Caption: ...looking east up the Kicking Horse Canyon towards the Cathedral Craigs that is lost somewhere in the cloud and rain and snow....
...CP8960 (and CEFX1036) westbound on the downgrade approach to Field, B.C., with a loaded grain train at 20 mph....the tail end has likely just cleared the lower Spiral Tunnel....
September 14, 2018 digital in the B.C. Rain, at the Kicking Horse Canyon Flats, by S. Danko.
What's interesting
….weather was miserable but notable on the B.C. side of the Continental Divide plus 6c and rain, go east up the hill and over the pass and into Alberta the temperature was +1c and snowing.....
…the image's dominant feature is the Mount Stephen Glacier slide path, the site of many CPR incidents including wrecks due to material sliding onto the right of way....the lower portion of the Slide Path has been graded by the Trans Canada Highway maintenance crews to direct sliding material away from the River and the TCH...in fact it was the National Parks that asked CP to build the concrete snow sheds after the 1986 incident when 17 sulphur cars landed in the Kicking Horse River …. ( the River is between the CPR and TCH at the site of the slide path, the TCH bridge over the River is visible extreme lower left corner).
On the TCH: up the hill, out of sight round the curve and in the cloud (fog) is the Spiral Tunnel Lookout – the view from such is 95% treed out, probably does not matter as the road widening will likely wipe out that lookout...
….plenty of 2018 – 2019 construction on the TCH east up to the Continental Divide to widen the road to four lanes, crews are literally blasting away half a mountain (on the north side) and at that point the CP is on the south side of the TCH...
...driving east up the TCH to the Kicking Horse Pass ( not visible in this image, elevation: 5,339 feet at Stephen, B.C. ) note that a portion of the TCH (above the Spiral Tunnel Lookout) is built upon the original CPR right of way – that grade would be just plain scary to put any train on......in any era..
..elevation between the Upper and Lower Spiral Tunnels near Yoho is 4,675 feet....and Field, B.C. Elevation is 4,121 feet
..that CEFX1036 unit been on CP over 15 years, got a shot of 1036 at Lovekin !
Information credit: the book Nicholas Morant's Canadian Pacific: by J.F.Garden
note: Image captured from a public roadway
sdfourty
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Another wonderful shot in a magical spot. Mr. Garden’s book is also a treasured possession. It seems a pity in this world that we’ve created, that you feel the need to say you weren’t doing something stupid or illegal to take the shot.
Geez what a wild looking world around there!! Great shot.