Jasper trip...volume 2.

Woke up next morning (Monday) and got an early morning shot of the Rocky Mountaineer in Jasper yard. As you can see, it was a rather cloudy day again, affecting the photo quality somewhat.
Oh well...I'm hungry, so off to the beanery for some cackleberries and toast...and a large pail of coffee.


On the way to breakfast, I snapped this shot, showing the old train station with Pyramid Mountain in the background.

There is a SD70M-2 on the point of a grain train in the yard.




With a full belly, I returned to the bunkhouse just in time to see this train leaving Jasper West (now named 'Home', in honor of long-time engineer Harry Home, of 6060 fame). Lighting still not great, but it is early in the day...If you look closely, you can see the tea house on top of Whistler Mountain (the peak to the left). A sky tram takes people up here...

As we were switching our train, a stack train decided to come join the fun. Good thing Kenny had his camera. Lotas of new power out here. The sun also decided to cooperate for a change. One thing about Alberta weather...if you don't like it, just wait 5 minutes...it's bound to change!

Most interesting and unusual occurence...VIA 1's power had died somewhere east of Edmonton and had to be pulled in with a CN unit (more on this later). We picked up the spare VIA F40PH in Jasper and ferried it east.

Meanwhile, the chant of the VIA unit's prime mover was joined in chorus with a pair of old road warrior 'thundercow' SD40-2's on the other side of the yard. The turbocharged 16-645e3's still have one of the neatest sounds, at idle and all the way througn the throttle selections...

We had finished our switching and...good thing! You can see the furry four-legged 'railfan' by the dwarf signals at Jasper East.

Maybe he was looking for a young tender brakeman for his breakfast...Boy, would he have been out of luck,with me not being too young or tender anymore...

Don't suppose too many railfan / 'foamer' types get to take a photo like this. Coming out of Brule Tunnel.

On our way back to Edmonton.

Waiting at Swan Landing for train 357. Looks a bit unusual, having a VIA unit coupled to empty glycol tanks. Yes, it was quite windy, with the trees leaning like that...

357 shows up...with another new ES44DC on the point...

Hogger Ken...to the rescue! We met VIA 1 at Evansburg, where they picked up the VIA 6402 up from us. The conductor is handing the VIA enginner a MU jumper cable.

THe trailing unit, VIA 6444 is dead, so the passengers had no electrical power on the train. This at 17:30, wit no way to cook dinner. I wonder if Panago would deliver??

That concludes my volume 2 photo essay. Hope you enjoyed!

Ken King.