The CBC is reporting that Canadian Pacific Railways is going to cut 1,700 jobs in the next month and 4,500 jobs by 2016. The cuts are part of new CEO Hunter Harrison's plan to streamline CP to make it more competitive.
CP has posted a "new vision for the future" on their site. Plans including closing hump yards in Toronto, Winnipeg, Chicago and Calgary, improving train speeds, reducing their dependence on leased locomotives and cars, moving their corporate HQ to Ogden Yard, sell off the western portion of the former DM and E, and possibly sell off the Delaware and Hudson.
It's clear that CP needs to improve its operating ratio but I'm sure these cuts are going to be controversial. It seems strange to close hump yards - they are supposed to make switching more efficient - but what do I know?
One might wonder if CP is being reduced and streamlined in order to make it more attractive for an acquisition or merger...
As I mentioned, I was in Calgary last weekend while my wife attended a conference. After seeing some interesting CN units and varnish power, I went back out Sunday to see what I could see. There was a rumour that the CPR Holiday Train was heading out from Ogden at noon.
I decided to go up on the 50th Street overpass over Ogden Road (here) and see how the view was from there. You can only face south from there since the Deerfoot Trail is in the way to the north, and there's no walkway on the north side anyway.
Unfortunately there are some wires in the way to the south, but I did what I could to get around them. CP 6058 and 5853 were doing some shunting in Alyth Yard and they stuck out quite a way on the yard lead. While I filmed them, a potash train arrived from the south with CP 9529 and 9614 on the head end, CP 9597 in the middle and CP 9682 pushing on the end. Just as they cleared out, CP 9589 and CP 9734 ran light from Alyth to Ogden. Here they are, all in one video.
Once they passed, I headed out to Indus to try to catch some mainline action at speed. I set up at the crossing at the south end of town and soon enough, CP 103 rolled by at 11 AM with CP 8739 and CEFX 1050.
25 minutes later, another north / westbound rolled through. Red SOO 6044 had quite a wimpy horn on it!
CP 9803 was trailing on this train.
I went back to Ogden to see if the Holiday Train would come out. There was no sign of life in the yard so it was clear that nothing was going to happen. I checked out the CN yard but not much was going on there and there was no mainline power around. Back on CP, I saw CP 110 pull up to Ogden to do a crew change. The train had CP 8776 and 9627 on the head end.
That was clearly not THIS CP 8776:
I talked with the conductor for a few minutes before they did a crew change. I then went down the line a few hundred feet to set up the video camera and wait for them to start rolling. I wanted to capture the rumble of the engines bringing the train up to speed.
There was some discussion with the RTC about when they could leave. They had a yellow over red signal (Clear to Stop) indication. Since train 110 was just under 9700 feet long and "over siding" (meaning it would not fit into any sidings) it could not meet any trains en route. The decision was made to allow it to proceed to Shepard (the next siding) and hang out the back of the siding. Presumably the train it was meeting would hold the main between siding switches, and 110 would go around it.
With that decided, the signal indication changed to green over red, and 110 left Calgary.
Here are two slides, shot at McAdam, NB 19 years ago on July 3, 1981. CP 8776 and CP 8784 were apparently doing some switching.
CP 8776 was built by the Montreal Locomotive Works (MLW) in May 1958. It was rebuilt as part of CP's RS-18 rebuild program in 1985 and became CP 1834. It served CP for just over a decade before being sold to the New Brunswick East Coast Railway in April 1998, becoming NBEC 1834.
NBEC 1834 served for a little over five years, before going to sister railway Ottawa Central in November 2003 and becoming OCRR 1834. It does not appear to have been repainted, given this photo taken in March 2006 showing it in tattered CP colours and NBEC lettering.
After CN purchased the Quebec Railway Corporation properties, OCRR 1834 was sent to the scrappers in Chicago in June 2009.
I personally saw NBEC 1834 9 times before it went to the Ottawa Central. Here's a video of it, shunting in Miramichi with NBEC 4210.
CP 8784 had a less exciting history. It was also built by MLW in May 1958, and was rebuilt in 1989 to become CP 1852. It ran for a mere 8 years before being retired in March 1997 and presumably scrapped.
