SECOND AMTRAK VANCOUVER TRAIN HELD UP BY CUSTOMS
The Canadian Border Services Agency is now holding up the start of the second Amtrak Cascades service between Seattle and Vancouver, BC reports the group Transport 2000 Canada. CBSA is classifying the new train as “new facility” and demanding a fee for screening the arriving passengers at Vancouver in the evening. This is most confusing as new international flights into Vancouver do not incur such fees. The start of the new service, which was planned for August, is now delayed until this issue can be resolved. (D.Sh.)
NO FAMILY DAYS THIS YEAR
CN has announced that it will not hold its usual Family Days at Thornton yard this year due budget considerations. WCRA members have always helped out with this event, and we were thanked for our help in past years with hopes it will be back again in 2009.
MOTIVE POWER OBSERVATIONS
19June, EMD #9044 “Oakway” at Thornton, 2 July Soo #6032 at Thornton, 5 July CPR
#8861 (in 2010 paint) at Lynn Creek, 15 July EMD #9013 “Oakway” on BNSF southbound, 22 July WC #6005 at Thornton, 24 July WC #6006 at Thornton, also on 24th
UP #9436 on BNSF northbound and AMT private car tail end southbound "Northern Railway Charters". (R.C.)
TOUGH WINTER HITS RESULTS
A tough winter 2007—2008 has hit CN’s financial and operating results, as CN posted a 4% decline in profit compared to last year, and an increase in Operating ratio to 72.9% (up 2.3 basis points). The railway is maintaining its outlook for the year, however, as revenue did grow in the period and is expected to remain strong. (BL)
CP AND CN CREATE TERMINAL SWITCHING ROAD FOR DELTAPORT
Canadian Pacific and Canadian National have jointly announced that they have created a terminal railroad at the DeltaPort terminal. The railways expect the new operation to streamline operations there. The new railway will be known as the DeltaPort Division, and is expected to move around 70,000 TEV’s of railcar monthly, positioning them for loading and making up trains for departure. (TOL) The new Deltaport Division ends the need for Omnitrax’s Trans Canada Switching operations, which has handled switching under contract to date.
CP RESULTS ALSO HIT
It was not just CN that dealt with the tough winter, CP also
reported challenges as a result of the weather at the start of 2008.
CP reported a 29% decline in first quarter profits and reduced its
outlook for 2008 results, citing not just weather but also fuel
costs and the overall economy situation. (BL)
SLIDE IMPACTS WHISTLER SERVICE
That massive slide that happened on July 28 near Porteau severed the CN mainline as well as the highway, wreaking havoc on many services through the BC Day weekend. The Whistler Mountaineer was halted effective Wednesday, July 29 and stayed out of service until the rail line was restored to service August 4. Meanwhile, besides lost revenue from the cancellation of the train, Rocky Mountaineer Fraser Discovery passengers who rode into Whistler from the north on that service had to be bused to Vancouver around the slide. The company said that the disruption cost them over $100,000 . (S.S.)
6148 RETURNS
VIA RDC-1 #6148 is back and available as a third Budd car for E
& N service. The car was out of Vancouver on July 19 and
transferred by CP to Tilbury on July 20. It joins RDC-1’s 6135 and 6133 in service for Vancouver Island service, and is expected to do some further commuter demonstration runs in August as part of the annual E & N Days event. (J.M.)
OTHER NEWS
NEW! STEAM LOCOMOTIVE
While admittedly a few thousand miles away, it's wonderful to hear that the first new British steam locomotive for about 45 years has just been completed! It's called "Tornado" and has been built exactly to the design of the old London & North Eastern Railway's A1 class of Pacific's designed by the then chief mechanical engineer, A.H. Peppercorn, back in the late 1940s. This clip on the BBC website makes interesting viewing . . . http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7537462.stm (R.W.)
PRINCE RUPERT STATION TO BE RENOVATED
The old CN station on the Prince Rupert waterfront is to be completely renovated back to it's original form over the next two years. The property is currently owned by the City of Prince Rupert but is in the process of being sold to a firm by the name of FER Building Solutions. Evidently this company has had considerable success in restoring heritage buildings around the world from Venice and Rome to the Kingdom of Bahrain.
