Along the Crowsnest Sub (w Greg McDonnell)

Here’s how we make a Then & Now. 1) We first take an old image supplied by a reader or sourced by the Team itself and visit the location seen to document what things look like today. 2) We shoot a new photo, while doing our best to duplicate the angle, composition and content of the original. 3) The results are posted here and then it’s time to babble on about the experience. In this post we’re along the Canadian Pacific’s Crowsnest Sub and our then photo comes thanks to noted train photographer Greg McDonnell.

Let’s play!

The original dates back to 1974 and we’ve returned to the spot where Greg captured it long ago. Where he stood, so did we. Shooting these helps connect two eras together while providing our readers with an usual and interesting take on our subject matter. More so and to be honest, it’s just huge, huge fun to do. We love the experience and repeat it any chance we get, although many don’t turn out in the end.

This piece is an update of one from almost ten years ago and reuses the original photos, but with revised info. Some was out of date and the writing in need of a little tweaking. Heck, the whole website could use this treatment times a million, by someone who really knows what they’re doing. That’s not us!

In Greg’s photo we see an eastbound CPR freight heading towards his position and at this point city of Lethbridge is just a short distance away. To reach town they’ll have to cross the famous Lethbridge Viaduct and what a thrill that must be. The High Level Bridge is over a kilometre and half long, almost a hundred metres at its highest point and spans the Oldman River Valley.

The Crowsnest Subdivision is one link the CPR’s southern mainline, and begins in its namesake community of Crowsnest (or former community – it’s kind of a ghost town now) on the BC/Alberta border. From there it heads east to Lethbridge and joins the Taber Subdivision.

The short train is pulled by locomotives #8659, #144 (leased) and #4433. They were all built in London Ontario by General Motors Diesel (GMD) and date from 1957, 1955 and 1951 respectively. The first two are model GP9s and the trailing unit, an F7B.

Amazingly the lead engine is still in service, but not for the CPR. Thoroughly rebuilt in 1986 and renumbered #1620 it’s since found work (starting in 2015) for the Ontario Southland Railway back east. Over sixty five years in service and going strong!

The second locomotive originally belonged to the Quebec, North Shore and Labrador Railway, an ore hauler in that province’s north country. It’s an isolated line and any cars leaving must do so by ship. The locomotive’s still in company’s colours. In the early 1970s it and many of its kin, ended up being sold and found their way into a lease fleet. Yes, you can rent a locomotive, just like you can a car and the CPR often did this during temporary power shortages. The owner at the time was PNC (Precision National Corporation), and in the 1970s they were a leader in the rent-a-locomotive field.

A couple years after the old photo, #144 made its way to the US where it remained until retired in the 1990s. The final engine in the consist left the CPR roster in the early ’80s. It lacks a cab and this means it could only be used as a trailing unit.

The GP9 remains one of the most popular locomotives made and over six hundred were built for Canadian Railways. Several thousand more were made at GM’s US plant (Electromotive Diesel, near Chicago) for railways down there. Even today many GP9s toil away and that speaks volumes on how good of a design it is. Here’s a couple we got to know up close and personal: The Railway and Train Day at Aspen Crossing (former CPR #1624, nee #8515).

The Canadian plant that made the GP9s and F7B seen, and many successor models, closed down in 2012. It was the last in the country.

Their train is comprised of a refrigerator car and a string of company service ballast hoppers. The latter is used to spread gravel (ballast) along tracks under repair or being replaced. The refrigerator car, or reefer as they’re called, also appears to be in company service and maybe used to transport supplies of some sort or another.

The locomotives seen in our now photo include CPR #9574, a General Electric – and you thought they only made home appliances – AC4400CW built in 1995. This is one of the more common locomotive models on the current CPR roster and they have several hundred, built in the years 1995-2004. Most have been rebuilt and renumbered in recent times, but in outward appearances not all that different.

The second belongs to the Union Pacific Railway in the US. This train was likely headed to the UP connection at the border and west of Cranbrook British Columbia. It’s not uncommon for one company’s locomotives to be used on another and it may be for run-through service (more likely here) or as a short term rental. Run through: locomotives that are pooled and can move from one railway to another. I borrow yours and you borrow mine.

This is a GE model ES44AC from 2005 and visually looks much like the older lead locomotive. The UP has somewhere over twelve hundred of this model where as the CPR has close to three hundred. Both are common along the Crowsnest Line.

The train is a lowly grain hauler and a good sized one at that. Slow moving too.

The track seen here is moderately busy and while we had expectations we’d have to stay a while to capture a train, this one came soon after our arrival. Sometimes we’ve waited hours by the tracks along this stretch and come suitably prepared with books to waste away the time, and snacks, but here we had little need for either. We don’t monitor trains by radio and really like the unexpected side of waiting. Sometimes we’re disappointed and none show but that’s how it goes.

Let’s look at the photos and see what’s changed since 1974…and as it turns out, it’s not much.

The grain elevator seen in the far background in the original photo, in the town of Coalhurst, is gone and torn down not long after Greg captured his photo. Some distant background details have changed too. Otherwise, the railway line looks the same, the power poles seen in the distance are still in place and the small canal is still there. The scene today looks as it did then and outside the obvious differences in railway equipment, one would be hard pressed to know that four decades separate the two images.

Our shooting location looks pleasant enough, but what you can’t see is the Crowsnest Highway which runs right behind, making this a very noisy place to hang out. We were almost under the structure and sitting on a approach embankment. Not the nicest spot, but it’s hardly the worst we’ve known either. It’s not our first time under a bridge either. Being here did not allow us to see westbound trains and we didn’t even hear the one we captured approaching on account of the din. It’s just dumb luck we caught it as well as we did.

The original photo is copyright Greg McDonnell and is used with permission. Greg is well known and highly respected in the field has been passionately photographing trains for many decades now. Looks for his books. That he allowed us use for these then and now posts is a great honour. If you have a photo in your collection you think could be used like Greg’s, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Thanks for stopping by and we hope you enjoyed this post as much as we did creating it.

Know more: (new tab): Train Guy Greg McDonnell.

They’re saying…

”These two are amazing!! I love following their adventures and the photography is…jaw dropping!” Dayna Kent .

More with a railway theme…
Looking Down on Wayne Alberta.
Rosebery BC Then & Now.
East Coulee Alberta then and now.

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Date of adventure: 1974 (Greg McDonnell) and September 2014 (Team BIGDoer).
Location: Between Lethbridge and Coalhurst Alberta.
Article references and thanks: Greg McDonnell and Canadian Trackside Guides.

Along the Crowsnest Sub 40 years apart. Orig: Greg McDonnell.

We’re halfway between Lethbridge & Coalhurst Alberta here.

It was a long grain hauler.

Not the nicest place to hang out.