Yesterday's cold fingers and toes tour kicked off bright and early at Ozada (emphasis on early, not so much bright). A good friend from Ontario was visiting, and despite the blustery forecast and his best attempts to twist my arm, I agreed to take him for a day of photography on the Laggan Sub. As someone who spends their working life behind the lens, sometimes it’s hard to justify spending my day off taking photos. But every time I do, I’m reminded of why I chose this path. It was a great day, spent with good company - cold toes and all.
Shortly after 0800 hours -- and our fourth train within just 30 minutes! -- CPKC C35 rolls through Ozada East past a frozen texas gate, led by the venerable EMD GP38-2, 3060.
Tags: CPKC CPKC Laggan Subdivision Canadian Pacific Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ozada Ozada East EMD GP38-2 Locomotive Blue Hour Cold Winter
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Back in May, my brother Bryce and I made the 3,500 KM trip from Hamilton, Ontario to our new home in Calgary. That distance would have been accurate if we had driven straight along our originally planned route through Canada — but we did not. Instead, we added a couple hundred extra kilometers to take in the sights along the way.
The five days between May 26th and May 30th became an unforgettable adventure. From Sunshine, Ontario, in the east to Medicine Hat, Alberta, in the west, much of the route was new and unexplored territory for me by road. As we approached the latter on our final leg into Calgary, we serendipitously came across a westbound train with KCS 4805 trailing — the first of two CPKC-painted locomotives. To my knowledge, this was the very first CPKC-painted locomotive to appear on Canadian soil, and it just so happened that we crossed paths at the same time.
In an almost prophetic twist of fate, less than two weeks after my initial encounter with 4805 near Medicine Hat, CPKC’s corporate communications team assigned me to capture images of their newly painted locomotives in service between Calgary and Golden. At the time, only KCS 4805 and CP 9375 bore the livery representing the newly formed Canadian Pacific Kansas City.
Among the many images captured for that assignment, one shot taken from the Storm Mountain lookout of westbound freight 401, stands out. I’m incredibly proud to share that this image made the cover of CPKC’s 2025 corporate calendar.
Over the past seven months, I’ve been fortunate to take on a number of exciting projects for CPKC — from photographing the new livery to the hydrogen locomotive, the holiday train, and even contributing to an upcoming feature on Hockey Night in Canada!
Here, the new CPKC livery shines in the sunlight against the beauty of the Canadian Rockies as KCS 4805 and CP 9375 hustle train no. 401 through Banff National Park near Castle Mountain, Alberta. At the time of this photo, 4805 and 9375 were the only two CPKC-painted locomotives in service, making multiple trips between Calgary and Vancouver before being dispersed across the network at large.
Tags: CPKC CPKC Laggan Subdivision Storm Mountain Castle Mountain Alberta Canada Bow River Train Freight Train Locomotive Paint Scheme Calendar Photo Summer
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A span of just 65 minutes and 9 seconds separate these two frames captured at Seebe, Alberta, showcasing CPKC's proud heritage in motion.
At 1635 hrs, just over an hour after CP 7010 passed through, the light has sweetened ever-so as CP EMD FP9A 1401 guides the Royal Canadian Pacific towards Banff along CPKC’s scenic Laggan Subdivision at Seebe, Alberta.
Tags: Royal Canadian Pacific Canadian Pacific CPKC CPKC Laggan Subdivision Seebe Alberta Canada Heritage Unit Passenger Train Locomotive EMD FP9A Rockies Rocky Mountains Banff Private Charter Bridge Telephoto Railroad Railfan Railway Railroading Train Trains
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A span of just 65 minutes and 9 seconds separate these two frames captured at Seebe, Alberta, showcasing CPKC's proud heritage in motion.
In this first image, taken at 1530 hrs, CP EMD SD70ACu 7010 hustles priority train no. 149 from Bensenville, IL, to Roberts Bank, BC, across the Kananaskis River bridge at Seebe, Alberta.
Tags: CPKC Laggan Subdivision Canadian Pacific Heritage Unit EMD SD70ACU CP 7010 Seebe Alberta Canada Telephoto Bridge Locomotive Freight Train Train Railroad Railfan Railway Railroading
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Racing along the picturesque shoreline of Ghost Lake, a striking trio of A-B-A configured EMD FP9 locomotives lead the Royal Canadian Pacific westward into the foothills of the Rockies on a private charter bound for Banff. Later that day, I caught up with the train again at Lake Louise, where they performed a run-around move, as seen in my previous post.
Tags: Madden Alberta Canada Royal Canadian Pacific Ghost Lake Rockies Rocky Mountains Cochrane Canadian Pacific CPKC Laggan Subdivision CPKC Private Charter Drone Aerial EMD FP9A CP 1401 CP 1900 CP 4107 Scenic Scenery Lake Water
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