Rocky Mountain Trains

Here's the "what did I see" and "what did I think about it" train part of  my recent vacation.

Non train people can doze off now....

I saw some CP action from Calgary over Kicking Horse Pass - Spiral Tunnels to Fields.  

Some CN action through Jasper.

The Canadian and Rocky Mountaineer at Jasper

Some BNSF action on the old GN at East Glacier.

And Amtrak's Empire Builder at East Glacier.

Let's start with CP.  They are the epitome of Hunter Harrison's conveyor belt, PSR operation - at least through here.

Here's a crew change at Lake Louise on what I think is a potash train.

7:39 PM train rolls to a stop

Outbound crew is waiting.  Inbound crew gets off.  7:40 PM

A chat.  

Second unit is clean CN - maybe that was the chat?

On the move.  7:46 PM

Midtrain DPU rolls by 7:53 PM

Rear DPU by at 7:56 PM

The crew change took 8 minutes!  Including some time for the inbound and outbound crews to chat and gripe (?), the outbound crew to stow their stuff, get situated and get underway.  This is efficient!

Thing to note.  Running standard consist unit trains means operations are uniform and repeatable.  It's much easier for the crew to know how to handle the train.  Not long car/short car, unevenly distributed tonnage.  

The signal for this switch is where the railroad goes to double track for a while up to Kicking Horse.

A soon as he cleared, and empty potash train started moving.

With a nice shiny UP DPUon the rear

20 minutes later, a stack train was being pushed up the hill

Some things to note.  Although this is a 2.2% ruling grade, there is no helper operation.  Just DPUs mid and on the rear.  Usually 2x1x1 regardless of train type.  

I only saw intermodal, potash and grain trains.  If there is loose-car merchandise moving, I didn't see any.  Although this is predominantly a single track railroad, there was quite a few trains, Averaged a train an hour or a bit more.  There didn't seem to be attempts at fleeting.  Trains moved east and west at all times of day.

Here's the other side of the grade at Fields.  CP seemed to always move multilevel blocks on the rear end of stack trains.  Smart.  Light tonnage with those often-too-springy end of car cushion devices on the rear make train handling easier.

and a little bit of video

Finally, I spent a few hours at Morant's Curve.  Morant was a CP photographer who used this spot for publicity shots.  Pretty famous spot.  This was intentional railfanning.  So, far, it's been incidental.  This was my one "have to do it" train thing on the trip.  It didn't disappoint.

First, and eastbound stack.

Next, eastbound empty grain, I think.

A bit later, a west bound stack.

No rear end DPU?

All of these trains followed the formula for the route.  

Next, was Jasper and the CN.  The CN was Hunter Harrison-ized before CP, but the traffic mix was different.  The yard in Jasper was across the street from our hotel.  I saw more than I took pictures.

There is still some coal on this route.  DPU unit trains.

A major function of the yard in Jasper was intermodal block swapping.  Trains would come by and set off and pick up.  This is from the PSR playbook, but a pretty common thing for most roads pre-PSR.

Canada has grain for export.  Lots of it.  CN and CP both move mountains of it.

What is now an "oldie but goodie"  C40-8 from the early 1990s

I also saw a fair amount of loose-car merchandise traffic.  Other than using DPUs, there was nothing to note.  Trains were not crazy long.  

Some commentary.  DPUs and PSR kind of showed up at the same time and railfans often conflate the two.  PSR actually is operating to a plan that makes the railroad function as a steady conveyor belt and focuses on steady, predictable, high productivity utilization of people and assets. It would exist with or without DPUs.  DPUs allow really long trains which improve the productivity of train crews, so it fits in with PSR.  But, railroads were going to use DPUs to run longer trains regardless of how tightly they latched onto PSR principles.

Jasper also hosts two passenger operators.  Via Rail, of course, and Rocky Mountaineer.  RM also operated into Banff and Lake Louise on CP, but I did not witness any.

Adjacent to the VIA station.

