NORTH AMERICA’S LAST TRUE MIXED TRAIN


DENIS E. CONNELL/PHOTOS BY THE AUTHOR U


NDETERRED BY THE MISTY RAIN, Michelle Rounds navigates the station platform with a spring


in her step of a woman on a mission. It’s Monday, October 6, 2015, and the ragtag consist of Keewatin Railway Train 291 is at the station platform in The Pas, Manitoba, waiting for its 11:00 a.m. departure. Before that can happen, Michelle is tasked with inspecting the lavatories of Keewatin Central’s four ex-VIA coaches for soap, towels, and running water. “It’s a two-day round- trip to Pukatawagan and when the train is full, as today it is, the cars come back pretty dirty. We do what we can.” It will be a long day ahead for the


crew and passengers on North America’s last working mixed train, a bi-weekly conveyance serving the First Nation populations of Pukatawagan, Man., 160 rail miles north-northwest of The Pas.


46 JANUARY 2017 • RAILFAN.COM Where is The Pas? Located approximately 505 rail miles


west of Winnipeg, The Pas (pronounced “Pah”) is the approximate midpoint of the former Canadian National branch reaching 1,000 miles northward to the port of Churchill on Hudson Bay. Shed by CN in 1997, the line is presently operated by OmniTRAX subsidiary Hudson Bay Railway (HBR). Principal commodities moved by Hudson Bay are grain products to the port of Churchill for transload during the shipping season and minerals from two branchlines at Thompson and Flin Flon. The Keewatin Railway Company was formed by First Nation tribes in 2006 to purchase the 185-mile Sherridon Subdivision from HBR and become the operator of bi- weekly mixed Trains 290 and 291. Trackage north of Pukatawagan once reached another 85 miles to Lynn Lake,


and mixed train service (sarcastically dubbed “The Bullet” by veteran railroaders because of its glacial pace) survived until 2002 when the mines at Lynn Lake closed. Canada’s national passenger operator,


VIA Rail, consistent with its federal mandate to provide “remote services,” retracted mixed train service to Lynn Lake but retained it to Pukatawagan, an isolated First Nation reserve of 2,600. The town is accessible only by railway, one very small landing strip, and in winter, a single ice road. Most of the line north of Pukatawagan


is intact, with the Keewatin Central operating special maintenance trains for Manitoba Hydro two or three times per year. Hydro facilities at Hone (milepost 136) and Dryborough (milepost 157) require periodic maintenance, and the railway is the only way to get heavy


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