Is Canadian National’s railyard in Calgary a busy one? I know they had 2 lines heading out of Calgary, one to Edmonton, the other to Saskatoon. Are both busy lines? I heard from someone here on the forums that engines had troubles with the grades around Drumhellor, Alberta.
Doc, go poke around CN’s website. They are proud as punch about their new yard operation at Conrich, just outside the Calgary City Limits on their Calgary- Edmonton line. Business seems to be very good.
The Calgary-Saskatoon line was always problematic because of a short 2% grade for EB trains from Drumheller up to Munson. Back in the day, when there were more shorter steam powered trains, the dispatchers job was to make sure there were meets at Drumheller. Then the WB train’s engine was cut off his train, and coupled tender first, to the caboose of the EB train to push it up the hill to Munson, or Dinosaur Jct. Then the WB crew would run back down the hill, couple on to their train, and continue on to Calgary. In later years, before CN discontinued service, often there would only be one train on the entire line in a given day. That meant they had to carry more power than they needed WB, so they could get their train back to Saskatoon. Or take time the line couldn’t justify, doubling up the hill.
Google “Goose Lake Line”, the line’s unofficial name from the get go, and you can see some interesting articles. I had totally forgotten that name for the line, which my father even used, until I read about it in a book on the history of Brooks, AB about two years ago.
Bruce