Welcome To My Homepage
Marias Pass
Hi! My name is Steve Bishop, in Airdrie, Alberta, and this site is named for my favorite railfan location, along the BNSF High Line through northern Montana, although most of the pictures have been taken in other places.
I will be displaying my photos of trains, taken over several years, with some of the most recent shot during a 5000 mile railfan trip thru 10 states in May 1998, and an August 1998 trip with my daughter to northern Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
I will also be including some pics taken locally on Canadian Pacific and Canadian National here in the Calgary area. I have had an interest in trains for most of my life, with the focus recently switching to prototype photography from N scale modelling. I still have a layout in my basement, but have now begun collecting HO modern equipment and prototype memorabilia, as well as a smattering of G scale.
Hope you enjoy!
After much trepidation and deliberation, I have decided to build this site in a 'story' format, rather than using lots of thumbnails - mostly because I haven't figured out how to build them yet! I hope I can blunder my way through in a manner that will allow viewers to see the photos without having to sprain a digit on their mouse buttons.
Unlike most folks who post pics on their site, I use scans of photos rather than slides. This does occasionally result in a loss of sharpness, but wherever possible I have attempted to correct any problems with the help of Adobe Photoshop. Also, most pics have been cropped to save space and time loading.
Below is a list of railroads and other interests that I am using to categorize my photos. Keep in mind that all photos were taken by me. I have not borrowed any from other sites or photographers. I do ask that if you should decide to borrow from me for your own site, that you please acknowledge this location, or myself.
- And with all that said - we're off!
BN/BNSF
As my homepage title shows, my favorite railfan location is along Marias Pass. This area, between West and East Glacier, Montana, encompasses tunnels, snowsheds, trestles, steep grades, and great mountain scenery. But the crowning touch is the Isaac Walton Inn at Essex. I have been going there for the past fourteen years and, while I can't afford to stay there any longer, I always have to stop for at least a meal and a chat with proprietors Larry and Linda. And someday, I'll even stay in one of their beautiful cabooses.
The power on this line has changed some over those years, from green SD40s, SD45s, and GP30s, to newer 'Tiger Striped' GP50s, and now, to orange and green "pumpkins" and silver and red "warbonnets".
Through the seasons, this area never fails to live up to its' reputation as a prime railfan location.
Canadian Pacific/SOO
The largest portion of my photo collection is of CP equipment. Their Calgary-Edmonton main line runs about 100 yards from my house, so I can watch the action from my bedroom or kitchen. With 7 to 10 trains a day plus locals, there is always opportunity to see one of the abundant SD40-2s or GP38-2s. This line is also home to the newer AC4400s in both the dual flag scheme, and the new beaver scheme, and now, the brand new SD9043MAC units.
CP has their head office in Calgary, and a large hump yard (Alyth) and shop facility (Ogden) as well. On my frequent rounds of these areas I am constantly amazed at the variety of power and the paint schemes to be seen. Even the Alcos have made an appearance in the past few years. Alyth Yard also sees the "Rocky Mountaineer" power in for fuel and service as it prepares to return to Vancouver, and Central Western locos are not uncommon either.
To the disappointment of some, CP is also the parent of the SOO, and it is very common to see white and red SD40s and red SD60s, as well as the occasional SD60M widecab. And then, to top it off, two SOO GP9R's are used in switching Alyth Yard. Rarely a dull moment.
Canadian National
The CN presence in Calgary is rather limited, but we still see a good variety of equipment in spite of this. There is a flat switching yard with an intermodal terminal, and an array of switching locos, including GP9RMs and the odd-looking GMD1. There are also 2 slugs coupled with the GPs. Each day the high horsepower trains arrive with intermodal traffic, led by SD70i's,SD75i's, Dash 9-44CWL's, and occasionally Dash 8-40CM's. The odd SD40u is seen, and once in a long time, a wide-cab GP40, SD60F,or SD50F.
I enjoy visiting the CN yard because the employees are always friendly and willing to answer questions. I had a trainman actually leave his remote controlled switching to come and show me the unit and how it worked, just because I was standing there watching. At CP I have always found total indifference.
