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(Photographs by Floyd Yeats from the collection of Lance Camp, captions by Bill Yeats.)
In the picture below we see the photograph of the “Kneehill Mixed” with locomotive 2521, a hand fired coal burning “G2” Pacific 4-6-2 built for main line passenger service away back in 1907. The train is at Carbon Alberta on its Thursday westward run to Calgary. Directly behind the locomotive is a water car for supplying both the tender and track employee’s section house cisterns along the way with good drinking water.
The train’s coach and way car are positioned at the station while the head end of the train has pulled forward to switch the back track and to assist the work train ahead with it’s job of dumping rock along the track above the Kneehill Creek. Back by the station are two more flat cars loaded with rock for the work train. The planks and stakes along the track, beside the locomotive have been removed from flat cars of “Frank rock” prior to their being unloaded by the Lidgerwood plough. The small work train locomotive number 441, a “D4” 4-6-0 built by the CPR in 1913, is taken on a cool spring day in 1946 or 47 by the look of the heavy side curtains that are drawn tightly across the gangway at the rear of the cab. A steam pipe can be seen running from the steam dome down to beside the handrail then forward to drop down again to the pilot where there is a flexible coupling to the car ahead, which is the “Lidgerwood”. This is a machine that has a large drum turned by an engine (the steam for which is supplied by the Locomotive) and wound on this drum is a long cable, which is attached to the angled plow that is sitting on the flat car ahead. All the flat cars were filled with rock “rip rap” loaded at the Frank slide at Turtle Mountain in the Crows Nest Pass.
I’ll explain the operation as follows. First the flat car that the plow is on is placed at the far end of the string of carloads of “ rip rap”. Then with the Lidgerwood’s cable attached to the plow and when the cars to be unloaded are in position the planking, some of the stakes are removed from the flats on the creek side then the drum is wound back to draw in the cable and skid the plow along the flat cars. In the picture this has been completed and maintenance of way employees can be seen clearing the last of the rock behind the plow. The next move could be to switch the “Heart Convertible” car load of fine gravel or fill, seen ahead of the caboose in the first photo between the Lidgerwood and the plow, then with the cable attached and side doors unlatched winding back that steam powered drum will pull the plow to unload this open ended “Heart” car and spread the finer ballast along the ties beside the rails as the work train moves slowly forward.
The “Kneehill Mixed” hasn’t run between Drumheller and Calgary for a good many years and the CPR lifted the rails on that line years ago. Steam powered work trains have disappeared like the Dinosaur from Alberta’s Red River Valley.
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