The Ogden Shops at Calgary - Date/Photographer unknown.
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This picture shows No. 2 Coach Shop when it was under construction, to the east outside the fence surrounding the shops you can see
tents were the construction workers lived. It looks like there is a gate where the workers could access the construction site of the
structure. The shop has 15 bays to work on CPR's fleet of passenger coaches. The structure with the smoke coming out of its chimney is a
temporary structure that was probably used by the construction engineers and draftsmen. To the east of this building and past the railway
gondola to the end of shop, a transfer table was built. Coaches entering the shop came onto the table on the center track where the
gondola is sitting, and from there the transfer table traveled on rails to any doorway, and the coach would be moved into the shop for its
overhaul. The coaches would be stripped of paint, seats would be removed for re-upholstering, and any other repairs would be done to the
running gear and air brakes. The coaches would be re-painted, re-furbished, and moved out of the shop on the transfer table to return to
service. At the time I worked at Ogden, the passenger era was in its twilight, many passenger trains were abolished for lack of business.
The automobile and airlines had taken their toll on these trains and many jobs were lost - Date unknown Larry Buchan.
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