Rails in the Canadian Rockies by Adolf Hungry Wolf w/Dust Jacket

$49.00

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Hard Cover with Dust Jacket

By Adolf Hungry Wolf

368 pages

This book is about railroading in one of the most spectacular places of the world - the fabulous Canadian Rockies. It is a fascinating story, told through more than 500 photographs taken from the 1880's to the present. The black and white scenes are spiced by 4 full-color plates, written history, and the recollections of old-timers who worked and rode on the trains and the tracks of this story. The rails are those of the Canadian Pacific, and some other connecting lines.

This classic book will entertain and enlighten railroaders and non-railroaders, alike, for years to come. Scenes show double and triple-headed trains climbing up and down the mountains in the old days before automobiles and roads went everywhere. Also shown are stations built of logs and stones, tunnels in which the tracks loop over themselves, monstrous trestles and bridges, and many present-day scenes to put the story into perspective.

Special steam trains toured the region in 1978 and 1979, and their journeys are recorded. Both trains were sponsored by the Provincial Government of British Columbia, and one was hauled by the famous "Royal Hudson" locomotive, No. 2860. A cab-ride in the other locomotive, as it rolls through the Rockies, is presented as part of this book's stories.

The full-color endpaper map itself is a classic of Canadian Rocky Mountain railroading. It came with C.P.R. brochures luring faraway tourists of the 1920's to ride trains westward into Canada's scenic and wild mountain country. Much of this region lies within National Parks that help to maintain the Rockies in their natural splendor. Even today passengers can ride by train past many of the scenes that delighted long-ago travellers.

The region covered by the book forms roughly a rectangle. It begins in the prairie city of Calgary, Alberta. From there it goes westward, through an Indian Reserve in the foothills, past classic stations at Banff and Lake Louise, through the Spiral Tunnels, and to Golden, British Columbia, on the Columbia River.

At Golden the book's journey heads southward, over the Kootenay Central Branch, towards Cranbrook. We go up the Columbia River to its headwaters, and down the Kootenay past historic Fort Steele. At Cranbrook we pause to explore two branches. One of therm goes south to a connection with the Union Pacific Railroad, at the U.S. border. The other branch leads to giant mining operations at Kimberley, "the Bavarian City of the Rockies."

From Cranbrook the journey goes eastward, again, over the Crow's Nest Pass line, which was once part of a secondary transcontinental line. Today it is a source of coal revenues, as well as an alternate rail route through the Rockies on the CP Rail system.

At historic Fort Macleod a "rancher's branch" heads north to Calgary. Further east, towards Lethbridge, another branch goes to Calgary. This was once narrow gauge country, where tiny trains on slim tracks ran up and down the many prairie coulees. Today it boasts of the world's greatest railroad bridge, the mile-long Lethbridge Viaduct.

All pictures are of the actual item. If this is a railroad item, this material is obsolete and no longer in use by the railroad. Please email with questions. Publishers of Train Shed Cyclopedias and Stephans Railroad Directories. Large inventory of railroad books and magazines. Thank you for buying from us.

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