleased with the results. Of course, the engineer delighted us no end by killing the ditch lights just as he cleared the handrails on the bridge. As Albert Alligator of Pogo fame used to say, "Bazz-fazz."
2. The going-away shot shows the cairn that commemorates the collision that occurred here, with great loss of life, many years ago.
Now we embarked on our Keystone Railfans routine. I had pegged Clemina East, some 16 miles away, as the next viable location. Memory said that the tracks were right beside the Yellowhead Highway and unobstructed by trees for a nice shot. Off we went, passing Albreda and noticing a shot you used to be able to get from the road was treed in. As we came up to Clemina East, a CN truck was at the signals. Darn, no pulling in there. Then - bam - an EB stack train jumped us, so we doubled back toward Albreda, hoping we might catch it there, and meeting Rocky. We pulled down the road to the siding at Albreda to see the power was by us, and #609 was also past us in the opposite direction, heading for the west switch. Blast, get turned around and out of there too slow, and lose the Clemina East shot altogether. By the way, it was a bit past where the CN access road was, and if we'd stayed put, we would have had it made. Okay, now to find a way in to the tracks in the middle of the forest.
3. We finally found something at the grade crossing MP 103.16, east of Lempriere. Looking at Google Maps and satellite, it was probably Dominion Creek Forest Service Road behind Albreda Lodge. We found a decent opening, but I have included this shot at 122 mm focal length to show the height and density of the forest. This is at 1026, temperature 9 degrees C, 50 axles, and 24 mph.

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4. The shot we wanted here, nice and open, using 45 mm focal length. The chatter told us the Rocky Mountaineer was meeting a freight at Lempriere, which is MP 106.3, so we hung tight for that.
5. Some pruning opened up the shot a bit, but I liked this one reaching into the woods for an unknown EB stack train at 1051. The power comprised CN 2244 and 2229, temperature had skyrocketed to 11 degrees, speed was 15 mph, and there were 408 axles. The dominant container companies were Evergreen, CMA, Triton, and Cosco, if that helps anyone identify this train.
6. The wait for the freight meant the Rocky Mountaineer had beat us to Blue River, so a potential location I'd identified just east of there was not an option. Trees meant there really was no good location until the trestle just west of Wabron, approximately MP 43. The detector at MP 45 is west of here. The trees have grown substantially over the years, so this was the keyhole shot my companions opted for. I didn't like the way the rails would kill the pilot, and I figured I'd opt for the open view which was freed up by cloud cover.

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7. It had been nearly three hours since we had seen a train, but after the interminable wait, #609 crept onto the trestle at 1341. Again, power is RMRX 8019 and HZRX 5003, with 10 cars in tow (five of them domes). After this, trees kill you; we did drive in to a few locations just to scope them out and found almost no potential. Too tight, too treed, a misplaced power box, whatever.
We were comfortably ahead by Barriere, BC, but I was determined we weren't going to park, walk back onto the bridge on the east side of town, and repeat the cloudy shot we got of a WB freight two years earlier.
8. West of Barriere, the highway drops down to track level, and we saw a stop sign at the end of a dirt road heading into some farms. Great! We parked on the wide gravel, facing east at the signal masts protecting Exlou. The mountainous backdrop and mileboard would make good elements. This'll be nice. The train called Exlou, we were all composed and ready to go, when we heard frantic barking. Coming full tilt from the farm was a trio of large dogs. We barely picked up tripods, camera bags, and got the doors slammed when the canines arrived, circling the vehicle. And there goes the Rocky Mountaineer at 1532! Thanks, flea-bags.
9. Off we go in pursuit, and with a sinking stomach I realize we're going to lose all self-respect and claims to imagination by having to pull in at Vinsulla for this open, dreadfully overworked shot. The time was 1558, the temperature was 16 degrees C, and speed 48 mph. The flats/floodplain heading in to Kamloops were having their influence.

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10. The next place we could find, barely ahead of the train and able to pull off the highway, was near MacKenzie. The crossing was MP 132.81 and the time 1612 as the Rocky Mountaineer zipped by. At least we hadn't shot here before.
11. As we entered Kamloops, the sun appeared! My companions opted to see what we could see, and figured we could at least plausibly drive to the VIA station at the end of the CN yard. A WB coal train behind CN 2805 was sitting there, so I stepped onto the platform to grab a shot. It's not much, but I took it just for the fact of sunlight. The reports for the next several days were not promising.
I came to officially hate the stretch of track from Valemount to Kamloops; it never works out for us, in terms of photographic yield for time, distance, and expense coming from Edmonton. To be fair, I think if we stayed a week in the Valemount to Kamloops stretch, and had sunlight, it could be productive. But road legs of a trip don't lend themselves to doing this area justice. Thanks for looking.
Fred

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Well covered - Shot seven on the bridge is my favorite.
Bob

Good stuff, good narration.
My memory of the steel bridges is a lot different than what Google shows these days. Lots of trees seems to be the recurring theme.
t4p.

Wikipedia for the crash, somewhere they say the trackage has been re-aligned to improve visibility:

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

TCnR Wrote:
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> Good stuff, good narration.
> My memory of the steel bridges is a lot different
> than what Google shows these days. Lots of trees
> seems to be the recurring theme.
> t4p.
>
> Wikipedia for the crash, somewhere they say the
> trackage has been re-aligned to improve
> visibility:
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canoe_River_train_cr
> ash

Here are links to a few shots showing those trestles in 2004, with many fewer trees (the first one due to a forest fire). It'll take me some back-and-forth to get both links copied and pasted in. The first is Canoe River, same train, shot from what had become a field beside Highway 5: https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?15,4709035,4709035#msg-4709035. The second one is the trestle near Wabron, shot from the other, sunlit side of the tracks: https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?15,4719497,4719497#msg-4719497. Trees grow.
As to realignment, I can't comment. There doesn't seem to be much scope for this at Canoe River on account of the rails being set on a mountainside. There are still several long curves that limit visibility. Through the 2005 edition of the TSG, the siding is listed at 6,480', station at MP 82.6. In the 2006 edition, the siding is boosted to 13,600'. Some of that is accommodated by cutting into the slope, I think, which still looks fresh although more and more trees are invading it.
Fred



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/02/26 15:11 by feclark.

That Rocky Mountaineer consist seems odd. I didn't know they were running as many as five Gold Leaf cars to Jasper. 

NPRocky Wrote:
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> That Rocky Mountaineer consist seems odd. I didn't
> know they were running as many as five Gold Leaf
> cars to Jasper. 

For what it's worth, I checked my photos of the same run two years previous (2024, same Sunday in June) and it had 11 cars, five of them the domes.
Fred