Railpictures.ca - Canadian Railway Photography - photographie ferroviaire Canadienne. » Ken Perry http://www.railpictures.ca The BEST Canadian photos on the Internet, eh? Mon, 20 Apr 2026 18:06:08 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 Images by ken-perry http://www.railpictures.ca/2026/%postname?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=2964 http://www.railpictures.ca/2026/%postname#comments Thu, 07 May 2026 21:25:32 +0000 Ken Perry
Due to its regular route from New Westminster to Huntingdon unavailable due to bridge work, the BC Hydro eastward Valley Freight detoured over Canadian Pacific lines (Westminster, Cascade, and Mission subdivisions) on Monday 1975-11-17, and due to six-axle units forbidden on CP at Sapperton near New Westminster, four SW900s, BCH 907 + 902 + 906 + 910, powered that train, and it is shown here at CP’s Coquitlam depot and train order office JN (from Junction, versus YD in the yard office control tower in the yard) at 1500 PST. <p>Years later, that depot in Port Coquitlam was renamed Port Coquitlam to minimize confusion for Westcoast Express commuter train passengers, and that area is now an extensive commuter rail and transit bus depot.
Name: Ken Perry
Railway: Canadian Pacific
Date: 1975-11-17
Location: Port Coquitlam
Province: British Columbia
Comments | 16 Favourites
In the years before public road access was provided, logging roads were the alternate way to access timber harvesting communities in the Nimpkish valley on Vancouver Island, and supplies were best transported by rail. Thus Canadian Forest Products 302 has two carloads of crossties and one tank car of fuel in addition to log empties southward by the road and rail water tank near Duncan reload on the way to Vernon Camp on Monday 1975-06-09.
Name: Ken Perry
Railway: Canadian Forest Pr…
Date: 1975-06-09
Location: Duncan reload
Province: British Columbia
2 Comments | 18 Favourites
With dynamic brakes whirring, a loaded coal unit train from southeastern BC with CP 5811 + 5812 + 5772 + 4572 on the headend and unseen mid-train remotes 1017 + 5703 + 5642 + 5599 is descending from Notch Hill on the Shuswap sub. on Sunday 1976-10-17. The era of exclusive MLW power on CP coal trains was long gone.
Name: Ken Perry
Railway: Canadian Pacific
Date: 1976-10-17
Location: Squilax
Province: British Columbia
3 Comments | 16 Favourites
On the E&N on Monday 1979-03-12, MLW S-3 CP 6572 had recently returned from Port Alberni to Victoria roundhouse for scheduled maintenance and was lined up for the 0600 Victoria yard job. A personal practice was to work the engine against full-set airbrakes to verify loading and to warm up the wheels for good braking, out from the turntable and back several times within the tenth of a mile of shoptrack, that on Monday mornings particularly desirable after a Sunday parked in the shop. <p>Extensive idling at Port Alberni had accumulated quite a bit of carbon in the exhaust, and the heat from my load testing caused it to be emitted as a magnificent show of sparks, caught with a time exposure of several minutes. <p>Note the as-built single note “honker” air horn, and above it a three-note added at Victoria for better sound projection operating in reverse over the many local crossings, and coincidentally, a more pleasant sound overall.
Name: Ken Perry
Railway: Canadian Pacific
Date: 1979-03-12
Location: Victoria
Province: British Columbia
3 Comments | 26 Favourites
In Victoria, trackage continued past mileage 0.0 at the depot onto Store Street to reach a number of industrial customers, with Swift’s meat packing plant frequently a priority for the yard crew to switch with high-value loads. On Saturday 1975-07-12, that was the case for MLW S-3 CP 6572 heading out of the spur at Swift Street to Store Street and onward to the Albion Yard distribution area.
Name: Ken Perry
Railway: Canadian Pacific
Date: 1975-07-12
Location: Victoria
Province: British Columbia
3 Comments | 24 Favourites
By my timing in life and railway photography, only a short period of Pacific Great Eastern was within reach, mostly from a few visits to North Vancouver yard by public transit from downtown Vancouver. Thus this view of MLW RS-3 yard engine PGE 577 on a crew break at the PGE passenger depot at North Vancouver on Saturday 1972-01-22, just over two months before PGE became British Columbia Railway on 1972-04-01. <p>PGE 577 was rebuilt to slug BCOL 403 in 1984, and was retired by CN in 2006.
Name: Ken Perry
Railway: Pacific Great East…
Date: 1972-01-22
Location: North Vancouver
Province: British Columbia
6 Comments | 16 Favourites
Canadian Pacific’s E&N Division on Vancouver Island handled trains of logs from Crown Zellerbach’s Nitinat Logging Division (hence the name Nitinat for those trains), eastward for 18 miles from Lake Cowichan to Hayward then 17 miles northward to the CZ log dump at Ladysmith. As seen from the last water tower at mileage 15.85 near Lake Cowichan (note milepost 16 in the distance near the Greendale Road crossing), GP9s CP 8832 and 8831 have their eastward train of 40-ish loads nicely underway on Thursday 1975-05-15, just two months after GM units displaced the seven remaining CP Baldwin roadswitchers on the E&N.
