A southbound overnight Saskatoon-Regina manifest crosses the Quappelle River Valley in early morning light 20 miles north of Regina - 30 Apr 1991 Bill Hooper.

25 March 2011

Trains Leave After Days of Noise

Qu'Appelle Saskatchewan - After four days, Qu'Appelle's ordeal by noise is over.
 
Around 1:30 p.m., Thursday, Qu'Appelle resident Jim Harvey called a reporter to happily announce that the two Canadian Pacific Railway locomotives that had been idling, unmanned, for four days finally had moved off.
 
Harvey said he first noticed two engines parked on a rail line about 300 feet from his home in Qu'Appelle, about 50 kilometres east of Regina, at around 9 a.m., Sunday.
 
Worried about the crew's safety, he said he checked the cab and found nobody in it.
 
Concerned that the locomotive could be damaged or even driven by vandals, he called several numbers for the CPR and was told it would not be moved until Tuesday, and couldn't be silenced.
 
"They said they couldn't shut it off because it's wintertime," he said Thursday morning, adding "they mentioned it didn't have antifreeze or something like that."
 
How loud was it?
 
He opened his front door and let a telephone carry the sound of a low, but clearly audible, hum from a heavy diesel engine.
 
"Five days, 24 hours a day," he said glumly.
 
In an e-mail to the Leader-Post on Thursday morning, CPR spokesman Kevin Hrysak said the locomotives had been "staged" or parked there for "operational reasons."
 
"Once we received calls from a couple of the residents in town we attempted to transport a crew out to the train in Qu'Appelle to move the train, however the highway was closed due to extreme weather and we were unable to get a crew safely out to that location."
 
Will Chabun.