The Tête Jaune Triangle
CN 2270 leads an exceptionally long Q198 stack train east over the Yellowhead Highway, on the 'South Connecting Track' between the Robson and Albreda Subdivisions. By the time the tail end of the daily Prince Rupert - Chicago stack train clears this bridge, it will have traveled over three different subdivisions within the past nine miles. After merging south off of the Tête Jaune Subdivision to join the westbound traffic bound for Vancouver on the Robson Sub, it takes this connecting track to curve north, and join all of the eastbound traffic from Vancouver on the Albreda Sub for the climb up Yellowhead Pass.
The closer of the two spans is the continuation of the Robson Subdivision, which carries westbound traffic downhill to join the Albreda Subdivision a mile west at Charles. This trackage was built new in the early 1980's, joining the former Canadian Northern, and Grand Trunk Pacific mainlines in a more operationally forgiving manner than their previous confluence at Redpass Junction. The new alignment saved trains travelling east on the former GTP main from having to climb the steeper (1% vs 0.7%) gradient uphill to Redpass by routing them over the superior for EB ex-Canadian Northern line instead.
The Tête Jaune Triangle
CN 2270 leads an exceptionally long Q198 stack train east over the Yellowhead Highway, on the 'South Connecting Track' between the Robson and Albreda Subdivisions. By the time the tail end of the daily Prince Rupert - Chicago stack train clears this bridge, it will have traveled over three different subdivisions within the past nine miles. After merging south off of the Tête Jaune Subdivision to join the westbound traffic bound for Vancouver on the Robson Sub, it takes this connecting track to curve north, and join all of the eastbound traffic from Vancouver on the Albreda Sub for the climb up Yellowhead Pass.
The closer of the two spans is the continuation of the Robson Subdivision, which carries westbound traffic downhill to join the Albreda Subdivision a mile west at Charles. This trackage was built new in the early 1980's, joining the former Canadian Northern, and Grand Trunk Pacific mainlines in a more operationally forgiving manner than their previous confluence at Redpass Junction. The new alignment saved trains travelling east on the former GTP main from having to climb the steeper (1% vs 0.7%) gradient uphill to Redpass by routing them over the superior for EB ex-Canadian Northern line instead.