Does anyone know of where crew changes for coal trains out of the Elk Valley/Sparwood region are? I’m particularly asking about the area between Revelstoke and Sparwood.
Doc
I believe they change crews at Golden. If you come into Golden from the east on #1 Hwy at the top of the hill, look to the southwest corner of town. There you see what I believe is the terminal for the Kootenay Central RR, the CP subdivision between Cranbrook and Golden. Mountain Division (Laggan and Stoney Creek Subs IIRC) crews change at Field, east of Golden.
Hope this helps.
charlie
CP built a staging yard for their coal trains in Golden during the late 1980s.
http://wikimapia.org/#lat=51.2856752&lon=-116.9589901&z=15&l=0&m=a&v=2
Just curious but the distance from Revelstoke to Golden is only 93 miles. If I recall correctly there is a fair amount of double track between Revelstoke and Golden. Thus even taking Rogers Pass into consideration, isn’t 93 miles pretty short for a modern crew district? Does anyone know if CP has ever raised the possibility of extending the length of this crew district?
Also, I believe crews on trains headed east to Calgary continue on to Field (another 36 miles) correct? Does anyone know if is there any pay differential for crews who have to travel the extra distance to Field? Thanks.
A friend of mine works out of Cranbrook, they change crews at Fort Steele and Golden. Apparently, a crew takes the MT train from Fort Steele to the mine and sit on the train while it’s loaded. Depending on when the first crew is up on hours, a relief crew is called, finish loading the train and take it to Fort Steele where a fresh crew will take it to Golden on the Windermere Sub(not called Kootenay Central).