Passing a Half Century (Part 6) - Through the Spiral Tunnel

For my 50th birthday, my wife and I drove through Alberta and British Columbia. You can start at the beginning here... or read the whole series as an eBook with extra content!

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Let me explain.

No, there is too much. Let me sum up.
- Inigo Montaya, "The Princess Bride"

Day 5 - Golden to Banff

We woke up at a reasonable hour (7:30 AM or so) to start our short drive from Golden, BC to Banff to continue my 50th birthday trip. It's a mere 139 km drive, only an hour and a half assuming no interruptions for construction or traffic... and we had the whole day to do it in!

Naturally I had factored in some train watching time, so I expected to take a lot longer than 1.5 hours to travel that distance.

We left Golden and headed east on the Trans-Canada. There's some pretty scenic country along that stretch of highway, and the CP main line flirts with both the highway and the Kicking Horse River. Unfortunately, there were no trains running when we drove past, and even if there were, the tremendous amount of road construction would have made it hard to pull over to get a shot.

Field

We arrived at Field. This little town is a division point between the CP Mountain subdivision to the west and the CP Laggan subdivision to the east.

Trains stop here for a crew change and it's not unusual to find a train or two stopped any time you drive by.

This time was no exception, with CP 9609 East stopped by the former telegraph building.

They were not parked in a very photogenic location, especially with the sun not really showing its bright face, so I tried a few different angles to try to get a better photograph of this grain train.

We ended up sitting here for about an hour... thank my patient wife, as usual.

Playing with image editing

It seemed obvious that they were waiting for a meet.

I don't know who Woody is, but he's all over this locomotive.

WOODY WOODY WOODY WOODY

It turned out that there was another eastbound grain train coming, and it stopped at the former station in Field. CP 9782 was at the head.

CP 9782 in Field, British Columbia

But CP 9609 wasn't waiting for that train... it was waiting for CP 8554 West.

The Meet

CP 8554 and 9650 in Field, BC

CP 8554 came rolling into Field. I patiently waited for CP 8554 to come out of the shadows and into the sunlight to get the shot. It's a pretty nice view here!

They rolled through the crossing and met CP 9609 and its crew, on the ground for the roll-by inspection.

CP 8554, meet CP 9609

That golden beaver on CP 8554 is looking pretty ragged!

Even the end unit, CP 9355, looked pretty good.

CP 9355 on the rear

We hit the road after CP 9355 passed by. I assumed CP 9609 East was going to head out right away so I wanted to get ahead of it.

The Spiral Tunnels

Arguably the most famous railway attraction in Canada, or least the Rocky Mountains, the two spiral tunnels replaced CPR's "Big Hill" and replaced the perilous 4.5% grade with a more manageable 2.2%. There's a viewpoint along the Trans-Canada Highway where you can view both portals of the Lower Spiral Tunnel.

We parked there and went to see if CP 9609 East had caught up to us. I could hear it, and by the time I fought my way through the crowds to get a view, I saw the DPU (CP 9653) far below.

CP 9653 - man in the middle

Less than a minute later, the lead locomotive popped out of the upper tunnel portal.

CP 9609 at the upper portal of the Lower Spiral Tunnel

The photo above is heavily cropped from a 200mm shot from quite a distance away. To right is the same viewpoint, at 85mm and uncropped.

I'm frankly impressed that it is as sharp as it is. Note the "1908" at the top of the portal. The Canon 70-200mm f/4 lens is a good one!

Soon the train looped over itself... not that you can really see it any more. The area is so overgrown that you can't even see the lower portal, and when trains leave the lower portal heading east, you can catch glimpses of the train through the thick tree growth but that's it.

Parks Canada is really dropping the ball here on maintaining this site. Like Morant's Curve, it's up to them to maintain the trees and cut them back where required. If this keeps up, in another decade there will be no point in stopping here as nothing will be visible.

Rant over.

The train looped over itself - trust me

We didn't wait for the train to finish going through... I wanted to try to catch it at Wapta Lake like I did the last time I was in the area.

Sadly there was a ton of road construction by the lake and there was no place to stop. The light wasn't great anyway, so we carried on.

We wanted to visit Moraine Lake after we caught this train, so we kept going to the Lake Louise exit. There were a lot of cars around, and there were people directing traffic at each 4-way stop. That was a first in my experience!

We went straight to the old Lake Louise station - now a restaurant - and I waited by the display cars for the train to come along.

Lake Louise

CP 9609 East at Lake Louise

CP 9609 came storming around the corner. She put on a lovely show and sounded great as the train rolled on by the station.

Nice wave from the engineer!

The wave

For those who care, I believe the train took a few minutes less than an hour to run the 20.4 miles from Field to Lake Louise.

Frustration

We left the chase off here and went to Lake Louise proper.

Or, I should say, we tried to go to Lake Louise.

There were so many people around that there was no place to park and they were turning everyone away.

Our alternate was nearby Moraine Lake, which was also full.