Name: Ken Perry
Railway: Canadian Pacific
Date: 1975-05-15
Location: Lake Cowichan
Province: British Columbia
Comments | 16 Favourites
In a happy coincidence of my first full year with a driver’s licence and the last full year of CP FM/CLC road power, an eastward train from Midway to Nelson was followed, mainly to photograph lead unit CP 4104 with 8509 + 8555 + 8526 assisting. Shown here crossing the Kootenay River near Taghum on Friday 1974-10-11, just four miles from Nelson.
Name: Ken Perry
Railway: Canadian Pacific
Date: 1974-10-11
Location: Taghum
Province: British Columbia
1 Comments | 24 Favourites
A first visit for me to Lethbridge, on Thursday 1974-10-03, when CP Lethbridge was still downtown at 1 Avenue South and 8th Street south, revealed a well-maintained display of CP 3651 at the depot. It is still standing there today, while the depot is now the Lethbridge Community Health centre, and CP Lethbridge is eight miles northwest at Kipp Yard near old Coalhurst.
Name: Ken Perry
Railway: Preservation
Date: 1974-10-03
Location: Lethbridge
Province: Alberta
Comments | 9 Favourites
Hoisting a locomotive on jacks to allow a truck to be moved out for a traction motor change was a regular work procedure at the CP/E&N backshop in Victoria, but the pictured one of Baldwin CP 8001 on Saturday 1975-03-01 carries special significance. Just ten days later came instructions to shut down all CP Baldwin roadswitchers (seven remaining of the original thirteen after various mishaps) after twenty-six years of being maintained in that shop, so 8001 was the last to ride those jacks. <p>As a three-year employee there at that time, that hurt, and I often wondered what the longer-service folks (some of them well over half their careers) felt.
Name: Ken Perry
Railway: Canadian Pacific
Date: 1975-03-01
Location: Victoria
Province: British Columbia
3 Comments | 20 Favourites
Canadian Pacific generally overhauled switcher units at Weston shops in Winnipeg, and shipped them dead back to their home terminals. On Tuesday 1974-10-01, a westward train with CP 5591 has brought essentially spotless MLW S-3 6600 with wrapped stack to the shoptracks, seen here from the Second Avenue road overpass.
Name: Ken Perry
Railway: Canadian Pacific
Date: 1974-10-01
Location: Swift Current
Province: Saskatchewan
1 Comments | 19 Favourites
Not nearly as substantial as one might expect for a terminal passenger depot, this PGE now BCOL depot for Prince George was situated in the industrial area south of the town and just east of the yard there. It replaced an earlier (1952) one north by a few miles and closer to the CN interchange, a bit more substantial but in much the same understated style.
Name: Ken Perry
Railway: BC Rail
Date: 1972-10-25
Location: Prince George
Province: British Columbia
2 Comments | 8 Favourites
Since BC Hydro had a general restriction for only three of their four SD38 units on the headend of a train, catching all four working together was fairly rare. For the Valley Freight from New Westminster to Huntington on Tuesday 1982-03-23, for reason(s) unknown to me, all four, BCH 382 + 383 + 381 + 384 (listed from right to left) were lined up, and as seen from the Queensborough road bridge over railway and Fraser River, are heading from the west end shoptracks (which are in Burnaby) at Trapp Yard to tie onto their train and head eastward. <p>BCH 381 is an SD38AC, and the others are SD38-2s, and all are EMD built. <p>The track between those units and the river is CN’s Lulu Island branch.
Name: Ken Perry
Railway: BC Hydro
Date: 1982-03-23
Location: New Westminster
Province: British Columbia
2 Comments | 12 Favourites
Twice-weekly (Tuesday and Friday) freight train No. 65 from Wellcox yard in Nanaimo has just arrived Courtenay with back-to-back Baldwins CP 8001 and 8010 and caboose CP 437030 (with marker lamps already positioned for the return trip) on Friday 1975-02-14 and is preparing to switch its train. On the left, snow outlines where a wye had been until removed a few years ago. With no timetable schedule for southward freight trains, the return to Wellcox will be as an Extra.
Name: Ken Perry
Railway: Canadian Pacific
Date: 1975-02-14
Location: Courtenay
Province: British Columbia
1 Comments | 19 Favourites
During the short period of Victoria Pacific tourist railway operation on a short section of CN’s Cowichan subdivision west of Victoria, one of my photo goals was to document CP’s E&N southward Courtenay-Victoria passenger train No. 2 with Victoria Pacific equipment in the background, ideally with sunlight on the near side. Near the summer solstice, on Saturday 1972-07-01, that worked out, with CP 9199 on No. 2 and former Comox Logging & Railway 2-8-2 Baldwin number 16 getting ready to depart Millstream Junction on the last run of the day, as seen from up on the TransCanada Highway.
