Thanks, Bruce. So, perhaps, there are two "Bow" Rivers in the area; the one with the Indian name, and the one that is called "Bow" (which we drove along going back up to Lake Louise from Banff in '03, and from Lake Louise to Banff in '09 and along, as much as possible, when going from Banff to Calgary in '09. In '03, we saw two or three groups of elk along the way; we saw no elk in '09.
Johnny
Beyond assuming it was a Native word, I never knew much more. So, I did the only logical thing and looked it up on Wikipedia. This is what it said:
According to British Columbia's Geographical Names Information System, "Yahk" is a Kootenay word meaning either "arrow" or "bow" and referring either to the Yaak River or the Kootenay River. The southward curve of the Kootenay River (from Canada into the United States and back into Canada) is said to be a "bow", with the Yaak River possibly being the "arrow" (if the name is from the Kootenay word "a'k").
According to the USGS, variant names of the Yaak River include A'ak, Yaac, Yahk, Yahkh, and Yak.
Bruce
So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.
"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere" CP Rail Public Timetable
"O. S. Irricana"
. . . __ . ______
Bruce., since I first saw the name Yahk about sixty years ago, I have wondered bout it. Do you know whence and why it came?
Growing up in the stations at Hatton, SK and Irricana, AB from 1954 to 1965, both locations had mixed train service.
Hatton was on the CPR main line, but was the Division Point(junction) for the Hatton Sub. to Golden Prairie. There was a mixed train that served the Hatton Sub. every Thursday, known informally as the not surprisingly named; Thursday Mixed.
Irricana was served by a NB mixed from Calgary to East Coulee on Monday. On Thursday the same equipment returned to Calgary from Bassano. This equipment ran from East Coulee over to Bassano on Tuesday, through some of the most isolated country you ever saw. It made a round trip from Bassano to Scandia on Wednesday. This was done by the same crew working four 12 hour days. A new crew brought the same equipment NB past Irricana on the way to Torrington on Friday. This equipment returned SB past us to Calgary on Saturday.
The constant equipment on these trips was a Combine; a potable water tank car, to supply the stations and Section Men's houses where the local water supplies were either bad or non-existent; and the conductor's personal Caboose. Cabooses changed as conductors bid in and out of the jobs, but the Combine and the tank car only changed when they required scheduled servicing. In the eight and a bit years we were at Irricana there were three different combines and two different tank cars.
I once asked Dad what would happen if there was suddenly so much express brought in for shipment that it wouldn't fit into the combine. It turns out that back in the day, there were very old day coaches and full baggage cars that could be used, if an agent called the day before the mixed left its' home terminal. It was not like there was ever a need for extra passenger space.
I have one book with a very amusing story from the early '70's about some railfans in their late teens or early twenties, who decided to ride a mixed train from Yahk, BC down to the US border at Kingsgate, BC, where the line met the Spokane International. The station at Yahk had been closed, so the guys had to buy their tickets on the train. The conductor said that after however many years, these were the first tickets he had ever sold. They enjoyed the trip and a good time was had by all, passengers and crew alike. The guys liked it so well they did the same trip the following summer. When they got home after that trip and were dutifully putting their tickets into their souvenir drawers, they discovered that their tickets were sequentially numbered! There had not been a single ticket sold in the intervening year!
IIRC the Denver & Salt Lake had an overnight mixed with sleeper.
KCSfan daveklepper Along with others, I would define a mixed train as one defined as such in the Official Guide. Hitching some freight cars to a streamliner doesn't make it a mixed train in my opinion. I totally agree. A "true" mixed train picked up, dropped off and did any necessary switching of freight cars along its route. It was both a local freight and a local passenger train. It most commonly ran on short lines or branch lines and often was the only scheduled train on these lines. The passenger consist was often just a single combine tacked on to the rear of the train. Some carried an additional coach and a few (though very few) even carried a sleeper. Mark
daveklepper Along with others, I would define a mixed train as one defined as such in the Official Guide. Hitching some freight cars to a streamliner doesn't make it a mixed train in my opinion.
Along with others, I would define a mixed train as one defined as such in the Official Guide. Hitching some freight cars to a streamliner doesn't make it a mixed train in my opinion.
I totally agree. A "true" mixed train picked up, dropped off and did any necessary switching of freight cars along its route. It was both a local freight and a local passenger train. It most commonly ran on short lines or branch lines and often was the only scheduled train on these lines. The passenger consist was often just a single combine tacked on to the rear of the train. Some carried an additional coach and a few (though very few) even carried a sleeper.
Mark
Can anybody name a mixed train that DID carry a sleeper?I recall an article about riding a mixed on the UP(was it Trains or CT?)from Utah to Wyoming.I believe it did run overnight,but I'm not sur there was even a coach,let alone a sleeper.
Fr.AlJust looked it up,the Soo line discontinued carrying passengers in Upper.Michigan at the end of 1981.
I remember reading a story by a reporter (IIRC the Detroit Free Press) who rode the train. First he had to talk to a few people at Soo to find someone who either knew or admitted to knowing about the service. The crew was surprised when he showed up to board the train, however, they accommodated him with stops convenient to where he could purchase food during the long trip. I thought about making the trip, but I could never figure out how to get back to my car. I finally mad a fan trip Gladstone-Trout Lake behind 2-8-2 Soo 1003 in the 1990s. That same weekend they made a trip Gladstone to Hermansville via former C&NW, and were to return on the former Soo, but a salvage crew was just starting to remove the track. on a late Saturday afternoon. Since the last car in the train was a WC office car (which by then owned both lines) I figured the timing of the dismantling was not just a random incident.
IIRC the Soo Line carried passengers in the caboose on their line thru Gladstone in the Upper Peninsular of Michigan as late as the 80s.
Agreeing with Mark. A freight train that coincidently will sell space to passengers. Whether it be in a car converted or built for the purpose, or a caboose. When I rode the Tuscon , Cornelia & Gila Bend in the caboose in the mid-70's (RT ~ $1.97 Ajo to Gila Bend and back), the crew referred to it as a mixed train.
Santa Fe was prolific in the mixed train business. Some of this was due to an obscure Kansas statute which required "trains originating and terminating within the state" to carry passengers.
ABD
We're going to have to agree on a definition of mixed train for openers. A broad definition of mixed train would include such trains as the Denver-Kansas City leg of UP's "Portland Rose", which included a lot of piggyback and auto racks tacked on behind the passenger equipment or the similar arrangement on SR's "Piedmont" between Washington and Atlanta well into the Amtrak era. More people would favor a narrower definition, restricting a mixed train to branchline operations with passengers carried in an old coach which doubled as the caboose or a stretched caboose with extra seats for the occasional passenger.
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