1955 Red Pass Junction departures

At that time, freights operating eastbound were normally “scheduled” for the Dispatcher’s convenience. Schedules 866, 868, 870, 872 were Albreda Sub. schedules and 880, 882, 888 were Tete Jaune Sub. schedules. All freights westbound were extras except Time Freight 419. The other 400 series freights operated as extras westbound and as schedules eastbound. (The register does not say whether westbounds were on the Tete Jaune or Albreda subs but when the loco number next appears again as a schedule you can tell where it went. Most of the North Line trains were steam-hauled with 4300s dominating.)

“Red Pass Turns” operated from McBride to Red Pass and back and the same loco and crew often appeared twice in a 24-hour period. Because of the grade between Tete Jaune and Red Pass, the turns had roughly half the tonnage and length of a train operating between Red Pass and Jasper. Many of the through trains between Blue River and Jasper switched at Red Pass Jct where Vancouver-North Line cars were interchanged and eastbounds were “loaded up” on tonnage left by Red Pass turns.

There were 3 passenger trains each way: 1-2 Super Continental (approx 15 cars), 3-4 Continental (approx 14-20 cars ) and 195-196 Jasper-Prince Rupert (10-11 cars 195 ex Sun, 196 ex Tue). Mixed 391,392 operated twice weekly between Jasper and Blue River Tue-Fri. with combine and caboose