Anyone travelling over the 1,290 miles (2,076 kilometres) of main and branch lines on the Brandon Division will find plenty of variety, much more than grain fields, blue sky, and a spectacular sunset.

For example, take the junction of the Minnedosa-Brendenbury subdivisions, where the CP Rail secondary main line angles northwest of Portage La Prairie towards Saskatoon.

The gentle rise in altitude as the line approaches Minnedosa, and the tiny creeks winding through the countryside at the bottom of giant river banks, are a legacy of the last ice age.

The topography has provided the railway with a number of steep grades "that require attention to careful train handling," says C.E. Minto, division superintendent.

Loaded unit trains travelling east to Minnedosa cross the deep Assiniboine River Valley by descending a grade which averages 1.2 percent (with short stretches of 1.8 percent) and then climbing a grade averaging 1.1 percent (with short stretches of up to two percent).

Before coming to a stop at Minnedosa, trains must also descend 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometres) of grade averaging 1.4 percent.

"It is not mountain railroading but the winter pull-apart problem has been severe enough to prompt experiments with robot cars and mid-train power," he says.

GEOGRAPHICAL CURIOSITIES

In the southern reaches of the Brandon Division, west of Winnipeg and just north of the United States border, the La Riviere sub-division snakes through more hills and river-flats, past one of Manitoba's few ski resort areas. The geography provides plenty of variety for the trainmen who travel between Altona and Brandon.

Prairie gives way to wasteland in the Carberry area where the main line skirts the Manitoba Desert, a region of sandy terrain, scrubby plant life, and even sand dunes that is one of North America's geographical curiosities.

But the diversity of the railway's Brandon Division extends beyond geography, as any marketing person will tell you.

"We can send out a unit train of potash in the morning and a unit train of coal in the afternoon," says Leighton Price, the division's customer service centre supervisor.

The coal comes from Bienfait in southwestern Saskatchewan. Most of it is bound for Thunder Bay for use in Ontario Hydro's coal-burning power generating plants.

The potash originates at Esterhazy and Sylvite, also in Saskatchewan, and is carried to destinations in Eastern Canada or the American Mid-West.

Like in other divisions located in the Prairie provinces, wheat, barley, and canola originate from the Brandon Division. Every week at least 15 trains of these commodities are marshalled on the division. Almost all of it goes through Thunder Bay, but some trains, especially in late winter, head for Vancouver.

To handle this, and anticipated traffic growth, efficiently and safely requires well-maintained rail lines, huge sums of money have been allocated for track maintenance programs.

Mr. Minto says that from its own earnings, the railway has earmarked $448,800 for bank widening on the Carberry subdivision in preparation for future ballast and rail programs, $411,000 for replacement of one bridge on the Minnedosa subdivision and $282,000 for new and relayed rail, as well as lesser amounts for other work.

TRACK WORK

In addition, the federal government has provided $15.7 million through the Prairie Branch Line Rehabilitation Program for maintenance work on the Napinka and Glenboro subdivisions. Another $5.3 million has been allocated for work on grain dependent branch lines.

But grain products form only part of the long, varied, list of commodities handled by the employees on the division.

"We carry all kinds of agricultural products, literally everything from soup to flax," says Mr. Price.

The soup is delivered across Western Canada from the Campbell Soup Company plant at Portage La Prairie, 50 miles (80 kilometres) west of Winnipeg.

And, throughout Southern Manitoba, huge stacks of flax straw dot the landscape, aging for a year or more before the straw, or fibre, is loaded into boxcars and delivered to New Jersey or North Carolina to be made into tissue handkerchiefs or high-grade linen.

The list of commodities includes bagged peas, birdseed, corn for distilleries, Tupperware from a plant in Morden, 80 miles (129 kilometres) southwest of Winnipeg, sunflower seeds, and others. These all move in small quantities either in boxcars or by intermodal transfer.

It is this variety of traffic that helps give Brandon Division its special appeal.

This CP Rail News article is copyright 1983 by the Canadian Pacific Railway and is reprinted here with their permission. All photographs, logos, and trademarks are the property of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company.