On a visit to Boston Bar. For the CN fans who want to run Aristo's new SD45 this may be the answer.... Who knows, they may even paint these in CN colours someday and maintain that American "right out of the box" look.
Great shot. When did you go to Boston Bar, was it recent? And did you eat at the restuarant across the bridge at North Bend, the CP dinner. If you haven't, the food is good, the quantities reasonable and the price good. Did you go to the Cisco Bridges as well? Lol... you happen to hit my favourite rail fanning area in the canyon, from Boston Bar up to the Gold Pan Camp ground.
I was in BB around noon on the 12th. Never got to the west side. Only a single westbound train during the morning. Spent some time talking to the crew. Mostly digital camera talk. Nothing at Cisco due to maintenance. Didn't stay long. I was getting a feel for the place and checking out Hwy 8 so I could come back again and spend a whole day. Also finding Anderson Creek Viaduct. Anyone know what is happening to the station at Boston Bar?
No idea on the station at Boston Bar, it is just a crew stop over point. make sure you cross the bridge and go to the CP diner, open to the public, 24 hours a day. I recommend the CP omellette. You will see lots of crews eating there as well as the general public. Highly recommend it. You can rail fan while eating. Also, BC RailKing and I have gotten up into engines there, while there has been a crew change. Friendly atmosphere there. This location is famous with rail fans.
With all this talk about food etc I clean forgot to post the front end.... That cafe' sure sounds like the place to be. I expect you can see both sides of the canyon from there and run back accros the bridge between appy's and dessert. When I get this PNR meet in Kelowna out of the way in August I'll be back.
Hi Boston Bar is a lumber mill/railway town about 1/2 way up the Fraser Canyon 170 km (aprox) north-east of Vancouver BC. The extreme topograghy of the region forced CN and CP to share the canyon. CP on one side, CN on the other. Boston Bar, on the east side is/was a "CN" town and North Bend (just over the bridge)on the west side is/was a "CP" town. Just recently both companies have companies signed a track sharing agreement that allowed all westbound traffic on one side (CN) and all eastbound traffic on the other (CP) in order to take advantage of the grades. About 110 years late. The CN train in my post was westbound. I just had a peek of an eastbound CP leaving North Bend and a CN eastbound at Spuzzum (old CP) so I expect that's it. Anyway, there's some great, heavy railroading done in the canyon. About 50 trains a day. You should try to find yourself a copy of the Feb 2000 Trains magazine. That pretty much said it all. It's only a three hour drive from my house so I'll post a few more after I spend a day in the area. Cheers
Kind'a off topic here but I did mention Spuzzum in the last post so here is that CN train on the CP line heading east (north?) Four units, unknown, working VERY hard. Can't see much from the highway at this point. All the "look-outs" along the road are very overgrown and they weren't intended for train watching anyway. Hard to imagine that this is all desert about 100km north.
The photo looks to high to be taken from Spuzzum, was it from one of the look outs along the road, heading a little bit towards Boston Bar? BC Railking (my son) is at Army Cadet camp in Vernon. The heat has come as a shock to him as we coastal types don't even bother with air conditioning, the temperature is usually just right. His biggest complaint of the Army Cadet Camp in Vernon is that he can hear the trains, but he can't see them. PS. From inside the restuarant, you can't see the CN side, just the CP, but while we are eating it is routine to see a couple of trains go by. I have seen lots of freight, the Rocky Mountaineer (see that lots) and a host of other goodies while eating breakfast, lunch or dinner. He and I went into the canyon and camped out for a couple of days about ten times last year. I haven't been this year, but definitely have the itch. For those who want to camp in the canyon, there are two provincial camp grounds. One, Skihist Provincial Camp ground, I recommend because it is pretty and quiet with good definition between camp sites. The other, Gold Pan Provincial Park, I don't recommend because it can be so noisy during the night, both tracks are close to the site, and a road with all the truck traffic is only about 15 metres (yards) away, but it is pretty there. A good place to stop off for a picnic. [ 18 July 2001: Message edited by: rsn48 ]</p>
<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by rsn48: The photo looks to high to be taken from Spuzzum, was it from one of the look outs along the road, heading a little bit towards Boston Bar? >Your right. I was heading up river and chased this train through Spuzzum. I wasn't real familier with the best spots so I got what I could just north of town.< BC Railking (my son) is at Army Cadet camp in Vernon. The heat has come as a shock to him as we coastal types don't even bother with air conditioning, the temperature is usually just right. His biggest complaint of the Army Cadet Camp in Vernon is that he can hear the trains, but he can't see them. He and I went into the canyon and camped out for a couple of days about ten times last year. I haven't been this year, but definitely have the itch. For those who want to camp in the canyon, there are two provincial camp grounds. One, Skihist Provincial Camp ground, I recommend because it is pretty and quiet with good definition between camp sites. The other, Gold Pan Provincial Park, I don't recommend because it can be so noisy during the night, both tracks are close to the site, and a road with all the truck traffic is only about 15 metres (yards) away, but it is pretty there. A good place to stop off for a picnic.<hr></blockquote>