This firm plans to restore the heritage station structure to Heritage Canada standards. They plan to put a bistro downstairs with commercial office space upstairs. There is no mention in the article about the possibility of Via Rail Canada returning to this location. Sure hope so, as do a lot of other people in Prince Rupert. The current location at the BC Ferries Terminal at Fairview is not the greatest, believe me. The original design drawings for the old station go back to 1906, with construction being completed in1922. They will be replacing the old canopies on both sides of the station. With this being done, I hope indicates the possibilities of Via Rails return to this location. (D.W.)
EX BCR BUDDS LIVE ON IN RHODE ISLAND
Former BC Rail Budd RDC’s BC-30 and BC-15 are operating between Newport and Portsmouth RI, a trip of about 9 miles and called the Island Touring Train.. The photo, taken by my friend Sam Lepore, shows the RDC's coming into Newport Station. They are both operating, and BC-30 has been refurbished inside and now has moveable tables and chairs like a dining car. BC-15 still has the BCR long distance seats. (J.Ba.)
ROYAL CANADIAN MINT ISSUES ROYAL HUDSON COIN
The Royal Canadian Mint has issued a new $20 coin, featuring Royal Hudson #2850, the locomotive that hauled the Royal Train in 1939 and an earlier sister to our Royal Hudson #2860. It can be viewed on the mint’s website.
60 YEARS OF TROLLEY BUS SERVICE IN VANCOUVER
August 2008 marked 60 years of trolley bus services in Vancouver, and some special events were organized to mark the occasion. On Saturday, August 16 a parade of five trolleys of various vintages left Marpole at 1000 and proceeded to Stanley Park for a public display, returning to Marpole from the park at 1400k. Fan trips with various vintage trolleys then operated both Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon. (J.M.)
VICTORIA ROUNDHOUSE PRESERVATION
A new chapter was written last night for the historic railway roundhouse site in Victoria, BC's, Vic West neighbourhood. Victoria city council okayed far-reaching development plans for the brownfield site that will save one of Canada's last railway roundhouses and a railway corridor in exchange for the right to build a hotel, condominium and a suite of retail services on the
4.25-hectare site.
Plans for the site owned by CP have been in the works for years, beginning with developer Ken Mariash taking an option to buy the property in 2003 and followed by rounds of community meetings and at least 17 studies. The project is expected to take 10 years to build.
In exchange for being able to develop the site, Roundhouse Properties Limited Partnership has agreed to a long list of public amenities in the area. The costliest amenities include remediation of contaminated soil and refurbishing five heritage buildings on the site - some built in 1913 - that include the roundhouse, boiler house and car shop along with the turntable. Other amenities include historic interpretive features, public space, a pedestrian and cyclist-friendly greenway adjacent to the rail line, community space in a historic building and space for artisans.
They also include retention of the rail corridor in perpetuity for rail or transit use, provision of a transit pass to every residence for three years and change and shower facilities for employees who cycle or walk to work. (Victoria Times-Colonist 080725)
THE HISTORIC RED BRIDGE (KEREMEOS) 1908
The Red Bridge, spanning the Similkameen River west of Keremeos was 100 years old on July 26, 2008. The bridge is likely the only surviving covered bridge in western Canada. It was built in 1907-1908 by the Victoria, Vancouver and Eastern Railroad, a subsidiary of the Great Northern Railroad to serve the gold mining in the Hedley-Princeton area. The rail line was abandoned in 1954 and as weather conditions began to take a toll the bridge was restored in 2006. Metal cladding replaced the aging wood siding. The present structure provides access to the Cathedral Lakes and the Ashnola Valley. (D.E.)
NORTHWEST RAILWAY MUSEUM COMPLETES TRAINSHED DESIGN
The Northwest Railway Museum in Snoqualmie, Washington is off on another major building effort—this time a large exhibit building “loosely modeled after a trainshed”. The 24,000 square foot building with be adjacent to the new Conservation and Restoration Center on the new railway history campus that was acquired last year through a land swap with the city. The projected cost of the new building comes in at $3.6 million. (SDR)
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