The Old and the Older, but Which One is Which?

The locomotives pictured on the front of these two post cards are both “F-Units”. One is about 50 years older than the other.

The locomotive on this, the top post card, is an EMD that was part of a line of diesel-electric locomotives produced between November 1939 and November 1960 by General Motors Electro-Motive Division (GM-EMD) in the U.S.A. and General Motors-Diesel Division (GMDD) in Canada. While the parts came from many locations, the final assembly for all F-units was at the GM-EMD plant at La Grange, Illinois, and the GMDD plant in London, Ontario. The term “F-unit” refers to the model numbers given to each successive revision (i.e. F3, F7, etc.), all of which began with the letter F. The "F" originally meant Fourteen, as in 1,400 horsepower, not F as in Freight. Longer EMD “E-units” for passenger service had twin 900 horsepower diesel engines. The later "E" meant Eighteen as in 1,800 horsepower. The F-units were the most successful "first generation" road (main line) diesel locomotives in North America, and were largely responsible for superseding steam locomotives in road freight service.

The locomotive in this post card, the bottom post card, is an F40PH-2. The design of the F40PH was based on the EMD GP40-2 freight road-switcher and shared that locomotive's turbocharged EMD 645E3 V16 cylinder, two-stroke, water-cooled diesel engine. The locomotive developed 3,000 horsepower at 893 RPM. Beginning with the EMD F40PH-2, introduced in 1985, the engine developed 3,200 horsepower. Many of the original F40PHs were updated to match that output. The locomotives were 56 feet 2 inches (17.1 m) long. A standard F40PH weighs 260,000 lb (117,934 kg). The designation "F40PH" stood for the following: "F" for the full-width cowl carbody, "40" as the locomotive is part of EMD's 40-series (based on the GP40-2 freight locomotive), "P" for passenger service and "H" for head-end power. Both trains are passing by the famous “Morant’s Curve”, a location made famous by the Canadian Pacific Railway’s official photographer Nicholas Morant. The above information was mostly gleaned from a couple of Wikipedia articles.

The reason that chose these two post cards to blog about is multi-faceted. 1) They are both pictures of Moran’t Curve in the winter, but taken about ten years apart. There aren’t a lot of differences between the two, when you compare the scenery. The trees on the inside of the curve, near the tracks, seem to have grown a bit, but not much. The Bow River flows in the same crooked pattern in both pictures. 2) They demonstrate the differences between the two different F-Units that were used by Via Rail. The top one is the earlier version; the bottom one the modern version.

3) The bottom picture is a photo of the very last Via Rail passenger train to travel on these tracks. Via took over the operation of all passenger rail services in Canada in in 1977. They stopped running two transcontinental trains (one through Edmonton and one through Calgary) in January of 1990. This is the last one that travelled east-bound through Calgary. 4) Although the top picture is older than the bottom one, the bottom post card seems to be older than the top one. The bottom post card includes a bar code on the back; it was printed in Australia and developed in Calgary, Alberta. The company, started in 1950, is still active (now in Cochrane, AB) with a website: http://www.hccolour.com/ The top card includes a only a post office box on the back; it was printed in Canada by Dexter Colour. DEXTER COLOR CANADA, LIMITED was founded on June 28, 1978 and has its registered office in Bramalea, Ontario. The organisation's status is listed as "Inactive - Amalgamated".

Nicholas Morant

The picture on the front of this post card was taken by Nicholas Morant.

For those of us who are "foamers" along the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) right of way west of Calgary, Nicholas Morant is a sort of icon or hero. Although he photographed many aspects of Canadian life and he was a great nature photographer, we "foamers" know him for the pictures of the CPR in the Rockies and the curve that the CPR named after him near Lake Louise at milepost 113 on CPR’s Laggan Subdivision. This post card shows the actual Curve that Morant made famous:

On the main line, so that the engineers and conductors can see it, there is a sign that says: "Morant's Curve" straight down from where the photographer of this picture is standing. This is looking west from an observation point along Highway 1A (Bow Valley Parkway). The picture on the front of this post card, below, is facing east from the same vantage point:

I strongly suggest that you look up Nicholas Morant on line, or in the library, to see what wonderful Black & White as well as colour photographs he developed. There is one book of which I am aware that features his work: Nicholas Morant's Canadian Pacific by J. F. Garden.

At only 19 years old, Nicholas Morant from Kamloops, British Columbia, began his photographic efforts with the CPR in 1929. He was hired on as the “special photographer”. He worked with the CPR almost continuously (there were 2 "shifts" not with the CPR) until he retired in 1981. He died March 13, 1999, in Calgary, Alberta at the age of 88.

He spent many hours at the Stoney Creek Bridge in Rogers Pass atop a specially constructed scaffolding where he photographed the special passenger train in the first post card, above, in 1955. This train is a special edition with Princess Margaret aboard. It is following the tracks of the famous Canadian transcontinental service.

As you can imagine, photographing around a railway in the mountains can be hazardous. An example of this is the story of when Morant and a Swiss guide encountered and were attacked by a grizzly bear. It happened in 1939. The guide eventually died of his injuries while Morant spent three months recovering in a hospital. The incident happened near the Morant's Curve featured in the other two post cards.

The first post card was published by Vanishing Vistas. It is copyrighted by Lyman E. Cox out of Sacramento, California in 1974. The middle post card is published by Altitude Publishing - the photo is copyrighted by Douglas Leighton. The bottom post card is the result of the efforts of The Postcard Factory from Markham, Ontario, Canada.