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SLIDE, MILE 140.3

Original pen & ink drawing
October 2006

Image size 9" high by 13" wide (225 mm by 275 mm)
(Cropped low resolution image illustrated)


INTRODUCTION

This drawing shows the first day of work on a major slide on the B.C. Rail mainline just north (east) of Seton Portage, B.C., during my 9 years of employment on the B.C. Rail Rock Gangs. Our gang was working just south of this slide, and had gone into Seton siding to clear the southbound Wayfreight. Suddenly the Wayfreight patrolman came on the radio babbling about huge rocks falling and the track gone into the lake. We ascertained his location, and cautiously proceeded northward to see what he was talking about.

We found that a huge slide -later estimated by the railway engineers to be approximately 40,000 cubic yards of rock - had fallen onto the railway and dragged about 1,000 feet of track into Seton Lake. The "nugget" in this drawing was all that remained on the track bed. Here we see our gang's Roc-Jac drilling the rock for blasting after our 980 front end loader was unable to push it off the track bed.

The cliff face keep dropping large slabs of rock onto the track over the next few months, and the railway eventually built a tunnel behind the entire section of cliff face from Seton to South Shalalth to avoid continuing repair work and the possibility of derailments.

The image illustrated is a cropped version of the actual drawing. It is drawn with Pilot DR pigment ink pens and india ink brush pen on translucent vellum. The drawing is in a 12" x 16" OPUS black metal exhibition. It is available for $500.00 (five hundred) Canadian.

To order, please refer to Contact page.


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