The weather is supposed to be good all week, so Tuesday morning, good and early, I’m heading to the southeast corner of BC to check out the big coal mining operations in the Sparwood through Elkford area. The stuff looks huge on Google Earth - all of it open pit. Big loop tracks to load the unit trains and all that good stuff. The line is all downhill from the mines, hope to get at least one train on the descent. Max of 1.8% for a cool 30 miles! That should make for interesting whine from the dynamic breaks and lots of squeal from the cars.
Sounds like FUN 
Yes, it was! Videos to follow. Some extras and some misses because the railroads have their own time frame, but all in all … a real ball. Highlight of it all … never mind. I won’t tell, you’ll have to wait for the video. 
:lol: 
No need to have things in a particular order, is there?
Day 4: On the way home - starting early in Calgary - there were a few “scheduled” stops. There was very little chatter on the scanner; where are the trains? Checking at Banff brought the answer “Track work between Divide and Field”.
Smack in the spiral tunnels region.
“First Westbound is 50 minutes out”
Lots of time to get to the first location at Morant’s Curve, probably THE location on the Laggan Sub between Calgary and Field.
CP 8700 finally comes blasting up the valley, around Morant’s Curve and then starts slowing down … to a stop. And then he was stuck for more than two hours, 'til the block was lifted. Lots of chatter on the scanner, frequent queries “when will you lift the block?” “should be clear by 1300”
“Oh boy” was the reply from RTC. There were quite a few “Oh boy” that day.
Wow - That was great. Wonderful scenery and great audio, both natural and man made. Need to watch this on the surround sound system tonight.
The next stop was just up the road a relatively short distance - in the scheme of the 2427 km (1500 miles) during the four days - at one of my favourite summer spots. Mueller’s Curve is a large S curve from which one can shoot both the Westbound (newer, northerly) track and the Eastbound (old line) coming from the Divide.
The bonus feature on Friday? A Grizzly feeding on the slope above the rail line! As I came around the curve I noticed all the parked cars by the side of the road just after a construction zone; people sporting binoculars, cameras and camcorders. My usual location is a bit West of the Grizzly, the 40x zoom did the rest.
And YES, much later the train finally showed up - the Grizzly segment is at 10:58 MT, the train showed up at 13:18 MT. For those who like to practice a bit of extra patience I can recommend railfanning the CP and CN lines in the West.
[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/27404670[/vimeo]
@ Jon
The new mike showed up while I was on the road. Get to try it next time.
Just outstanding with headphones and full screen!!!
Excellent video’s H.J.
Thanks
nice videos, HJ… Full screen here shows the video fuzzy…
One more. The empty Potash unit train starting up after the refuel stop and wait for the “Big Wig” train (I heard that expression on the scanner :lol:).
[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/27415791[/vimeo]
Thanks guys!
@ Andy
I haven’t noticed that on my display, how big is your “full screen”?
Nice videos, HJ.
I’m sure you had a good time.
Full screen loses a little sharpness on my 23" widescreen.
Not enough I would call it fuzzy.
Ralph
HJ, it’s a 23 inch LCD… For example: when the train is running behind the lake, the ““Canadian Pacific”” on the side of the engines isn’t clear enough to read… maybe it’s just me…
Andy Clarke said:It's you ....blind in one eye and can't see out the other! ;)
HJ, it's a 23 inch LCD.... For example: when the train is running behind the lake, the ""Canadian Pacific"" on the side of the engines isn't clear enough to read... maybe it's just me...
Three more from the almost-foothills of Alberta.
The first one on the Crowsnest Sub west of Fort MacLeod, me being on the way to Lethbridge to film one of the long trains on the huge bridge. No such luck, inquiring at the op office at the yard: No East- or Westbounds until after sunset or the next day. Chance of a Southbound getting to the bridge before dark iffy to slim. Hmmmmm! Oh wellll… This was at 15:30
[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/27494319[/vimeo]
In that case it’s off to enjoy the rush hour in Calgary. I wasn’t disappointed, going North wasn’t too bad, the Southbound looked a lot worse.
On to Didsbury. That’s where the Shantz Sub branches off the Red Deer Sub and runs for 15.8 miles to the sulphur plant where the sulphur unit trains get loaded. My luck hadn’t improved, I missed the outbound, loaded train by 2 hours, but … CP was to deliver empties at 10:30 the following day.
Welllllll, that never happened! I was filming the mixed manifest trains at Didsbury instead, all of them going South, not a Northbound in sight or scanner advice reach.
[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/27489664[/vimeo]
[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/27478190[/vimeo]
That gave me time to check out some Calgary locations that are a bit more scenic than what I had seen on YouTube. And doodle out to Exshaw looking for more scenic spots along the way. That could be another four day trip, lots of good spots.