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The Canadian Pacific Railway Yards in Winnipeg occupy a great expanse in the inner city, and they constitute a tremendous dividing line in the city. To the north of the yards is Winnipeg's North End, which has always been a good deal less prosperous than the city's West End, which today is a mix of middle class and poor areas. The yards stretch northwest from Main Street, and they are crossed by two major bridges, at Salter and Arlington Streets. (The Salter Bridge is named for legendary North End politician Slaw Rebchuk, although it's commonly referred to as the Salter Bridge.) West of McPhillips Street is another CPR yard, the Weston Yards, which are operationally separate from the main yard although they are physically connected. These pictures were taken from both bridges on Good Friday in 2000.
Here is the Arlington Bridge from the Salter Bridge image
These railway buildings are located to the east of the Salter Bridge. At right you can see the lines of the yard converge to the mainline toward Main Street. image
Viewed through the chain-link fence of the Arlington Bridge, many trains are being assembled in the busy yard. image
A puff of smoke emerges from a diesel engine hidden in a sea of cars. The smokestacks at left background are near the Central Works Yard. image
Looking down the middle of the yard from the Arlington Bridge. image
A little to the left of the previous view. image
Looking along the main line east of Salter. image
A vertical perspective on approximately the same shot. image
This shot through the fence could be better, but it shows a giant crane to the southeast of the Arlington Bridge. image
Inspectors once traveled in these cars which are now permanently parked near the Salter Bridge. image
Looking along the mainline west of the Arlington Bridge. image
A sea of cars west of the Arlington Bridge. The building beyond them is McPhillips Street Station, one of two casinos in Winnipeg. One has to cross working railroad property to get from the parking lots to the casino. Naturally, it has a railroad motif. image
These sidings lead into shops. image
A single car rolls alongside a unit train filled with wheat. image
These two views looking toward the downtown skyline from approximately the same place on the Arlington Bridge illustrate the amount of movement in the yard in the space of an hour. image image
These three views of the skyline are from the Salter Bridge. Note how the buildings are less distinct here than from Arlington. Since we on a straight line with Main Street at Portage (the corner with the skyscrapers), the buildings on the south side of Portage are hidden behind the slightly taller ones on the north side. image image image
A railway worker throws a switch almost directly beneath the Arlington Bridge. image
A single tanker car rolls through a seemingly empty part of the yard. image
The tracks converge west of the Arlington Bridge. They have to narrow to go over what motorists know as the McPhillips Street underpass. Beyond that is the Weston Yards. image
A long train begins moving through the middle of the yard. image
A different perspective on the long train shows how it is moving across the ends of many lines. This illustrates the width of the yard. image image
Looking west of Salter toward the Arlington Bridge shows the many train assembly tracks. image
P.S. I'm not a railroad expert, or even a buff. No doubt I called things by their wrong name and failed to point out some interesting things in these captions. I just had a good time taking these photos during the noon hour on Good Friday when everything was closed. (Hey, even the Jewish Community Center was closed!) You can e-mail me to set me straight on what I goofed up.
