CN upgrades its passenger service...

[Ulrich]

Yes...you read it right..CN has a passenger department..check it out...

 http://www.northernontariobusiness.com/Industry-News/tourism/Agawa-Canyon-Tour-Train-gets-new-life.aspx

 

I'm not sure why CN and not VIA runs this...or if any other Class 1 roads have passenger departments. But it's interesing that at least one major railroad still has a passenger department.

 

[cprted]

 When CN absorbed the Algoma Central, they inherited the AC's passenger operations as well.  So, long story short, there are CN revenue passenger trains.

[Anonymous]

cprted

 When CN absorbed the Algoma Central, they inherited the AC's passenger operations as well.  So, long story short, there are CN revenue passenger trains.

Minor clarification - when CN absorbed the Wisconsin Central, who had absorbed the Algoma Central.  I recall when I first heard about the WC/AC merger.  I talked to my buddy Steve who was a WC MOW foreman in Fond du Lac.  He was surprised as heck that word got out about it (apparently it wasn't supposed to be public info as of that time) and he rattled-off two names of the only people who could've blabbed it.  I was worried I'd miss the Algoma Central's EL-like paint scheme without pictures, so I beat-rump all the way from Cedar Rapids to Sault Ste. Marie to photograph their excursion train.  I made the drive in 10 hrs. and beat the train to the depot 10 min. before it arrived back from its run!  The AC guys then let me into their yard and I was allowed to stroll-through snapping pictures (non-digital at the time).  Then I was pleasantly surprised to find the hotel had lost my reservation, and they had only one room left (and all other lodgings were booked-up in town).  I snagged the room and put a big dent into the Moosehead inventory at the hotel bar that night.

[MJChittick]

Ulrich

 http://www.northernontariobusiness.com/Industry-News/tourism/Agawa-Canyon-Tour-Train-gets-new-life.aspx

The "new equipment" referenced in the above link is the entire consist from the former Denver to Winter Park, CO Ski Train.  See the following article:

Denver's 'Ski Train' service ends suddenly

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var addthis_pub="trainsmag";

Published: Tuesday, April 21, 2009

 

DENVER - The train that connects Denver with the ski hills and resorts at Winter Park, Colo., will no longer operate, effective immediately, the Denver Post has reported. A spokesman for "Ski Train" owner Phil Anschutz said a variety of factors, including rising rates for liability insurance, led to the train's cancellation.

Anschutz has sold Ski Train's equipment to Canadian National's Algoma Central Railway, which operates passenger service between Sault Ste. Marie and Hearst, Ont.

"There is common knowledge that the train consistently lost money in its operation, yet profitability never really was the driving issue," said Anschutz spokesman Jim Monaghan. "It was something a subsidiary of the Anschutz Co. wanted to do."

However, he said overall cost increases for the train, particularly liability insurance rates, led to its cancellation. He also cited operating issues in sharing the line, Union Pacific's Moffat Tunnel route between Denver and Salt Lake City, with freight trains.

Finally, a weak economy helped push the train over the edge.

Ski Train service began under Denver & Rio Grande Western in 1940; Anschutz owned Rio Grande and successor Southern Pacific from 1984 until 1996

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

I still think ACR's maroon and grey scheme - even on SD's - looked better than either WC's or CN's.  I rode the line in August 1994, and would love to go back.  [As a general rule, the trains I'm able to ride seem to survive; the ones I don't get to are discontinued shortly, it seems.    ]

- PDN. 

[MP173]

Part of the upcoming move involves sorting and pitching.  That includes photos, of which I must have over 10,000.  Just yesterday i sorted the AC photos from the trip made in 1984.

Cloudy day made for lousy photos, but the trip was stunning.  Hard to believe that in the midwest there could be that kind of scenery and wilderness.  Of course, it is midwestern Canada!

ed

[CShaveRR]

Ed, right now I'm still in the Midwest, but you'd hardly know it. I'm in a log cabin in a very thick forest (mixed coniferous and deciduous trees), in which I've seen everything from hummingbirds to what have to be storks (they flew differently from herons, which we've also seen). There are impenetrable marshes to our east, and mountains (yes, mountains!) within fifty miles to our west. To our north, lots of water. It is truly wilderness here, too. I've seen very little evidence that the nearest railroad track (CN, about four miles down the county highway) gets much more than very occasional use.

[CShaveRR]

Had to amend the previous note--they weren't storks. My brother-in-law-the-naturalist (and owner of the log cabin) says that they're sandhill cranes.

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

I believe either the sandhill cranes or the whooping cranes are the largest = tallest birds in North America.

- PDN.

[Deggesty]

CShaveRR

Had to amend the previous note--they weren't storks. My brother-in-law-the-naturalist (and owner of the log cabin) says that they're sandhill cranes.

So you and Pat did not have to worry about a visti from a stork.

Johnny

[CShaveRR]

/snicker/

All I was worried about was hoping they wouldn't try to cross the road in front of me. Pat didn't see them, so I had to turn around to show her. When we went by them the third time, they were taking off for points inland. Their flight, legs downward, ruled out herons for us.

By the way, any sand hills in this area are not the same as the mountains to the west. The eastern U.P. has cliffs of its own, which are part of the Niagara Escarpment (as is the Kewaunee/Door County peninsula in Wisconsin).

