11-02-2014, 10:12 AM
Cargil is building a new canola crushing facility near Camrose, Alberta that will be serviced from both CNR and CPR. The contractor doing the track laying is using a couple of hopper cars and a trackmobile to do the ballast work. The interesting thing is they are trucking the ballast in and using a big front-end loader to load the ballast-cars. The rock is first dumped in a loading area near the track. The wheel loader scoops it and then drives up a short dirt ramp that has been built up to the track to give loader more working height over the hopper car. Maybe this is a common working arrangement but I've never seen it done before and thought it would make a great scene on a layout.