There was overflow parking with a shuttle bus, but it was already well after lunch time so we decided to give it up for the day and come back early the next day.

Apparently this was a great "fall foliage" day and everyone was out to try to see it one last time. It was a nice warm day, perhaps one of the last for the season. The free admittance to national parks as part of the Canada 150 celebrations probably helped, too.

Anyway, we headed down the Bow Valley Parkway aka Highway 1A aka the long way between Lake Louise and Banff. I wanted to see if there were any trains and my wife wanted to see wildlife.

We stopped briefly at Morant's Curve.

Morant's Curve

There were the usual collection of photographers there, but we didn't linger too long. I stayed for about 10 minutes, taking a few photos and chatting with a professional photographer there. He was hoping to catch a train and we talked angles and exposures and composition. Fun!

I really wanted to try a different location this time - Castle Mountain.

Castle Mountain

Castle Mountain, Banff National Park

There's a rest stop close to Castle Mountain that overlooks the Bow River and, more importantly to me, the CP Laggan subdivision. It's here and it even has a bathroom!

I parked here and then went to scout angles and set up while my wife waited in the car.

Panorama at Castle Mountain

You can see that it's pretty scenic! There's a nice curve to the west and a straight section to the east. A path leads across the top of the slope so you can get around pretty easily. I wouldn't say you can get very close to the track without clinging to the side of the hill and/or being too close to the tracks for safety.

After about 35 minutes, a train came along... from the west.

CP 8913 at Castle Mountain

I liked this spot!

After 8913 and 8608 rolled by with their train of containers and autoracks, all was quiet for another half an hour. Eventually I heard a train coming from the east and set up to record CP 8957 West, another intermodal train.

CP 8957 at Castle Mountain

The lighting was a bit challenging, since it was 3:30 PM in the mountains on a cloudy day.

The train looked pretty good going away, too.

Going away

This train had a DPU, CP 8747.

CP 8747 in the middle of a train

I was happy to bag both a westbound and an eastbound train at that location. I packed up and we continued down the 1A / Bow Valley Parkway to Banff.

Breaking Up

When I started this series, I intended to have a post for every day of our trip. I'm breaking that "rule" now as we saw several more trains in the evening. This post is long enough, and the trains we saw were special enough, that I'd prefer to put them in another post. Coming soon... thanks for your patience.

Up Next

The rest of day 5 was spent in Banff, trying to photograph the Rocky Mountaineer. That didn't happen, but only because something better came along!

READ ON

PS you can read this series as an eBook, with extra photos and content!

Chasing Trains Through Banff, Part 2 - Morant's Curve to Field

I was in the Banff area in early June chasing trains. Part 1 is here.

After photographing the potash train CP 8646 West at Banff, I drove on the Trans-Canada Highway to Lake Louise, then took highway 1A back a few kilometres to famous Morant's Curve.

It was fairly overcast there, alas. One thing I noted immediately is how overgrown it is getting, especially on the western side of the curve.

I had my scanner with me so I strung the antenna up and sat back in the car to read my magazines and listen to the scanner. I could hear an end-of-train squawk* quite clearly, which was a good indication that a train was nearby.

Soon an eastbound train came rolling along, with CP 8741 at the head of an empty sulphur train. Check out how overgrown these shots are!

Unfortunate tree placement...

Careful timing here to actually see the nose of the locomotive...

Compare that to this photo from 2010:

It's amazing how much it has grown in 6 years.

Anyway, back to CP 8741. Almost the whole loco...

Here it is, finally...

CP 8741 at Morant's Curve

It's very disappointing, really. I understand a few railfans have complained to Parks Canada. I think it is a jurisdictional problem between Parks Canada and CP. Something should be done, or this famous spot will become like the Spiral Tunnels - overgrown and pointless.

At least the east view is still relatively unobscured.

Sultran sulphur cars at Morant's Curve

I wasn't sure if CP 8741 was the sole power on this empty Sultran train, but the approaching roar of another locomotive put that to rest. Familiar ex-Olympic unit CP 8876 was pushing on the rear.

Ex Olympic locomotive CP 8876 at Morant's Curve

I've seen that unit three times now. Once it was leading a grain train in Banff back in 2010 and I saw it in Winnipeg this January as a mid-train DPU.

CP 8876 receded into the distance, and I returned to my magazines. I heard some chatter on the scanner about trains at Eldon and Massive, the two sidings to the east of Morant's Curve on the CP Laggan subdivision. It sounded to me like there was a westbound coming.

By this time, a few tourists had stopped and were waiting for trains too. There was a family that I think was from the Netherlands, a pair of British gentlemen and a few Japanese tourists. I chatted with the British gents, the only ones who appeared to be able to speak English, and waited for the next train. They told me that they were hoping for a train soon as their wives were getting impatient to get on with the touristing. Sounds familiar!

A group of canoeists came padding along the Bow River and I amused myself by photographing them. I was helped by a rare moment of sunshine.