Lease Equipment
Due to large increases in traffic levels over the past couple of years, the major railroads have found themselves short of power to handle the new demand. As a result, locomotive leasing companies have seen a dramatic increase in their business also. Nearly every train in my area has at least one unit in lease colors. The most commonly seen are HATX, HLCX, LLPX, and GATX. The demand has been so great that these units frequently enter service still wearing the colors of their previous owner. CP has been using Union Pacific, Burlington Northern, Southern Pacific..tunnel motor, no less.., Chessie, Guilford, Illinois Central, Missouri Pacific, and Seaboard to name just a few.
In addition to units obtained through leasing companies, railroads also lease and borrow power from each other, to be paid back later. That is why 'foreign road' locos are seen on the competition, in addition to using 'run-through' agreements. CP has used Montana Rail Link, Norfolk Southern,CSX, Conrail, Algoma Central, and, on many occasions, Rocky Mountaineer. I have also observed some of the paybacks, like CPRail on BNSF at Havre, MT, CPRail on BNSF in the Powder River Basin in May '98, and CNRail on BNSF's Crawford Hill. These units really change the appearance of an all-home-road consist.
VIA/Amtrak/RMRC
The days of mainline passenger service have, for the most part, passed like the trains themselves. The crack streamliners have been replaced by VIA Rail in Canada and Amtrak in the U.S. In western Canada, VIA operates "The Canadian", an all-stainless consist with dome cars. This service now runs through Edmonton and Jasper rather than the traditional route through Banff and the Spiral Tunnels...a real blow to the reputation of the service.
In the U.S., Amtrak still operates several 'name' trains, including a few cross country routes. Having never travelled on Amtrak, I will concentrate on the service I have seen most frequently...the "Empire Builder". This train uses Marias Pass, and has been hauled by a variety of equipment. The Superliner and Superliner II cars look great, whether trailing F40PH's, B32W's, or the new Genesis units. In Kansas City in May '98, I even saw a Genesis engine hauling an Amcoach/Amfleet consist, trailed by heavyweight coach M.K.T.. Made my day!
Since the cancellation of "The Canadian" through Kicking Horse Pass, a new passenger railroad company has laid claim to the route - Rocky Mountaineer Railtours Company. Based in Vancouver, this train uses purple and white coaches and matching GP40's. On the tail is a double deck first class car, complete with an open veranda. This train operates in daylight, with an overnight stop in Kamloops, where the train separates into a Banff-Calgary section and a new Jasper section. By all accounts the service is doing very well.
Union Pacific and Friends?
The good..the bad..the ugly. The three words that best describe all other words used to describe Union Pacific. What more can I say?
Although UP has received a lot of bad press in the past, most of it justified, they appear to have pulled themselves together for the most part, and they are very much worth photographing. I have seen 'payback' SD60Ms in Calgary, as well as a lot of former UP power now in one of the lease fleets. I recently shot numerous UP coal trains in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming, and stack trains along US 30 in Nebraska. Everything from C44ACs to C6044ACs and SD9043ACs haul the trains, in conjunction with Southern Pacific AC4400s, Cotton BeltB40-8s, UPC40-8s, CNWC44ACs and C40-8s, and older GP38-2s. Rio Grande SD40-2Ts also roam the rails, especially at Helper, Utah. But the crowning glory of my trip in May 1998, as far as Union Pacific is concerned, was the sight of the business train in Kansas City, hauled by those venerable E8s. Beautiful! More recently, however, I was privileged to be part of the audience watching UP844 and UP3985 double-heading out of Cheyenne in May 1999, and that sight will remain with me the rest of my days!
Other Roads
Over the course of my travels I have had the opportunity to see trains of railroads other than those mentioned to this point. I will never forget the sight of the Wisconsin Southern business train crossing the summit of Marias Pass, and shuffling the consist to park on the tail of the wye beside the Isaac Walton Inn at Essex. The sight of 10C, Mars light flashing, and beautiful 'Northern View' was more than I could have hoped for.
In Utah, I was fortunate enough to see locos of the Utah Railway, and in New Mexico, I was able to walk the yard of the Cumbres and Toltec in Chama. Engine 497 was in steam, awaiting the opening of their season. Like thousands of others, I rode behind CP 2860 on the British Columbia Railroad, and aboard the Kingston Flyer in Queenstown, New Zealand. And back on this continent, number 33 of the Hocking Valley Railroad hauled the train on my 33rd birthday.
