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Volume 10   Number 2

February 6, 1980


Ambitious Projects Completed at
$30 Million Cost

By Charles Gordon

 Click to enlarge
High View:  Agile photographer Nicholas Moran put his climbing equipment on to take this shot on a snowy January day. The westbound train is shown going around the Big Loop near Notch Hill.

Two ambitious projects on the Calgary-Vancouver mainline have been completed, at a cost of $30 million.

A four and a half mile section of new track west of Revelstoke, B.C., and an 11-mile section between Tappen and Notch Hill, west of Salmon Arm were completed in December.
   Click to enlarge
Passing By:  A westbound train passes its own cars on the Big Loop near Notch Hill. At this point, the engine is about 300 yards from the car in the foreground.
 

 
The projects were undertaken to improve the flow of higher volumes of freight traffic moving to the west coast.
 
A 109-car train, Extra 5849 going west from Revelstoke, became the first official train to travel both sections of the new track Dec. 7. Engineman J. Misuraca and conductor E. Tucker were aboard.
 
The sections are part of a total of four projects in progress or planned at separate locations along the mainline where westward-ascending grades are greater than the maximum one percent found elsewhere on the line.
 
The new Revelstoke-Clanwilliam line sees completion of one of the most difficult engineering projects faced by CP Rail in recent years. Part of the new trackage goes through what was once an almost impenetrable swamp.
 
The railway spent more than $2 million on a process called electro-osmosis to drain the swamp and to change the course of a wandering creek to permit construction of a solid track bed.
 
The longer Tappen-Notch Hill section involves installation of some 35,000 ties. 50,000 cubic yards of ballast, 55 tons of spikes, and 2,600 tons of 1,440-foot long strips of continuous welded rail.
 
The multi-year program to increase the railway's mainline capacity is highlighted by an ambitious 19-mile-long second phase, now in the advanced stages of technical and economic evaluation. Expected to cost close to $200 million, the project will likely include an 8.9-mile tunnel, 250 feet below the Connaught Tunnel which now carries the CP Rail mainline under Rogers Pass.
 
"These improvement projects are part of an overall recognition of Canada's increasing trade with Pacific Rim countries", said W.W. Stinson, executive vice-president, CP Rail. "The improved ability of Canadian producers to place their products at tidewater will help towards achievement of a more favorable balance of trade".
 
DOUBLE-TRACKING
 
Completion of all four grade revision and double-tracking projects will mean daily handling capacity will be increased from 15 to 19 trains in each direction. Each train will be able to handle more tonnage, which will translate into a capacity increase of more than 45 percent.
 
In addition, fewer locomotives will be required on each train, resulting in more fuel efficiency.
 
"As it stands right now, we have ample capacity for the tonnage we are being called on to handle, but there's no doubt that if we left the existing situation untouched, continuing tonnage growth would eventually bring us to the saturation point", said J.D. Bromley, vice-president of CP Rail's Pacific Region.
 
"What we're working on today is a program to ensure we have sufficient main track capacity for tomorrow".


This CP Rail News article is copyright 1980 by Canadian Pacific Railway and is reprinted here with their permission. All photographs, logos, and trademarks are the property of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company.