General railway discussions

[crs1026]

The little I know is that there is a shortage of storage space, mostly for idle tank cars, in the St Thomas area, and the previous "word on the street" was that old Ford yard was being reactivated to relieve that. I have no intel on what the plan for the new plants is, other than the city documents which indicate a new siding will be built into the plants.

- Paul

 

[Fritter]

I am just curious, does anyone know how CN/VIA has been dealing with the Jasper fires? Are trains just holding until it is clear to proceed or have the been re-routed somehow along CP or some other CN line?

 

[micheal_can]

I am just curious, does anyone know how CN/VIA has been dealing with the Jasper fires? Are trains just holding until it is clear to proceed or have the been re-routed somehow along CP or some other CN line?

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There is a Facebook group of the Canadian that has been very good at getting information on all of it.
As I understand it, the station was saved, but no word on any damage. CN is back up and running through, but crew changes are happening in Hinton. Nothing clear on Via's movements through the area yet (unless I missed it).

 

[Urban Sky]

I am just curious, does anyone know how CN/VIA has been dealing with the Jasper fires? Are trains just holding until it is clear to proceed or have the been re-routed somehow along CP or some other CN line?

All VIA service is suspended West of Edmonton (including the Skeena) until further notice.

 

[lenaitch]

RMR has also cancelled their routes that touch Jasper at least until Aug 13th.

 

[nfitz]

All VIA service is suspended West of Edmonton (including the Skeena) until further notice.

Why can't they run on the CP? They've done that before with track closures., etc.

 

[Urban Sky]

Why can't they run on the CP? They've done that before with track closures., etc.

Because we no longer live in the 1990s and its simply not worth the effort, risks and lead times, neither for VIA nor for CP…?

 

[nfitz]

Because we no longer live in the 1990s and its simply not worth the effort, risks and lead times, neither for VIA nor for CP…?

And yet we see CP on CN, CN on CP during emergencies. And VIA diverting from Metrolinx track both using CP and CN during construction.

 

[Urban Sky]

And yet we see CP on CN, CN on CP during emergencies. And VIA diverting from Metrolinx track both using CP and CN during construction.

Any such partnership between CN and CP is very obvioulsy mutually beneficial. What benefit does CP derive from helping out VIA with resources which are in extremely short supply industry-wide…?

 

[nfitz]

That the government of Canada funded the tracks, let them offload their passenger requirements, and has the good grace not to nationalize them.

 

[smallspy]

That the government of Canada funded the tracks, let them offload their passenger requirements, and has the good grace not to nationalize them.

Please feel free to use that argument on them, but be prepared to be laughed out the door afterwards.

Dan

 

[Urban Sky]

That the government of Canada funded the tracks, let them offload their passenger requirements, and has the good grace not to nationalize them.

The government didn‘t fund anything (and certainly none of the tracks which are currently laid between Edmonton, Calgary and Kamloops). The CP line would have been built anyways (as exemplified by the fact that two more transcontinental railway lines were built without government subsidies) and the current alignment has drastic improvements (Spiral tunnels and McConnaught tunnel, anyone?) over whatever cheap and dirty (and dangerous!) alignments were subsidized back then because the government desperately needed the railroad to be built much faster than CPR‘s private investors were willing to finance.

Anyways, it‘s VIA‘s federal masters and not CP which prevents VIA from negotiating track access: however, the lead time would be rather measured in months and years than in days and weeks…

 

[Allandale25]

This looks like it'll be fun to watch:

Reminds me of when CP did a few other videos like this one below. cc @crs1026 @smallspy

 

[Northern Light]

This looks like it'll be fun to watch:

Reminds me of when CP did a few other videos like this one below. cc @crs1026 @smallspy

With your outstanding industry pull, @crs1026 , @smallspy and I are looking forward to our comped tickets, and look forward to sharing the journey w/you.

 

[lenaitch]

That will be cool. I have the vaguest memory of seeing mainline steam from an aunt's place near what we now call the Lakeshore East ROW, but I did see - and hear - 2816 running at track speed a few years ago and it was quite something.

Union Pacific is taking their 'Big Boy' on a multi-state tour this year as well.