Name: Ken Perry
Railway: Canadian Pacific
Date: 1972-07-01
Location: View Royal
Province: British Columbia
1 Comments | 17 Favourites
In Victoria, about half a mile short of mile zero on the E&N mainline, CP had a spur from its main yard down to serve harbourfront industries and to connect to Island Tug & Barge’s Lime Bay interchange barge slip to and from U. S. rail connections. With me on graveyard shift responsible for setting out the unit for the 0600 yard crew, that put me in prime position to know and to catch an unusual assignment of a Baldwin roadswitcher, CP 8004, instead of the usual MLW S-3, switching those industries early in the morning on Saturday 1973-02-03.
Name: Ken Perry
Railway: Canadian Pacific
Date: 1973-02-03
Location: Victoria
Province: British Columbia
1 Comments | 15 Favourites
At CP’s E&N Victoria shops, when the Monday-Saturday 0600 yard crew was finished for a day, they parked their unit on the fuel stand for shop personnel to service then run into the roundhouse for overnight. On Thursday 1973-06-21, that is what led to this pose of Baldwin DRS4-4-1000 CP 8000 when I came on shift at 1600. Note the carshop on the right of the photo has had its many-panes glass windows replaced with translucent fibreglass panels, for greater resistance to breakage. Note also the little yellow funnel hanging on the sandhouse near the sand hose, specifically for hooking into a Baldwin’s sandbox opening to guide the flow in. 1949 technology! <p>This was only nine days after the head-on collision of four Baldwins up-island north of South Wellington, so 8000 was then the first of only eight roadswitchers. Happily, it is now under detailed cosmetic restoration at the Railway Museum of British Columbia in Squamish.
Name: Ken Perry
Railway: Canadian Pacific
Date: 1973-06-21
Location: Victoria
Province: British Columbia
1 Comments | 20 Favourites
Southward freight train No. 52 from Wellcox in Nanaimo to Victoria encountered a broken rail on the curve just south of South Wellington in the wee hours of Wednesday 1974-02-20, resulting in lead GP9s CP 8531 and 8613 derailing mostly upright, but idling Baldwin CP 8005 rolled onto its left side, as seen the following day on 1974-02-21, with following cars scattered down the bank. Internal engine damage resulted, and that was the end of 8005’s active life, leaving only seven of CP’s original thirteen Baldwin roadswitchers. <p>The elevated perch for this photo was a handy tree, and served well to show some early history in the near distance. Note the diagonal farm road running to the upper right, once a railway grade of Pacific Coast Coal Mines from Extension to Boat Harbour. That slag pile is from the Alexandra Colliery, and was a good camera perch on the other side of the derailment scene. Off in the far distance is Mount DeCosmos, at the western end of Crown Zellerbach’s log-haul railway from Nanaimo Lakes to Ladysmith.
Name: Ken Perry
Railway: Canadian Pacific
Date: 1974-02-21
Location: South Wellington
Province: British Columbia
1 Comments | 16 Favourites
If ever there was a fortunate-timing shot, this one on Thursday 1975-03-06 qualifies, just seven days before the beginning of the shutdown of all CP Baldwin roadswitchers, completely unknown to me at the time of the photo. A potential tree perch to catch northward freight No. 51 from Victoria to Nanaimo had been on my radar for some while, and with a pair of Baldwins, 8001 and 8002, and brilliant sunshine, this view of the overpass of Northgate Road at mileage 29.8 near Cobble Hill worked out, just enough of an angle that the short hood of the lead unit was not completely hidden behind the cab. <p>Note the feet-and-inches clearance sign on the bridge.
Name: Ken Perry
Railway: Canadian Pacific
Date: 1975-03-06
Location: Cobble Hill
Province: British Columbia
2 Comments | 22 Favourites
Sunday graveyard shift on 1972-05-28 at the E&N Victoria roundhouse gave me a perfect opportunity to start the second roll of Kodachrome in my week-old Pentax Spotmatic camera, with a collection of locomotives spanning four manufacturers. From the left in stall 4, MLW S-3 CP 6573, GMD GP9 CP 8679, Baldwin DRS4-4-1000 CP 8008, and in the backshop beyond stall 1, Budd/CC&F RDC2 CP 9199. <p>Through the distant open door to the left of 8679, the shop steam generator that was in my post last week can be seen. <p>This was an early colour night shot for me, minimal knowledge of reciprocity effect, and completely ignorant of possible lens filter effects. Learning came fast! <p>A very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all.
Name: Ken Perry
Railway: Canadian Pacific
Date: 1972-05-28
Location: Victoria
Province: British Columbia
3 Comments | 22 Favourites
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