by David Gray/photos by the author
With more than 1.3 million people, Calgary is Canada’s fourth-largest city and the economic heart of one of its most prosperous provinces. Located in the southern part of Alberta, Calgary sits at the edge of the Canadian Prairies and the foot of the famed Canadian Rockies. It also sits at the confluence of six different rail lines. Four of those routes are owned by hometown railroad Canadian Pacific Kansas City, which hosts a majority of the traffic in and out of the city. However, Canadian National also has a presence here, coming into the city from the north.
At the heart of the rail scene is CPKC’s Calgary Terminal, a beehive of round-the-clock activity. In 1996, the CP headquarters relocated from Montreal to Calgary, and for a time was located downtown at Gulf Canada Square. In 2013, CP moved its offices to Ogden Yard southeast of downtown, renaming it the E. Hunter Harrison Campus. Besides the corporate offices for the railroad, this is also where CPKC stores its fleet of historic equipment, including Canadian Pacific 4-6-4 2816 (off limits to the public). The campus is also home to CPKC’s Canadian dispatch center (Rail Traffic Control in local parlance).
ABOVE: CPKC Train 602 emerges from the East Departure Track at Shepard on August 3, 2024. The train is using the departure track to run around trains 118 and 149, which had both main tracks blocked. SD70ACU 7018 wears the classic CP gray and maroon.
The four subdivisions that make up the CPKC Calgary Terminal are the Aldersyde, Brooks, Laggan, and Red Deer. The Brooks Subdivision enters the Calgary Terminal from the east at milepost 164 near Wildrose, the Laggan from the west at milepost 12 near Keith, the Aldersyde from the south at mile 116.9, and the Red Deer from the north at milepost 4 near Titian. The Brooks and Laggan subdivisions make up the majority of traffic through the terminal as the east/west main lines, while the Red Deer and Aldersyde subdivisions (north/south) also feed traffic into and out of Calgary.
CPKC Brooks Subdivision
Let’s start our tour of CPKC in Calgary on the main line. Located at mile 163.2 on the Brooks Subdivision, the control point Wildrose is technically not within the Calgary Terminal, but it does play an important role. This control point is the entry and exit point for trains coming and going to the east. Westbound trains will often hold here waiting on another to finish working the east end of the Calgary Intermodal Facility (CIF) out of Shepard. There is a level crossing right between the signals at Wildrose, an easy spot to sit and watch the trains.
ABOVE: A pair of trains sits stored in Keith Yard on February 19, 2024. On the left is the Gang Train used for housing workers in remote areas. In the middle and on the right, autorack Train 701 is split across two tracks, with the mid-train remote unit visible on the middle track.
Moving west, Shepard is the next control point and, as mentioned above, is an access point into CIF, the main intermodal facility for CPKC in Calgary. Shepard itself is a small community on the eastern edge of Calgary but will likely soon see the city grow around it as new communities are popping up in the area. This control point is also the eastern end of double track that begins at Glenmore. The Stoney Trail, which is Calgary’s ring road, passes over the Brooks Subdivision at Shepard. There are a few photo locations at Shepard, as well as to the east toward Wildrose on 114 Avenue SE.
The bustling Calgary Intermodal Facility is located between Murdoch and Shepard on the south side of the double-track main line. Most of CPKC’s intermodal trains stop here to drop and lift traffic. The switcher based out of CIF is known as the Shepard Job. The main customer at CIF is Canadian Tire, which is evident when passing by. Canadian Tire operates the largest supply chain network in Canada representing Canadian brands such as Sportchek, Mark’s Work Warehouse, Part Source, and many others. There are also many other warehouses and businesses in the area; Amazon recently opened a new warehouse on the north side of the tracks, as has Home Depot.
ABOVE: A Calgary Transit Blue Line train has just departed the Shaganappi Point station as it heads into downtown on February 9, 2025.
Murdoch, at the western end of CIF, is a crossover between the north and south tracks and serves as an access point into CIF and the Shepard East Departure Track. This track stretches from Murdoch to Shepard on the north side of the double track, and is often used for storage of well cars for CIF or lower-priority trains. The Murdoch end is a switch controlled by CTC, while the eastern end at Shepard is a hand-thrown switch. Between Shepard and Murdoch there aren’t many photo opportunities as the industrial and warehouse/commercial land that surrounds CIF clogs up any possible photo locations; the exception is 52nd Street SE passing directly overhead at Murdoch.
Barlow is the next control point of note and is another access point into and out of CIF via the Barlow Lead. The lead track also provides CPKC access into the Shell Calgary Terminal via the Shell Spur. From Murdoch to Barlow, there again aren’t many photo locations due to industrial properties along the south side of the tracks. On the north side, 98 Avenue SE parallels the Brooks Subdivision and the Western Irrigation District Canal for a short distance.
ABOVE: Viewed from Emerald Bay Drive, CP AC44CW 9588 leads a westbound potash train as it curves along the edge of the Bearspaw Reservoir leaving Keith West on January 24, 2019.
West of Barlow we find two more short spurs that service businesses from the south track. The first is a spur into Nutrien AG Solutions where CPKC will drop covered hoppers. Looking at satellite imagery, it is easy to see that this site was far more active in the past — there is a relatively clear outline of what once was a loop track. The second spur in the area is the Burnco Industrial Spur which accesses the Burnco Rock Products – Shepard Ready Mix operation. As is evident from the name, this location handles ready-mix for cement which CPKC spots in two-bay covered hoppers. The Burnco Job, which switches Burnco, Nutrien, and Shell, comes out of Ogden Park Yard multiple times per week. This job will usually shove east onto the Barlow Lead to spot Shell and then work back westward from there. Railfan locations are mostly along Shepard Road which parallels the south side of the tracks from Barlow to Glenmore. Both the Nutrien and Burnco spurs cross this road for easy shooting…