CP 5749 East train 406, Little Pic River, east of Middleton, Ontario; Oct 4, 1996 Heron Bay Sub-3_
"Two hundred miles of engineering impossibilities" were the very words used by CPR's general manager William C Van Horne in the early 1880s to describe what lie ahead for the construction crews building their part of the main along the rugged shores of Lake Superior. It would be logical to think that a route along the lake shore would be void of gradient, but this is far from the truth. In numerous locations the ruggedness of the shoreline dictated the track take an inland course. This resulted in a series of grades where the line climbed away from Lake Superior. The steepest of these grades is Neys Hill on the Heron Bay Sub where the average grade is 1.04 percent eastbound and 0.9 for westbounds. Grades reaching 1 percent and curves of up to six degrees occur in numerous locations throughout the length of the route.
Here train 406 has just come off the large bridge over the Little Pic River and is just starting up Neys Hill. You can see the track in the distance clinging to the side of the hard rock ridge above the river as it climbs toward Middleton. The rear cars were disappearing behind the ridge as the lead unit came around the far curve. I imagine today's humongous trains fit this whole scene!
It was easy to write this caption as I stole the info from an article I wrote on the line that appeared in the June 1999 CTC Board magazine. Gosh that seems so long ago....
CP 5749 East train 406, Little Pic River, east of Middleton, Ontario; Oct 4, 1996 Heron Bay Sub-3_
"Two hundred miles of engineering impossibilities" were the very words used by CPR's general manager William C Van Horne in the early 1880s to describe what lie ahead for the construction crews building their part of the main along the rugged shores of Lake Superior. It would be logical to think that a route along the lake shore would be void of gradient, but this is far from the truth. In numerous locations the ruggedness of the shoreline dictated the track take an inland course. This resulted in a series of grades where the line climbed away from Lake Superior. The steepest of these grades is Neys Hill on the Heron Bay Sub where the average grade is 1.04 percent eastbound and 0.9 for westbounds. Grades reaching 1 percent and curves of up to six degrees occur in numerous locations throughout the length of the route.
Here train 406 has just come off the large bridge over the Little Pic River and is just starting up Neys Hill. You can see the track in the distance clinging to the side of the hard rock ridge above the river as it climbs toward Middleton. The rear cars were disappearing behind the ridge as the lead unit came around the far curve. I imagine today's humongous trains fit this whole scene!
It was easy to write this caption as I stole the info from an article I wrote on the line that appeared in the June 1999 CTC Board magazine. Gosh that seems so long ago....