And speaking of nostalgia, my cab ride in the Port Stanley Terminal Rail 25-tonner from it's namesake town to St. Thomas, Ontario, where my grandfather and great-grandfather toiled for the New York Central, has to be a highlight of my life. To walk in the shops where my ancestors walked was an incredible experience.
The colorful world of railroading keeps rolling on.
Western Canadian Shortlines
In recent years the return to smaller and more efficient railways has been growing due to the financial unwillingness of the big roads to retain poorly utilized sections of their track structure. This has led to the startup of many smaller railroads across North America, including here in western Canada. I have been fortunate to visit a few of these new lines, as well as seeing their equipment in the company of the major railroads enroute to overhaul shops and during delivery.
In the Calgary area, Canadian Pacific has been doing some of the heavy work for Railink-Central Western, a shortline based in Stettler, Alberta. This road operates east and south from there, and has itself been shrinking in the past few years. It's main commodity is grain, along with some wood products. They operate a few GP9 locos, like CW #7438, shown here. This road is also home to steam excursions of the Alberta Prairie Railway, using a 2-8-0 and vintage passenger cars. There is talk of seeing former CN loco #6060, a 4-8-2, and Canadian favorite, in operation on this line for the summer of 1999.
In the Edmonton area, Canadian National is looking after some of the heavy work for two more Railink roads...the Lakeland and Waterways, and the Mackenzie Northern. Their routes together stretch northwest to Hay River in the Northwest Territories and northeast to Fort McMurray, Alberta. A mixed fleet of GP8's, GP9's, GP10's, GP18's, and GP38's capably handle the traffic of forest products and grain, along with some petroleum and heavy machinery.
If we move further west, right to Vancouver Island, actually, we will find the Esquimalt and Nanaimo, until recently a wholly-owned subsidiary of Canadian Pacific. Although I have not been to the island to see their operation, Canadian Pacific still carries out the heavy maintenance on their units in Calgary. GP38 #3004, seen here after a recent overhaul, and her sisters handle the timber industry traffic for this line.
Now, heading east from Alberta, we find two OmniTrax companies operating in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Based in Prince Albert, Sask., the Carlton Trail Railway operates south to Warman Junction and a connection with Canadian National. The GP10's, like the unit shown here, haul the timber products from the north along with grain and machinery. This road also stretches to the northwest as far as Meadow Lake. The line makes use of the old Canadian Northern roundhouse facilities in Prince Albert.
In Manitoba, the Hudson Bay Railway is a thriving shortline based in The Pas. This line is also former Canadian National trackage, and includes the grain handling port of Churchill, on Hudson Bay. OmniTrax has extensively upgraded the line and is now using covered hoppers for the grain traffic, something that CN had declared impossible due to the soft muskeg along the right of way. These track improvements also spelled the end of the 40 foot grain boxcars which were a standard of the line. The HBR uses an eclectic mix of equipment, ranging in type from an SW8 to GP35's, including one GP30...only the third such unit to ever operate in Canada. I was also surprised to find a former Chicago & Northwestern GP7 and a Southern Pacific GP35, in the Kodachrome scheme no less, both being used as parts machines. My release to walk around the property was signed by none other than the president of the line himself, whom I met the previous evening while he waited to chat with the crew on the southbound VIA train, the 'Hudson Bay'. My daughter and I also had a cab tour of the VIA FP9 on its' station stop...something that was most unexpected and very much appreciated by both of us.
Throughout North America, the shortline railroad industry is doing very well as the business of railroading becomes more commodity specific.
Fallen Flags
(more picture links will be active soon!)
This title has been given to the many railroads in history that have ceased to exist due to merger and bankruptcy. Many of the cars and even some locos of these roads survive today, still carrying some semblance of their original road name.
Although I live far removed from the mainlines of the United States, I have had the good fortune to see what's left of several of the paint schemes of roads that now toil for new owner/operators. Ironically, many of these pictures are of names that were merged to form Conrail, now the victim of merger itself!