Canoeists on the Bow River

A couple of the canoe photos actually made decent stock photos.

By this time the British gents were packing it in. Just as they walked toward their cars, headlights appeared to the east. I ran over and told them, so they came back to see... our old friend CP 8646 West, the potash train from my last post.

CP 8646 at Morant's Curve

The "amateur" railfans were quite pleased with this and took lots of photos. The British gents were quite impressed by the length of the train. I haven't railfanned in England but I know their trains are a lot shorter than our multi-mile trains.

Railfans at Morant's Curve

I took a couple of shots to the east, trying to catch the train between the encroaching foliage. I managed to catch the rear DPU in a gap:

You can see the fog was really rolling in by this time.

I decided to carry on with my original plan and head to Field, BC to try to catch an eastbound train to follow. I drove past Lake Louise and soon discovered this very cool mountain (Cathedral Mountain) across Wapta Lake, with the track running along the lake. I paused here for 15-20 minutes, hoping for a train, but nothing came along, so I continued on past the Spiral Tunnels to Field, BC.

I arrived in Field and stopped at The Siding Café to grab some lunch. I ordered a ham deli sandwich, and while that was being made, CP 8775 East was getting ready to leave Field.

CP 8775 at Field

I know this isn't the classic photo of Field with the station in the photo, but I was in a hurry and I don't know Field very well! :)

In the next installment, you'll see a quick grab shot of another train at Field, then we'll chase CP 8775 east through the Spiral Tunnels through Banff to Canmore!

Read part 3

Lake Louise Station

On August 6 we stopped at Lake Louise Station, at my insistence. I did a quick run around the cars and station, madly blasting away with my camera, before we headed on to the hotel and lake itself.

The station has three passenger cars on display: Killarney, Delamere (dining car), and Laurentian. All three are looking a little shabby on the outside. However, Delamere looks very nice inside!

The station is quite interesting looking. I like the log look to it.

The restaurant's menu is full of tasty-sounding but expensive food, like Grilled Alberta Pork Chops ($24), Alberta Bison Burger ($19), or Station Spring Rolls ($12). I don't think I would go to the Rockies for Grilled Atlantic Salmon ($35), though.

Don't forget the station garden!

Here's a link to photos I took in 2002 of the Lake Louise station.

Surprise At Lake Louise

After the excitement of shooting at Morant's Curve and photographing the Rocky Mountaineer, you would think I was satisfied, right? No way! A good railfan is never satisfied!

On August 9 we traveled to the Lake Louise area to visit Moraine Lake. We had just about reached the Lake Louise exit when I heard an end-of-train squawk on the scanner. This meant there was a train in the area! Since we had just driven up the 1A, I figured there were no trains east of us. We drove the short distance to Morant's Curve and I promised my wife we would wait up to 10 minutes for the train, then leave.

Well, no train came, so we headed back to Lake Louise. I dropped her and the kids off at the shops there and headed back to the Curve to wait for a train. I had 40 minutes so I was hoping something would come along.

There were a few other people hanging around, so I talked with them while keeping an ear to the scanner. One fellow was from Germany, on assignment as a photographer in the area and hoping for a train at Morant's Curve. As we were talking, I heard the hotbox at mile 111 come alive. Since Morant's Curve is at mile 113, a westbound train was imminent!

CP 8714 and 9813 pulled an intermodal train through the Curve.

The engineer gave the crowd of photographers a toot as he went by.

That was very exciting and I was pleased that my trip was not in vain. I heard another train was coming from the east but my time was up, so I advised the other photographers and left, hoping to get a chance to shoot it at the Lake Louise station.

I found my wife and kids at the shops and my wife grudgingly agreed that I could go shoot the train at the station in Lake Louise. As I drove down Sentinel Road, I saw a sight that made me forget all about the imminent freight.

The Royal Canadian Pacific was parked on the stub siding at Lake Louise! Who needs a boring old freight when the pride of the CP fleet can be photographed?

You may remember I saw the Royal Canadian Pacific in Calgary in June, albeit fleetingly. This time I had a few minutes to take shots of CP 4106 and 4107 from various angles. Mindful of my wife and kids in the van, I went as quickly as I could.

Isn't it pretty? Four minutes later, I was done and driving back to the main road. As it happened, the westbound freight rolled through right beside me. I stopped, shot it while sitting in the van, and carried on. It was kind of an anticlimax after viewing those beautiful old engines.

The freight had CP 9808, CP 9607, CEFX 1026 and CP 9506, all on the head end. Oddly enough, I saw CP 9808 on the same day I saw the Royal Canadian Pacific in Calgary. Quite a coincidence.

We drove up to Moraine Lake and took a little walk around. It is a long trip but well worth it. I think Lake Louise has the best overall scene but the colour of the water at Moraine Lake is simply unbelievable. Oh, and unbelievably cold on the ankles.

Another great day in the Rockies. I miss them already.