Day 13 - Calgary to Edmonton

Today kicked off with breakfast at Denny's as we didn't feel too fussed about having it at the hotel - it was going to cost a lot.

Something familiar beside Denny's in Calgary

Today we relocated from Calgary to Edmonton - a 3.75 hour drive that took us about 7 hours.

Where we could, I tried to follow Highway 2A instead of taking the main Highway 2. This road is less populated, you can pull over and stop where you like - and it follows the railway tracks.

Being a CP connection from Calgary to Edmonton, I didn't expect to see much in the way of rail activity, however we were pleasantly surprised.

I left Highway 2 for 2A at Crossfield, where as soon as we got into town, the lights and bells started up. A switcher set from Calgary was spotting some tanks and hoppers and every now and then it had to go over a grade crossing. Lots of good close up footage on a bright sunny day. Eventually it disappeared around a corner and I made the D to move on.

These refurbished GP-9s look very slick. They're now called a GP20C-ECO

Further along the road near Carstairs I espied a light in the distance and a CP Canpotex turned up and went sailing through at a great rate of knots. Filmed that one too.

Further along near Bowden I saw another light in the distance. This time a CP manifest with lots of tank cars - mostly LPG. A Union Pacific loco was an unexpected sight. Filmed that as well.

More grain elevators photographed. 

From there on it all went dead, and we encountered many track gangs making repairs and all signal lights were off. Lunch at Lacombe and at Leduc we finally had to resort to going on the main drag to get to Edmonton. Canadian drivers have yet to discover the use of the little stick on the steering column we refer to as an indicator. Their driving is appalling - the speed limit is an obvious recommendation and there's no-one around to enforce it anyway. Doing 110 kph along the freeway and I'm getting overtaken by trucks.

I called into a hobby shop where I resisted an overwhelming urge, but did spend a few bucks. The traffic was insane - being 4:30 pm didn't help I suppose.

We're staying at the Travelodge East Edmonton for 2 nights - cheap motel, average facilities, dodgy neighbourhood. Internet plays up, so if you can see this, jolly good.

A day of exploring tomorrow, and I swear, if one of them asks to go to the Mall, they're walking home.

EJ