A lot of gondola traffic passes my house on the Canadian Pacific, and many times these cars are relics of former railroads such as the Erie-Lackawanna, Pennsylvania, and Penn Central. Boxcars of the Boston and Maine are also represented on occasion, along with the Western Pacific and the Reading, and tank cars of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy...the Burlington Route.
Some of the more recent mergers have made names like the Rock Island and the Chicago and Northwestern obsolete, although many examples of their logos still exist and will for years to come. Names like Southern, Norfolk and Western, Family Lines, Seaboard, and Chessie System survive in large numbers, and I frequently see cars of the Milwaukee Road, most likely due to their ownership by Canadian Pacific. And I suppose, technically speaking, even the SOO LINE is a fallen flag now.
Of course, in mentioning fallen flags we can't forget the more famous of our time...the Southern Pacific and Rio Grande, absorbed into the Union Pacific, and the Santa Fe and Burlington Northern, who have merged into the mega-company BNSF.
In the coming years there will be more roads added to the long and sad list of former carriers as the merger madness continues in efforts to streamline and enhance the performance of the freight railroads of North America.
Specialized Rolling Stock
By the very nature of the business, railroads have been forced to invent specialized means of carrying commodities and keeping their physical plant in good operating condition. The challenge has been to design and adapt rolling stock that is capable of doing the job at hand, without having to spend unrecoverable amounts of money in the process.
Everyone is familiar with the boxcars, hoppers, gondolas, flats, autoracks and intermodal cars that ply the rails daily. I want to show some of the more unusual or one-of-a-kind types of cars that were designed because a specific need for such a car arose. Some of these cars were built for the railroads' own use, such as the hi-rail trucks and track inspection cars used for examining and working on the right-of-way, 200-ton cranes built to recover from derailments and to clear wreck damage, and rotary and push-type plows used for the obvious reason.
Companies such as Sperry, Loram, and Pandrol-Jackson have made a business of operating specially designed equipment under contract to inspect for hidden flaws and grind the rails, and cars have been developed to test and calibrate track scales for proper and safe car loading.
To reduce the wear and tear in the curves and on the railhead, articulated cars have been invented that run on common sets of trucks, reducing the overall number of wheels required to carry the load. This concept has been applied to intermodal equipment in both the well-type and flatcar-type of car, and is seen in sets of three or five units joined with a drawbar setup between the mid-car platforms. As well, articulated covered grain hoppers are in operation in limited areas, and, most recently, enclosed articulated autoracks have arrived, increasing the amount of tonnage hauled while lightening the load on the rail.
The railroads have come a long way from the old wooden stock cars designed for the shipment of cattle, sheep, and hogs.
Structures
(more picture links will be active soon!)
Among some of the most enduring architecture of this century are structures built for and by the railroads. Everything from roundhouses and turntables to trestles and coaling towers still survive today, a testament to their strength and design. Perhaps the most familiar of these achievements are the stately and gracious terminal buildings that can be found in many large cities, even though regular passenger train traffic died out in the 1970's in most areas of North America.
My first shot of an impressive trestle is the one you passed on the way in to my site...the Great Northern-built structure at Java, on Marias Pass. This line has several such bridges and trestles, including the equally impressive and oft-photographed Two Medicine trestle at East Glacier, Montana. There is something striking about the delicate look of these steel 'buildings' with a heavy train crossing on the top. One of the most impressive of these in North America is the Canadian Pacific Viaduct across the Oldman River in Lethbridge, Alberta. It is over a mile in length, and more than 300 feet in height...an entire train will fit on top at one time! The structure itself dwarfs the cargo it carries.
There are many examples of impressive railroad bridges around the country. I am most impressed by the old wooden creations, few of which seem to survive today. One excellent example, though, is this abandoned Canadian Northern wood trestle northeast of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. While this trestle has been protected, others like this one at St. Thomas, Ontario, have, I'm told, disappeared. And for you folks who want something a bit more modern, how about this concrete composition on the former Canada Southern line, also at St. Thomas.
