Builders photos on Flickr

Almost thirty years after Canada's first transcontinental railroad was built through the Thompson River Canyon, the builders of what would become the second railway faced some tough decisions.

The CPR already occupied what was viewed as the optimal route, choosing the side of the river with the most stable ground, and trading off some short grades for not having to bridge the Thompson River once. This left the surveyors and engineers of the Canadian Northern with the 'other' side of the river to work with, as in most cases there would not be enough room for both lines beside each other. Instead, those planning the route had to contend with unstable sandy bluffs overlooking much of the line, or having to tunnel through unyielding rock where there was simply no room to blast a shelf for the roadbed. In the end, a near river level path was chosen, unlike the CPR whose line stayed high on the opposite hillside. The benefit to this routing was virtually no westbound grades. In exchange though the CN's line wound along the river in a much more circuitous route, with no less than four major bridges over the Thompson in just the twenty six miles between Savona and Ashcroft, with two and a half more track miles than the rival CPR in that same distance.

The additional expense of building and operating on the 'second choice' of sides of the Thompson and Fraser Canyons would ultimately prove to be a major reason leading to the Canadian Northern's financial collapse in 1923. The current day Canadian National railroad enjoys the benefits of the easier gradients for heavy westbound unit trains. While the unstable ground above much of the line continues to be a nuisance, modern construction equipment makes that task much less costly than it once was. In fact CN and CP westbounds now share this once second choice route for 140 miles as part of the directional running zone agreement of 2000.

A 'doubled up' unit sulphur and grain train, running under symbol S717 glides across CN's second crossing of the Thompson River west of Kamloops on an early May morning. Near the center of the photograph, some ballast cars are staged just off of the CP mainline at their Walhachin gravel pit.

Builders :) by Lauren Deardorff

24 17

FREE INSTRUCTIONS! by Max

7 8

www.mocpages.com/moc.php/347519

Please use them, just give some love to the builder!

:D

EMD on the EB by Lights in my hometown

26 17

The Great Northern's beautiful Empire Builder

Ad from the Saturday Evening Post, 1948

Big enough to read, right here.

Builder's bums by Hemsworth Images

53 1

Builders Hat by Randy Knauf

4

The hat and face just jumped out of the crowd

The Builder - Side by 0nuku

19

Finally putting the broken headplate I got from Modalt to good use. I got it at the same time as Matoran Onuku's Akaku years ago. The broken head on his chest has always been a big part of his character, along with the Bohrok parts fit into his design, as if Onuku had been reconstructed with parts found from the Bohrok around him.

Builders Stamp by James Burnside

6