CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILROAD UNIT TRAIN OPERATION COAL MINING SUPERTRAIN 42724

[@halon7476]

Its neat how they colour coded the railcars

[@maryelizabeth2996]

Cool! The locomotive engineer in the video at Sparwood is Bert Josephson. He passed away several years ago.

[@maryelizabeth2996]

Coal trains started to leave Sparwood in late April 1970. I order to rotate the cars at Roberts Bank the CP Rail symbols could not be next to each other. When the new unit trains arrived in BC they were left at a siding called Wardner. They was a wye at Wardner were the rail cars could be turned 180 degrees and properly aligned for the train. The car readers in Sparwood never worked well and didn't last long, BOY I'M GETTING OLD!!

[@spanishinquisition4420]

F

[@daveyboy_]

CP had the coolest engines in the 80s

[@West_Kootenay_railfan]

Fr

[@bobjohnson205]

This film was shot in 1970, or so, just after the start of this operation. Those MLWs you see pulling these unit coal trains were soon replaced by more reliable GMs. They found the MLWs to be too expensive to maintain and far too slippery - traction-wise - to continue running them in mountain unit coal train service.

[@1viva]

OMG!!!...:-O LOOK at all that coal and all these cars!!!! :-O I'm thinking of all these men & women who sacrificed their lives working deep in the underground darkness just so we can all have heat & enable machines and motors to run... The construction of this railway against the solid rocky mountain side with "just a few feet from death", and those incredible bridges & tunnels bridges!! So impressive what humans can do when they put all their energies together in the right direction. 💕 Great video, thank you!

[@KHKH-os6kt]

I noticed there was no graffiti on the cars, nice to see.

[@pravoslavn]

Canada is not filled up with the same curse of a particular "social demographic group" that desecrates trains and buildings in the United States.

[@bobjohnson205]

These cars were never left on sidings where they could be vandalized by trespassers. They were either at the mine, at Roberts Bank, or moving along the CP mainline.

[@bobjohnson205]

@@pravoslavn Unfortunately, we're starting to get there. Have you seen a CP or CN grain train lately?

[@JordosGarage]

@@pravoslavnpretty much every piece of rolling stock I see in NB Canada is graffitied now

[@markstengel7680]

I enjoyed this id say 70s era coat train video. Another great find and presentation by Periscope

[@royalhudson4612]

I worked for CP starting in 1976. Notice the red coal cars. They didn't stay red for long. Eventually painted black for obvious reasons. The Kartrak bar codes on the side of the car were next to impossible for the reader to scan because of the dust build up.

[@bobjohnson205]

By the time CP started running unit coal trains to Thunder Bay in '78 all the new coal cars were now painted black. They had learned their lesson - the hard way!

[@TonyVRailfanning]

Loved this informative video for a time gone past

[@PeriscopeFilm]

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[@HavelockYard]

MLW Power, CP Robot cars, and Angus shops vans. Can it get any better?

[@nickythatrailfan]

Exactly

[@the_millwright]

Should see roberts bank now!

[@gradnitzersl]

Alot has change since then

[@BCrailguy45]

1:39 old cp maroon paint

[@tyfrank3427]

This is early 1970s I think.

[@bobjohnson205]

Yes, it is. The description of the video is incorrect when it says '80s.

[@montysmith6355]

one step closer to skynet even for trains carrying coal across canada

[@pravoslavn]

Too bad the photographer did not go over to the Nawffik Suthun. He could have got hisseff some really cool wreck pictures over there !

[@derrickwong5337]

Canadian Pacific Railroad unit train operation coal mining supertrain is history merge of CPKC

[@trainknut]

Man this really must be old if they think unit trains are so special... Nowadays you gotta look hard just to find a traditional manifest.

[@bobjohnson205]

More than 50 years old!