Among the many structures unique to railroading, the roundhouse has to be the one most frequently recognized by the non-rail person. There are still many such buildings in existence throughout North America, although most have been shrunk in size and serve a different purpose than they were originally intended, such as highway maintenance equipment storage and the like. I have seen very small ones, like in Medicine Hat, Alberta, and some larger ones like Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. I can remember the huge, nearly complete circle of a Canadian National roundhouse in Toronto, Ontario, when we would travel as children to see our grandparents. We always hoped to catch the red light at the intersection where we turned, because you could look straight through an open stall and see the steamers on the turntable and in the stalls behind it. The roundhouse in Chama, New Mexico, still covers steam engines, while the one in The Pas, Manitoba, is in use by the diesels of the Hudson Bay Railroad.
In order to move locomotives in and out of different stalls in the roundhouse or shop, two methods were generally used...turntables and transfer tables. While the transfer table was usually relegated to towns and cities where there was a major shop facility, the turntable could be found even in remote locations such as this 'armstrong' one in Kingston, New Zealand. The only transfer table I have seen personally is the one at the former Michigan Central/New York Central shops in St. Thomas, Ontario, where my grandfather and great grandfather worked. As for turntables, I have seen many, and still am able to shoot modern diesels on the one at Canadian Pacific's Alyth Yard in Calgary.
Some railroad structures are less apparent due to their small size. One example is this track scale building on the Hudson Bay Railroad. A larger edifice is the former New York Central interlocking tower in St. Thomas. This tower guarded the crossing with the London and Port Stanley Railroad. And then there are some large, prominent structures like the yard tower of the Union Pacific in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and the wooden coaling tower on the Cumbres and Toltec in Chama.
Architecturally, though, the most striking references to the golden age of railroading are the beautiful stations and terminals that dot the country. While many are of Art Deco design, with the latest glass and steel improvements of the time, there are also some excellent examples of wood and brick buildings still in existence. You can see this brick station of the New York Central/Canada Southern in St. Thomas, and this small wooden depot in Silverton, Colorado, on the Durango and Silverton. Between these two completely different styles and eras lie the towers of the cities like Buffalo, New York, and Cinncinati, Ohio, and the medium size stations like Cheyenne. I have been privileged to see such creations as Broad Street Station in Philadelphia, Union Station in Toronto, Union Terminal in Kansas City, and Pacific Station in Vancouver, but for one reason or another I have no pictures to show. Seems like reason enough to go on another railfan trip!
Cabooses
...then, bringing up the rear!
Mother Nature
I'm sure that everyone who calls themselves a railfan also has a collection of photos that don't have a train or rail-related object in sight. I know I do, and here is a small sampling.
My weakness is close-ups of flowers, like the Morning Glory, and these Scarlet Globemallows and Scalloped Phacelias seen in southeast Utah. The cactus, of course, needs no introduction. And in the northern climes, Beargrass and Avalanche Lily dot the mountainsides, while apple blossoms and yellow weeds grow closer to home. As beautiful as all the previous man-made objects are to railfans, Mother Nature easily puts them all to shame.
Links
This section will direct you to other web sites that I have personally enjoyed during my rather limited exposure to the internet. These sites display the creative talents of several folks I now refer to as friends, along with some areas of personal interest that I've stumbled across by guess and by gosh. If you have an interest in railroading, which I must assume to be true if you've come this far, then you should find something to add to your own 'Bookmarks' list here.
R. Cody Erben's Trains On The Web
Charlie Harris' Site Charlie's Train Gallery
Todd Jones's Milwaukee Road
New York Central Railroad Homepage
Pacific Northwest Chapter NRHS Directory of Railroads with Websites
Trainorders...Home of the Tehachapi/Dunsmuir Railcam and Chat
'Chessie's' Railroad Photos
The Izaak Walton Inn Home Page
Paul Nadolski's SooDispatcher's Farm and Railway
More To Come!
And there you have it. A very small sampling of my rail photo collection. This site is proof that perseverence does pay. When I began, I knew nothing about setting up a web site, or even writing HTML code, but, thanks to the assistance of some very kind folks, I have been able to complete this one. My deepest appreciation to 'Aunt Em' at Geocities, and R. Cody Erben and his 'Trains On The Web' site. Also, to Jerry Sharp, Charles Emerson, and Charlie Harris for their encouragement, and to David Holliday for identifying my unknown flowers. And, of course, to my family for allowing me my idiosyncrasies.
THANX TO ALL!
You can email me at lost1952@hotmail.com anytime.
Please come back soon and visit.
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