Accidently ran into the westbound Canadian one day.  It was actually on time.  Three hour scheduled dwell at Jasper helps.  Nice to see F40s again!  It runs twice weekly.  Is this transportation?

VIA also runs the Skeena between Jasper and Prince Rupert with and overnight stop in Prince George.  This train is a really interesting trains.  

First, it's a "pocket streamliner". A three car train, baggage, coach, dome-obs.  All vintage Budd stainless steel converted to HEP.  

Next, it's both a daylight train and an overnight train.  It stops overnight and people are find their own lodging.  No station stops at 3 AM! No need to have sleeper attendants or linen service or any of the expense of maintaining a sleeping car.   It runs where people are, when they are awake.  No missing out on scenery at night.  Might be fun to ride someday.

VIA keeps a spare F40 at Jasper for protection.

Here's another train that stops overnight on it's run.  The Rocky Mountaineer.  Pure sightseeing.  Just fits in with and runs along with the freight traffic. Leaves on time.  Gets where it's going when it gets there.  Some very fancy equipment on this train.  Cars with sightseer glass roofs.  Outdoor viewing platforms - most of the trip is at reasonably slow speeds. Premium meals.

These trains aren't really transportation, and they make no excuses.  These are luxury sightseeing trains that charge a great deal for a first class experience.  A cruise on rails.  That they may take you to places you may want to continue your trip is incidental.

Western Amtrak trains and the Canadian need to be more of this and less trying to be transportation.

I caught it just after it arrived Jasper one evening.

Just after arrival.  Two GP40s and a HEP generator car on the head end.

Not sure I'm a fan of the swoopy paint scheme.  Looks like glorified RV paint job. Worse that the swoops aren't all the same direction.

Viewing platform, glass roof.  Yes, please!

Older freight locomotives repurposed.  This is perfect for this train.

Some single level cars have glass in roof, too.

While I was shooting these, I got bounced from the station platform by the VIA agent there.  I had missed a no trespassing sign up by the storage siding for the Skeena and was on the wrong side of the fencing and gate along the platform by the station.  She was pretty nice about it.

After Jasper, we travelled down to Glacier National Park and stayed at the old lodge Great Northern built in East Glacier Park.  It was right across the front lawn from the old GN station.

Glacier Park Lodge view from Station

Display in hotel explained the lodge's history

Station as seen from hotel lawn

Path to station from lodge.  Turnstiles are cattle guards.

I spent some time at the station and caught a few trains. First, an eastbound empty ethanol train.

BNSF seems to have installed wind screens on every exposed bridge and trestle.  Quite elaborate structures.  

Rear DPU going away shot

Next a westbound merchandise train.

Amtrak is lengthening the platform at East Glacier.  It should eliminate double stopping.  But, orange cones are an eyesore for railfans.

...with Ferromex trailing unit.

There was quite a bit of traffic on the line.  I could see and hear it from our room at the lodge.  Other than DPUs making trains longer, it was hard to see any signs of PSR on the old GN.

The westbound Empire Builder stopped right on time this day.  Most days it was 4-12 hours late.

New Seimens Charger locomotives were typical power.  

301 is dressed in heritage scheme representing Amtrak's first try at a paint scheme.

The hotel will shuttle you over to the train, no matter how late (7 hours, here).

The connection between the train and the lodge and the park remains in tact.  There were a dozen or two guests going to and from the train each day.  The train does more park tourist business in Whitefish - at the west side of the park, as well. That's hardly enough to keep the train or the lodge going, but is a help.  The train's time schedule and time keeping are certainly not optimized for Glacier NP tourist travel.  A Rocky Mountaineer style train from Seattle and/or Portland could work on this route. Daylight down Columbia River or through the Cascades.  Overnight at Spokane.  Then daylight to Glacier, arriving in the late afternoon.  Perhaps Amtrak should try it.

There are lots of fun railroad things to see and do in the Rockies.  Next up for me, I need a ride on the Canadian or Skeena or Rocky Mountaineer - or maybe all three!