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Is that a balloon track with a spring switch for loading? I ask only because I was based in Edson for 6 weeks and never got to work a train there. I did get to Coal Valley (-50 at 2am) where the trains were broken into 55 car segments at Bickerdike for the trip to loading.I’m pretty sure they did the same thing here (3 SD40′s usually being the power to get up the hill)any significant braking coming down the hill while loading was still going on. I wish I’d had more time out there.
That is indeed a spring switch, but it is not for a loop. The track in the foreground went to the Gregg River mine, which permanently closed several years before this photo was taken. That track and the switch have since been removed.
This area has a 3% grade, which made stopping for the switch very challenging. That is why a spring switch was used.
The Cardinal River mine is still in operation, but all the coal is mined at Mount Cheviot (near the ghost town of Mountain Park) and trucked to the plant at Luscar.