Canadian Pacific's basic reason was the low torque multiplication of the Allison transmission, which was a problem on the severe grades of the Kettle Valley lines where there were several stations on the steep grades. Unless both engines were giving maximum power, the acceleration from standstill was too slow resulting in a hot transmission shut down and the need to get help from a locomotive to crest the grade. At full stall a hot transmission shutdown would occur in a about one minute! The Rolls Royce twin disc transmission had a much higher stall torque multiplication & was expected to solve the problem.

The conversion was done in the Angus Shops in the East of Montreal and while there was an assigned application engineer, I kept in close touch so that I was intimately familiar with the installation. The conversion was a major one. Not only was the Rolls Royce power unit larger than the GM package, but the maintenance work was all on the opposite side so virtually all the under-floor equipment had to be moved.

The plan was to debug the application in Montreal out of the Glen Yards & then ship the unit west for service out of Nelson if my memory is correct. Normally the Car #9194 was operated on the Montreal - Megantic run, a day's work of about 300 miles. The run started with any number of cars in multiple to Farnham, a lower number to Sherbrooke & usually only the 1 car to Megantic (I recall one day returning to Montreal as lead car of a 10 Budd car train). If we wanted extra time for maintenance then the 9194 would be operated to St. Agathe & back, a short day of about 100 miles. The Application Engineer & I always liked the St. Agathe run in the summer - around St. Adele there was a girl's reform school & on hearing the train whistle they rushed to a convenient hill to wave as we passed - usually 'sans vestments'.

As you may expect there were several initial problems. The CN conversion of car D204 that was expected to be completed well ahead of the 9194 was actually only slightly ahead entering service. One problem unique to the 9194 was the ladies toilet!!! This car had two toilets - a Men's at the car non-baggage end & a Ladies just behind the baggage section. (The D204 fortunately only had the first mentioned Unisex toilet). The Ladies' hopper chute came down beside one of the engines & had to be rerouted since the two power packages were different in size & maintenance access. Unfortunately the Rolls engine cover (box or whatever you wish to call it) was not only larger but the design was very rectangular with the result that the under floor air movement was substantially altered. Only when a poor unsuspecting lady in an immaculate white suit flushed the toilet when traveling at speed did the problem manifest itself. She was irate - the flush came up instead of going down - I am sure you get the picture!!! It took several attempts and several cleaning bills paid by CP before a suitable chute design was arrived at.

The debugging was eventually finished & the drive shafts were removed & the car dispatched to Western Canada on the rear of the Trans-Continental. It actually got as far as Thunder Bay before CP officials realized that the passenger service was no longer operated on the Kettle Valley line! It was removed from the train & arrived back in Montreal about a week later where she was to operate as one of about 28 Budd cars out of the Glen Yards, in both commuter & suburban service.

I lived with these two cars for over 2 years before changing my employment when I lost track of them. Then, about 25 years later I joined Via Rail and caught up with them both! #9194 had been converted to RDC-5 #6308 & then to RDC-1 #6140, D204 was still an RDC-2, now #6204, both then had Cummins engines.