Return to Banff, Part 1

Back in the summer of 2013 my family and I went back to camp in the Banff area for a week. You may recall that we were there in 2010.

We parked our trailer at the Tunnel Mountain Campground just outside Banff proper. That was the same place we camped at in 2010 and in fact we were in the same spot. While we were there, the Google Street View car came through. My son and I were going to get water when we spotted it. I fetched my camera and took a photo of the car.

It took a photo of me, too... in my pajamas!

Anyway, back to trains. I went to the Banff station on the evening of July 16th but nothing came along.

I went out to Banff West early in the morning of July 18th, hoping to capture a train there. The light was great but there was no traffic... in the 3 hours I was there. Disappointing. (I had better luck in 2010)

Here I am pensively watching for trains.

I negotiated one more trip out, on the morning of July 21st. This time I saw trains. I went down to the Banff station about half an hour before sunrise and there was a train. CP 8929 was heading west at 05:27.

This was at 1/50s at f/1.8 with my 50mm lens.

After the train passed, I headed to the railfan Mecca, Morant's Curve, to catch 8929 there. Fortunately I arrived about 3 minutes before the train did (06:16)!

This is the CP Laggan subdivision, mile 113. There's a hotbox detector just around the corner at mile 111 (Eldon) so you can get advance warning of a train if you have a scanner.

You can see the sun was just lighting up the tops of the mountains. Technically the sun was up for about 25 minutes but of course it has to clear the mountains.

Here's CP 9722 as mid-train power.

It wasn't long until another train came by, an eastbound this time. They must have been waiting at Lake Louise for 8929 to pass.

CP 8605 East rolled past my lens at 06:35 with a big ol' grain train.

CP was clearly making up for sending no trains back on the 18th... or at least that's what I choose to believe! CP 9813 East came rolling by shortly afterward at 06:57 pulling a potash train.

Here's a view of my "video camera" aka my old Canon S3.

After that burst of trains, there was a break of over an hour before the next train came along... in the next post.

See also:

• Return to Banff, Part 2 (2013)
• Foggy Morant's Curve in 2010
• Waiting for the Rocky Mountaineer in 2010
• The Rocky Mountaineer in 2010