We departed Surrey about 8:15am (9:15am Calgary time), and had a short detour over the just opened Golden Ear Bridge over the Fraser River. It is a toll bridge, but free for a few weeks. Saw a CN stack train heading west here The weather was overcast, cold and some rain. While it was about 30 C when we arrived it was now just 12 C.
The section through to Kamloops (about 330km) was pretty uneventful, as the road does not follow the railway from Hope to Kamloops). Petrol and coffee (Tim Horton’s) and on the road again. I was listening to the scanner (CP rail) and there was plenty of rail action from a road gang working on the north track at Campbell Creek, to an empty rail train a few kilometres further east. I decided to use the video camera today, and recorded a few trains. At Malakwa, just west of Craigellachie we saw a stationery eastbound Canpotex (potash empties) hopper train heading back to Saskatchewan. I went across the road to shoot this with video when the crew alighted, and I new a westbound would be here within minutes, and soon a coal train rolled by. When that had cleared the turnout, the crew of the hopper train resumed their journey east, the engineer giving a friendly wave as the headend went passed.
Between here and Revelstoke we saw another westbound freight, and stopped in Revelstoke for a late lunch at Subway (it was now 4:00pm Calgary time). There were three trains in the Revelstoke yard ready to depart, two west and one east, and I heard on the scanner the two westbounds being given their track warrants.
Saw another couple of trains between Revelstoke and Golden, and just leaving Golden we saw some mountain goats. They are big animals!
Approaching the Spiral Tunnels, I asked Naushad if he could stop for a couple of minutes, and as we arrived Shamina saw a train heading west above the road (approaching the top tunnel). It was another Canpotex train (loaded) and soon the headend power passed us below the road, now heading east, before turning north towards the lower spiral tunnel. As the two locos approached the second tunnel the mid train helper passed below us, and then it happened! The headend was leaving the lower tunnel mouth (now heading west again), as the mid train helper passed overhead, and the tail end pusher passed below us, so the one train we could see heading west, north and east on three different levels. Unfortunately the trees are too big to see this to the best, even though the National Parks people have a big carpark and good diagrams, signage etc, but being a National Park, no trees can be cut down.
We saw another westbound grain train at lake Louise and the last train of the day was the Rocky Mountaneer, tourist train from Vancouver, about 75km out of Calgary, but passed this point you only see the rail line once as it passes over Highway 1 at Bowness.
We finally arrived at 9:15pm so the trip had taken exactly 12 hours, and considering the weather (a lot of rain), and the three long and two short stops it was a good time. We went straight around to Naushad’s brothers place (about 150metres away) and had dinner before coming back to unpack the car.
The section through to Kamloops (about 330km) was pretty uneventful, as the road does not follow the railway from Hope to Kamloops). Petrol and coffee (Tim Horton’s) and on the road again. I was listening to the scanner (CP rail) and there was plenty of rail action from a road gang working on the north track at Campbell Creek, to an empty rail train a few kilometres further east. I decided to use the video camera today, and recorded a few trains. At Malakwa, just west of Craigellachie we saw a stationery eastbound Canpotex (potash empties) hopper train heading back to Saskatchewan. I went across the road to shoot this with video when the crew alighted, and I new a westbound would be here within minutes, and soon a coal train rolled by. When that had cleared the turnout, the crew of the hopper train resumed their journey east, the engineer giving a friendly wave as the headend went passed.
Between here and Revelstoke we saw another westbound freight, and stopped in Revelstoke for a late lunch at Subway (it was now 4:00pm Calgary time). There were three trains in the Revelstoke yard ready to depart, two west and one east, and I heard on the scanner the two westbounds being given their track warrants.
Saw another couple of trains between Revelstoke and Golden, and just leaving Golden we saw some mountain goats. They are big animals!
Approaching the Spiral Tunnels, I asked Naushad if he could stop for a couple of minutes, and as we arrived Shamina saw a train heading west above the road (approaching the top tunnel). It was another Canpotex train (loaded) and soon the headend power passed us below the road, now heading east, before turning north towards the lower spiral tunnel. As the two locos approached the second tunnel the mid train helper passed below us, and then it happened! The headend was leaving the lower tunnel mouth (now heading west again), as the mid train helper passed overhead, and the tail end pusher passed below us, so the one train we could see heading west, north and east on three different levels. Unfortunately the trees are too big to see this to the best, even though the National Parks people have a big carpark and good diagrams, signage etc, but being a National Park, no trees can be cut down.
We saw another westbound grain train at lake Louise and the last train of the day was the Rocky Mountaneer, tourist train from Vancouver, about 75km out of Calgary, but passed this point you only see the rail line once as it passes over Highway 1 at Bowness.
We finally arrived at 9:15pm so the trip had taken exactly 12 hours, and considering the weather (a lot of rain), and the three long and two short stops it was a good time. We went straight around to Naushad’s brothers place (about 150metres away) and had dinner before coming back to unpack the car.
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