Sunday, September 5, 2010

Macleod Sub Auto Rack Storage - Part 1

If you wish to follow along in Google Earth, here is the kmz file for download.

September 4th, 2010

CP has pretty well abandoned most all of the MacLeod Sub south of the junction with the Aldersyde Sub near Aldersyde except for about 16 or 17 kilometers of track to service a couple industries and to use as storage for some auto racks south of High River.

Apparently the auto racks were being stored near Cayley, I assume due to the economic crisis a couple years ago. This is according to some info from a friend and to an article last year in the local newspaper The High River Times. The way I read it, they were moved further north on or around July 30th of last year I believe. I’m guessing it was probably because CP wanted to remove a section of rails from Cayley heading north which they did to about up to Township Road 182 (594th Ave).

Back in May I took a drive out in the Southwest area of High River looking for something to photograph and that is when I first saw the auto racks. Since I had yet to investigate anything train related south of town I decided to do so. I never took any pictures of the auto racks that day. At that time the rails south of Township Road 182 (594th Ave) had been removed but the ties remained. In the distance peeking over the crest of a hill I saw recognizable shape, got distracted and went to photograph it instead.

Thursday after work, I drove out to see if the auto racks I spotted back in May were still in storage on the remnants of the MacLeod Sub south of town. I was in luck! They were still there.

Yesterday morning I had plans to first go photograph something I’ve been wanting to photograph for some time in the morning sun East of High River, but unfortunately the morning sun was not cooperating. Instead I drove south out of High River on Range Road 291 (88th Street East), heading towards the stored auto racks.

There are two blocks of auto racks there, the first block consists of 18 cars and the second further south has 39 cars. Yesterday I only took notes and photos of the first block located South of Township Road 184 (562nd Ave) and West of Range Road 291 (88th Street East). Below are two photos of the first 18 cars stored on the MacLeod Subdivision south of High River.

Below are my notes in list format of the railroad name, reporting marks and type for the first 18 auto racks. The order of the list depicts the order of the auto racks as they are on the track starting with the first auto rack immediately south of Township Road 184 with NS TTGX 975698 and ending with UP TTGX 974468.

RAILROADREPORTING MARKTYPE
NSTTGX 975698Bi-Level
UPTTGX 981886Bi-Level
UPETTX 908451Tri-Level
BNSFETTX 801284Tri-Level
UPETTX 201504Tri-Level
SOOSOO 515802Tri-Level
CONRAILETTX 908796Tri-Level
CSXETTX 802335Tri-Level
UPSP 516572Tri-Level
SPSSW 80650Tri-Level
UPTTGX 930194Bi-Level
CSXTTGX 603491Bi-Level
UPTTGX 982516Bi-Level
UPTTGX 979691Bi-Level
CPRTTGX 988453Bi-Level
BNTTGX 940983Bi-Level
UPTTGX 973463Bi-Level
UPTTGX 974468Bi-Level

The following photos of the auto racks are ordered similar to the list above in a left to right, up and down direction.

After I finished with the first 18 auto racks I decided to do the other 39 another day and drove a bit further south past Township Road 182. I noticed that since my last wanderings back in May of this year, sometime between then and now, all the rail ties have been removed south of Township Road 182 (594th Ave). Prior to May, only the rails had been removed.

Goggle Earth kmz file.

Cheers,

4 comments:

Eric said...

Nice post on a current economic by-product (and money-maker for some shortlines) Jason, car storage. My favourite stored equipment is CP's historic stuff at Skiff and DeWinton. You never know what you'll find stored out on the prairies!
Eric

jddc.trains said...

Thanks Eric. I knew there was a siding at DeWinton but was unaware that they had stored some stuff there as well. I'll have to check that out and I'll have to make a trip down towards Skiff as well. Last time I was near DeWinton was when 2816 was coming throught back in October of 2007.

There is another location where CP is storing a ton of stuff, but I'm going to keep that to myself for now. You'll have to read about it here. :)

Cheers,

Alexander said...

Good post, very informative.

jddc.trains said...

Thank you Alexander.

Cheers,