At Teck’s Cardinal River Operation near Cadomin, Alberta, on August 8, 2016, a third section of a 150-car Canadian National coal train has finished loading its 50 cars and is now heading downgrade toward Leyland and a trip east (north) on the railroad’s Mountain Park and Foothills Subdivisions. The train loaded with two ES44ACs on the head end, but one of those units is now set up as rear DPU and will continue its duty as rear DPU after the train is combined with the other two sections at Bickerdike (near Edson). Right now though, both will be needed to ease the loads down a steep 3% grade of the 5.5-mile Luscar Industrial Spur. The mine produced steelmaking coal for 51 years and, unfortunately, ceased operations in June 2020.
