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Burning Journal -> Engine Pit -> BCOL 4621
Post Info TOPIC: BCOL 4621
Uke


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RE: BCOL 4621
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All on paper, as you well know... All on paper.

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The Krink


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Uke wrote:

Last of the 'true electric' operations in North America, after Milwaukee pulled back ta Miles City, Montana in 1980...

 My time at the tracks happened just after the last of the

last of the mainline steam locomotives to ever run. I was

born to appreciate the diesel era. The GN and MILW used

electric motive power crossing the Cascade Passes for a

time. I never got to hear a MILW electric locomotive running.

I got some videos of old footage with  "canned sounds" of what

the electrics make but its not quite the same.



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Uke


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BCOL ran a subdivision under catenary for a while... The Tumbler Ridge Sub. It was unit trains, coal loads interchanged with CN. They ran it with EMD built electrics... Big, honkin' 6 axle power, maybe 5000-ponies.

Why they closed it... Nothing! The power, all except one unit was returned to EMD, and CN abandoned the sub.

"Tumbler Ridge" sub musta been an experiment, although it damn near paid dividends when coal was payin' the bills...

                                   352px-BC_Rail_map.png



-- Edited by Uke on Wednesday 21st of August 2013 02:29:47 PM

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Uke


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The gist of the Tumbler Ridge Sub:

In the early 1980s the railway built a new line and acquired another. The Tumbler Ridge Subdivision, an 82-mile (132 km) electrified branch line, opened in 1983 to the Quintette and Bullmoose mines, two coal mines northeast of Prince George that produced coal for Japan.

It has the lowest crossing of the Rocky Mountains by a railway, at 3,815 feet (1,163 m). There are two large tunnels under the mountains: The Table Tunnel, 5.6 miles (9.0 km) long, and the Wolverine Tunnel, 3.7 miles (6 km) long.

Electrified owing to the long tunnels and close proximity to the W. A. C. Bennett Dam and transmission lines, it was one of the few electrified freight lines in North America. Although initially profitable, the traffic on the line was never as high as initially predicted, and by the 1990s was under one train per day.

The railway had incurred much debt building the branch line, and the expensive, unprofitable operations on the branch line could not help to repay that debt. In 1984 BC Rail acquired the British Columbia Harbours Board Railway, a 23-mile (37 km) line that connects three class I railways with Roberts Bank, an ocean terminal that handles coal shipments. Since the line had been constructed in 1969, it had previously been leased to CPR, Burlington Northern Railroad, and Canadian National Railway in succession.

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steam300


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You will see that sub open up soon if it has not been already. Other coal deposits have been found and a zinc and magnessium open pit mine has been discussed heavily


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Uke


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You're probably more familiar with BCOL than me, or Krink for that matter... Speaking only for myself, I still wish they'd remained "independent" if they could've.

But the province of British Columbia wanted out of the railroad business, despite BCOL's wealth generating revenue stream, which fattened BC's coffers!

Down thissaway you still see plenty lumber cars with their reporting marks, and originating mills as far north as Ft. Nelson. If CN decides ta reopen Tumbler, they'll hafta figure out ventillation for at least one of the tunnels...

Ya run diesels through a six-miler, somebody's gonna overheat pulling that crap! BCOL ran electrics through for that very reason. They avoided that, and hydro-power at the time was relatively cheap too...

But with mineral prices heading up again, and CN's deep pockets, perhaps we'll see the ol' BCOL revival!

First things first...CN will need ta rehab tracks, upgrade ballast, rerail a few miles, repair bridges, passing track, and open their checkbook before the snow flies. There's money ta be made on the old Pacific Great Eastern/BC Rail!

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The Krink


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Uke...the BCOL had its time. The CN has many reasons
to not make it a operating mainline. CN has always had
a"flat-lander" approach/history/mentality. Their entire route
through British Columbia is 1% or less. CN never had any
use for dynamic braking and owned a lot of SD-40's with
no dynamic brakes. Same for all its subs like GTW/DWP.
Now the CN empire has the IC which is another flatlander
railroad. I've lost track of all the CN aquisitions but the
bottom line is they "prefer a level" track.

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The Krink


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What comes southward from BC/Canada everyday
is the "PRGEVE" (Prince George-Everett Wa) which
is what the PGE/BCOL interchanged with the BN
every day of the year and was basically 60-70-80
loads of lumber on A-Frame flatcars and in boxcars.
Next is the "EDMEVE" Edmonton to Everett which
is pretty much the same train with a lot of lumber
products and some LPG tanks and some covered
hoppers loaded with anything. While I'm not awake
24 hrs a day to monitor it all, I know of "NWEEVE"
(New Westminster BC-Everett) that lands every
day with the same kind of cargo. Business across
the border via rail seems more than ever for the
BNSF Bham Sub. Coal Trains 3 times a day each
way. Pretty sure US Customs officers dont get
out of their chair when a coal train passes.

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Uke


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Yeah Krink, you're right. BCOL, like its predecessor, Pacific Great Eastern is over. And while CN may be a flatland railroad, segments of the BCOL still feed lumber (mostly) ta CN's bottom line, and the possibility of cheap coal coming south is another look back at the era before British Columbia gave it up!


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Uke


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Hadda go back over the BCOL and dig out facts on the Tumbler Ridge Sub...the source of the coal shipped south, then onward, towards Asia via Roberts Bank.

In the early 1980s the railway built a new line and acquired another. The Tumbler Ridge Subdivision, an 82-mile (132 km) electrified branch line, opened in 1983 to the Quintette and Bullmoose mines, two coal mines northeast of Prince George that produced coal for Japan. It has the lowest crossing of the Rocky Mountains by a railway, at 3,815 feet (1,163 m). There are two large tunnels under the mountains: The Table Tunnel, 5.6 miles (9.0 km) long, and the Wolverine Tunnel, 3.7 miles (6 km) long. Electrified owing to the long tunnels and close proximity to the W. A. C. Bennett Dam and transmission lines, it was one of the few electrified freight lines in North America. Although initially profitable, the traffic on the line was never as high as initially predicted, and by the 1990s was under one train per day. The railway had incurred much debt building the branch line, and the expensive, unprofitable operations on the branch line could not help to repay that debt. In 1984 BC Rail acquired the British Columbia Harbours Board Railway, a 23-mile (37 km) line that connects three class I railways with Roberts Bank, an ocean terminal that handles coal shipments. Since the line had been constructed in 1969, it had previously been leased to CPR, Burlington Northern Railroad, and Canadian National Railway in succession.

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