Volume 13 Number 3 February 9, 1983

Western Projects Will
Exceed $230 Million

Spaghetti Rail: Heavyweight continuous welded rail, placed in quarter mile strips, is a major element in CP Rail's $315 million capital works program for 1983. Approximately 250 miles of this rail will be laid this year, most of it in Western Canada, at a cost of $53 million. Because it is heavier rail with fewer joints it lasts longer supporting trains weighing up to 15,000 tons.

Winnipeg - CP Rail plans to spend more than $230 million on capital projects during 1983 on its rail network from Thunder Bay, Ontario, west to Vancouver.

An additional $39 million, funded by the federal government, will be spent to continue the rehabilitation of Prairie branch lines.

The program includes more than 210 miles (338 kilometres) of new rail, 274 miles (441 kilometres) of ballast, replacement of approximately 750,000 track ties, the construction and modernization of yard, repair, and terminal facilities, new equipment, including 41 locomotives, and the start of a four-year project to install a centralized traffic control system to improve train operations between Winnipeg and Thunder Bay.

The new and, in most cases, heavier rail, 43 miles (69.2 kilometres) in British Columbia, 83 miles (133.5 kilometres) in Alberta, and a total of approximately 86 miles (138.4 kilometres) in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, will cost the railway $47 million.

In addition, $2 million will be spent on relay and siding rail, and $26 million on changing some 750,000 ties and recycling or replacing 274 miles (441 kilometres) of ballast.

At Coquitlam, B.C., work will commence shortly on a $10 million building which will serve as a central operating and control facility for CP Rail's operations between Calgary and Vancouver. The three-year project, with $2 million to be spent this year, will provide 150 person-years of work.

The railway also plans to spend approximately $8 million this year to begin expansion of the yard at Golden, B.C. Work will include construction of a car shop to repair rotary-dump coal cars.

In Winnipeg, $13 million will be spent in 1983 to complete construction of a $16 million locomotive service and repair shop. Another $4 million will be spent to begin construction of a combined locomotive maintenance and car repair shop at Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.

Improvements to various railway and intermodal facilities in Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, and Winnipeg will cost an additional $11 million. A variety of other smaller projects, ranging from the construction of an engine and train crew rest house at Sparwood, B.C., to extending two tracks in the rail yard at Bredenbury, Saskatchewan, will cost another $3 million.

Other highlights for CP Rail's 1983 spending program in Western Canada:

• $56 million for diesel locomotives;
• $20 million for continued work on the $600 million Rogers Pass tunnel project and double-tracking in the Selkirks to expand capacity to carry grain, coal, potash, and other export commodities;
• $5 million for bridges and culverts;
• $3 million for roadway machines;
• $3 million for installation of 26 hot box detectors, eight in British Columbia, eight in Alberta, four in Saskatchewan, one in Manitoba, and five in Ontario west of Thunder Bay;
• $2.7 million to complete the Lethbridge, Alberta, yard relocation project;
• $2.5 million in the first year of a two-year, $5 million project to expand the freight car wheel shop at Weston Shops in Winnipeg;
• $3 million in 1983 on a four-year, $40 million project to install a centralized traffic control system between Winnipeg and Thunder Bay, Ontario.