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

Those cliffs in the eastern U.P. - about 30 miles east of Marquette - would be the "Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore", I believe. 

It pertains here - a little bit, anyhow - because I visited them on the same trip when I rode the ACR, and the DSS&A special over the WC from Marquette west to a little beyond Baraga - late August 1994, that was.

I stayed in the City of Marquette's campground on the northern side of town, within sound of the LS&I's GE ex-BN U-boats, as I recall, shoving loads up onto the ore docks, esp. at night. I drove up there a couple times - that dock is a long ways up there, and not a place for those who don't like heights.

Had I known you were going to be in the area, I would have recommended the Port O' Call bar and the Vierling's Saloon in Marquette, esp. the boiled whitefish and the micro-brew beer at the latter.  Would not hesitate to go back to either one.

- Paul North.

[SALfan]

Ulrich

Yes...you read it right..CN has a passenger department..check it out...

 http://www.northernontariobusiness.com/Industry-News/tourism/Agawa-Canyon-Tour-Train-gets-new-life.aspx

 

I'm not sure why CN and not VIA runs this...or if any other Class 1 roads have passenger departments. But it's interesing that at least one major railroad still has a passenger department.

 

B&O ....ahem, CSX... still has a passenger department, or did the last I knew.  They handle ticketing for the MARC commuter trains, and I believe CSX crews man the trains on the Brunswick and Camden lines.  When I was riding, there was a crusty old *** of a conductor who still wore his B&O uniform complete with all the brass accoutrements. 

[oltmannd]

Paul_D_North_Jr

I believe either the sandhill cranes or the whooping cranes are the largest = tallest birds in North America.

- PDN.

I thought the largest was Stanley Crane....

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

  Groan . . .   OK, you get 2 points for that one, Don.  I can't think of anything to top it or a snappy comeback that wouldn't be insulting to the man, and that wouldn't be fair either, etc. 

-PDN.

[Andy Cummings]

CShaveRR

Had to amend the previous note--they weren't storks. My brother-in-law-the-naturalist (and owner of the log cabin) says that they're sandhill cranes.

 

Carl —

Very cool. My fiancee works with wildlife and is a particularly big fan of the sandhills. The biggest Sandhill Crane flyway passes over Nebraska, and I've seen photos of them in the Platte River Valley so thick they blot out the sky. Wisconsin is home to another major flyway, though it's substantially smaller than Nebraska's. The cranes winter in Florida.

Whooping cranes are indeed huge from my understanding; they're also endangered. There's a group up at Necedah, Wis., that's managed to get whooping cranes to mate in the wild, though it's still at an experimental stage, from my understanding.

Here's a shot I took of a pair of Sandhills over by Sullivan. Beautiful birds.
 
 

[Deggesty]

A.K. Cummings

Here's a shot I took of a pair of Sandhills over by Sullivan. Beautiful birds.
 

Thanks, Andy. I forwarded the picture to my wife, and she says that they look like a married couple. They certainly are handsome birds.

Johnny

 

[Dakguy201]

Quote from the article:

"CN, the operators of the tour train, is acquiring three Electro-Motive F-40 locomotives and 14 passenger cars, including eight coaches, two cafe/lounge cars, three club cars and a presentation cars from Ansco Investments of Denver, Colo"

What is a presentation car?

[M636C]

Nobody seems to have mentioned that the cars were built in the late 1960s by Hawker Siddeley for the CN's "Tempo" trains run out of Toronto and Montreal. It's good that they are back with their original owner after all this time.

I assume a presentation car would be something like a club car set up for conferences and similar activities.

M636C

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

''presentation car'' = observation car, or dome car ?

Yes, nice photos, Andy.  Thanks for sharing.  I've seen the sandhill cranes wintering in Florida in the northern suburbs of Tampa.  They're surprisingly pretty bold - I've seen them stand in the middle of a busy road - Fletcher Ave., just east of the Dale Mabry Highway - even though there's a lot of traffic going by that has to dodge around them.  Or when they're on a sidewalk, they won't move until you about bump into them.  They - and the Great Bliue Herons - like to stand/ forage/ hunt in the shallow puddles that accumulate and form after rainstorms in the grassy areas of the Interstate medians and ramps, etc.

  Any of you familiar with the 'Operation Migration' for the whooping cranes ?  Each year's new birds are taught how to migrate from Wisconsin or Minnesota to Florida by following a couple of ultra-light planes flown by pilots who - I'm not making this up - wear a  disguise or cover so as to not make the birds too accustomed to humans.  It's a huge endeavor - usually takes about 2 months for the trip, due to adverse weather, fog, winds, temperaures, rain, etc. - with a lot of support staff.  What I find funny - this is more my wife's interest than mine, anyway - is that other adult birds will wait for the 'right' weather and winds, and then sometimes make the trip in as little as 4 days !

- Paul North.

[cv_acr]

MP173

Part of the upcoming move involves sorting and pitching.  That includes photos, of which I must have over 10,000.  Just yesterday i sorted the AC photos from the trip made in 1984.

 

If you're getting rid of the ACR shots, don't pitch 'em, send them to me! :) My modelling interest is the ACR in the early 1980s.