Passenger Power in Calgary

I'm finally finishing up my Calgary trip from last month. You may recall I looked at Alyth Yard on October 28. After that, I decided to see if anything was left in Ogden Yard. Ogden has been closed down after 100 years of operation.

There are a few engines still around, for example CP 1400 and CP 9000.


CP 1400 was retired in February 2012 and has been cannibalized for parts.

This is the first "red barn" (SD40-2F) that I have seen with the "dual flags" CP Rail logo on it.


After taking inventory of the few engines in Ogden, I noticed CP 8854 rolling past. You may recall it had just come off the Red Deer subdivision. I guess they ran right through Alyth Yard and were heading out on the Brooks subdivision. I barely got ahead of them and caught this "from the car" shot at a crossing.


I then headed up to CN's Sarcee yard. There I saw CN 1409, CN 7078 and GTW 5945 rolling past the gas station there. Note the operator riding the point of CN 1409. Love those GMD1s!


Here's GTW 5945. I'm told these are actually GTW units, not owned by Alstom, despite what it says on the engine.


That was certainly fun. I went back toward Alyth, but while passing Ogden Yard, I saw this.


CP 1601 was putting the heritage engines (CP 4107 / CP 1900 / CP 4106) away. Jeff Keddy and I saw them the previous day in Alyth, and I guess they were being moved.

After the crew uncoupled, CP 1601 (and CP 1527) rolled away and left the engines there.


Sweet heritage units.


CP 1539 was also around. Note the two cabooses and I think CP 8217 on the far right.


Here's CP 1527 going back onto the main line.


I was running out of time, but I ventured back to CN's Sarceee Yard just in time to see a train coming off the  CN Three Hills subdivision. I paused to capture CN 5677 and CN 8938 bringing the train in.


I would say it was a very productive morning of railfanning in Calgary!

Sarcee and Alyth Yards

After our view of Carseland and our chase on the Brooks subdivision, Jeff Keddy and I returned to Calgary to do a quick yard check. First we visited the CN Sarcee yard on 50th Avenue SE. The majority of the yard is visible from 50th Avenue but there is really no place to park except on side streets. So we parked, and walked back to take some photos.

There were two pairs of engines parked in the yard. CN 1650 and GTW 5945 were at rest. Both of them are odd ducks, in a way.


CN 1650 is one of four SD38-2s owned by CN. It is a former Northern Alberta Railways engine. I had never seen an SD38 before. As far as I can tell, it is basically an SD40-2 without a turbocharger.

It was coupled up to GTW 5945. This engine is clearly labeled "Owned by Alstom" but is also clearly labeled G.T.W. I didn't get a good photo of it... on Saturday, anyway.

The other pair of engines were interesting too, CN 7078 and CN 1409. CN 7078 is a remote-control GP9 and I saw it in November 2011 in the same place. CN 1409 is a GMD1, one of my favourite engine types.


I think it was moving when we first saw it but the crew parked it while we parked, probably "going to beans" aka having lunch.

After hitting a local hobby shop, we headed over to CP's Alyth yard to see if there was anything interesting there.We drove over the north end of the yard on the Blackfoot Trail and then went down Alyth Road (SE), which parallels the yard for a bit. There was the usual collection of GP38s, SD40s, and AC4400s but there was one MP15AC, CP 1445. Judging from the photos on RR Picture Archives, it has been in Calgary for a while.

There is a great map of the yard right beside Alyth Road.


A nice find was CP 4106, 1900 and 4107 in the yard.


That was the end of our railfanning for Saturday (October 27). However, I did do some railfanning on Sunday...