Naushad and I left to see trains at Bowness, a western suburb of Calgary, and location of two CP rail bridges crossing two parts of the Bow River. Naushad had to go to an office just near CN’s Sarcee Yard so we headed there first, seeing a large CN freight waiting about four kilometres short of the yard. Near the yard we saw a repair gang working on the line, this obviously causing the delay. I photographed some CN yard locomotives as we drove along beside Sarcee Yard, but we did not stop.
We continued west to Bowness, and shortly before arriving spotted a Hi-rail vehicle crossing on a rail overbridge. This was not a good omen. Maybe the line was temporarily closed for work. With about 30 trains a day arriving from the west or departing to the west, we should see at least one train an hour, but 110+ minutes of waiting on the foot bridge at Bowness, resulted in no trains. One local resident advised that there was a Bald Eagle somewhere in the Bowness Park area, but we did not see that either. We did see a female Common Merganser (half way between a duck and a commorant/shag) and six young. A lot of people out walking or bike riding on the various tracks and trails in the area. Some looked like they needed the exercise. We were on a very substantial bridge, but two “large” women made the bridge vibrate as they walked across!
We returned to Calgary and headed to the airport as a few big jets departed to the south, including a Lufthansa B777, but we were on the motorway and could not stop. We grabbed a coffee and muffin (Tim Horton) and headed to the viewing area (#4 on map) and watched a few smaller planes depart before it went quiet for a while. We left there and did a complete circuit of the airport before deciding to grab a Donner Kebab (Donair is the name here), and head home for a late lunch. We also stopped by Naushad’s brother’s Halal butchers shop to grab some fresh beef for the bar-b-que dinner.
No comments:
Post a Comment