SPOTTINGS
Noted at various CN locations…….April 19th CSX 7858 at Thornton, April 20th CN Scale Test Cars 052280 and 52274, April 21st Union Pacific 3865 on a westbound at Thornton, Illinois Central 6017 on an eastbound at Thornton, April 24 Scale test cars CN 52279 and CP 420928 at Neptune Terminals in North Vancouver, April 27th BNSF 328 at Thornton, April 29th Union Pacific C40-8 9139 at West Vancouver, April 30th BNSF yellow / black Dash 9 at Thornton, May 6th CSX 7904 and UP 9139 at Thornton, May 17th Illinois Central 6000 at Thornton, May 20th Union Pacific SD70m 4051 at Thornton, May 26th Wisconsin Central 2001 at BCR North Vancouver and Union Pacific 7205 at Thornton (R.D.C.)
DMIR (Detroit, Minnesota & Iron Range) #406 was seen westbound at Hampton on April 26 in fresh CN paint….train 41751 of May 9th departed Swan Landing with a “pure” Wisconsin Central motive power consist of WC 6920 / WC 6906. (J.M.)
Some former 88 foot conventional container cars are being recycled into “new” railway wheel cars, three have been seen in the 48981—48999 range. (J.M.)
GREAT RACE
The following was reported….”I received a phone call from my brother at 2330CMT that I had better "call all my rail buddies" and that something fairly rare was happening. My brother was the engineer on Q112 that had just crossed over on to the CP at Mission and was gaining on the tail-end of another train. That train was also CN, M310 the Thornton to Edmonton manifest. Well, the interesting part of the story was that 112 was led by CN 2222 and 310 was led by CN 2221. Anyway, he said the head-ends passed around Agassiz and M310 got the red at Ruby Creek!” Side by side at track speed—CN 2221 and 2222—that won’t happen often! (J.M.)
LONG TRAIN
Train 112 of May 31 was 11,994' with 11,995 tons with 320 containers. (includes about 2600' / 72 containers from FSD on head end, rest from CN). The back end 6,013' 89 wells is absolutely solid with 188 cans, the front half less spectacular due to car lengths and load limits. Even the dock could not fill them with 40's due to weight limits. (J.M.)
NEW TRANSLOAD FACILITY FOR PRINCE GEORGE
CN will build a new trans-load facility for Intermodal service with capacity for 500,000 TEU’s (20 foot container equivalents) as part of serving the new Prince Rupert port. (BL)
SPOTTINGS
The head-mid-tail DPU train was still running, with 8555, 8602 and 8703, westward ex KC Jct. at 1946 Sunday evening as 829-928, and presently forecast ex Kamloops around 0810/30th May. The intent of the testing was first to see if there was much of any advantage to that configuration, second to identify the problems likely to occur en route, and third (I believe) to just do something different.
“NEW” F UNITS COMPLETED
Canadian Pacific has received the completed pair of “new” FP9A units for use on the Royal Canadian Pacific. CP 4106 / 4107 are both former CN / VIA units, and have been numbered at the end of CPR’s long time cab unit numbers. The units were totally rebuilt by National Railway Equipment, equipped with HEP units, and painted CPR’s classic paint scheme with “script” lettering. (D.E.)
CP 5500 MOVED TO REVELSTOKE RAILWAY MUSEUM
CP SD40 5500 was moved to Revelstoke, BC, arriving on May 13th. 2007. It is still painted in faded CP Rail action red (no multi-mark), but the museum is expected to repaint her into the "as delivered" CPR tuscan red and grey "script" livery. In the meantime, the SD40 will be stored inside the museum building beside 5468 and car #4.
NEW GEN SET LOCOMOTIVE BEING TESTED
CP has begun testing a new National Railway Equipment two-engine "N-ViroMotive" switcher called a 2GS-14B, which is an Ultra-Low Emission "GenSet" locomotive. Painted in the very flashy blue, gold and white NRE paint scheme, the unit has also tested on some US railroads including the Providence & Worchester. Norfolk Southern is buying three 3GS-21B's, which are similar to the switcher testing on CP but with 2100-horsepower and with three (not two) engines. NREX 2007 is model 2GS-14B which is a B+B 1400plus-horsepower "GenSet" switcher built from a former GP7 or GP9 and helps reduce fuel consumption about 64% compared with a GP40-2 locomotive.
The N-ViroMotive switcher is designed to reduce certain air emissions about 80%, improve tractive effort between 50 and 65%, and cut fuel usage between 35 and 50% compared with a conventional switcher. The GenSet locomotive also features microprocessor-based electronic controls and modularized mechanical platforms to decrease maintenance requirements.
STATION ARTIFACTS UPDATED
The artifacts cases at the Vancouver Rocky Mountaineer Station were refreshed and updated for the 2007 operating season, with Donna Fourchalk leading the project.
Donna notes: Thank you to Paul and Mary Roy once again for sharing some of their wonderful collection of train cutlery and dishes and Chris Forget for his collection of G scale coaches and Mikado engine. Paul also put his coach (Paul D Roy) into the display. Thanks also to West Coast Railway Heritage Park for some photo's that were also used. The manager at Rocky Mountaineer Station phoned to say how pleased they were with the displays (as they have been for the past three years). (D.F.)
SUMMER TRAIN SPECTACULAR JULY 14
You are invited..
For a rare opportunity, Rocky Mountaineer Vacations will be opening its doors to the public. Get an inside look at our award winning Gold Leaf car, have your picture taken onboard the Rocky Mountaineer train and soak in the festivities at our Summer Train Spectacular event. Don't forget to bring the family along!
When: Saturday, 14 July 2007, from 12-4 pm
Where: Rocky Mountaineer Vancouver Station
1755 Cottrell Street (@ Terminal Avenue)
There’ll be free motorcoach transfers between Pacific Central Station and the Rocky Mountaineer Station for anyone coming by SkyTrain
Join us for an afternoon of entertainment, miniature train rides (thanks to West Coast Mini Rail), fun activities and food. There are even trips to be won! For more information, visit www.rockymountaineer.com.
Whistler Mountaineer’s BC resident's special of $149 round trip remains available as we go to press—but the latest note says “quantities are limited”.
GENERAL NEWS
SUPERLINERS ON AMTRAK FOR A WHILE
The use of SuperLiner equipment on Amtrak Cascades trains 510 / 517 (Seattle—Vancouver, BC) will apparently last a while—latest is for as much as a year. (J.M.)
SRY OPERATES COMMUTER TRIAL ON E & N
Southern Railway Vancouver Island operated a one way “commuter train” trial on the E & N on Wednesday, May 30. The two car VIA consist deadheaded to Langford for an 0700 departure into Victoria. The $10 fare included coffee and a transit pass for the return trip in the evening. Over 120 people rode the test trip, which took 22 minutes with a stop at Fort Victoria (Palmer).
NEW RADIO WEBSITE
Welcome to the Vancouver, BC and area stream. Its live; VHF Railway Radio over the internet. Go to: http://www.railroadradio.net/content/view/22/130/
It sounds like the rail traffic is in the valley so those of you with scanners may or may not get this on a radio in the west side of Vancouver.
- Railway Radio Vancouver .asx
- The receiver is located 32km's (20 miles) SE of Vancouver in Langley.
- The railroads heard are BC Rail "Port Sub", CN "Yale Sub", CP "Cascade Sub", BNSF "North Branch--Bellingham Sub " and BNSF New Westminster Sub., Southern Rail or "SRY" from New Westminster to the valley town of Chilliwack.
You will hear Amtrak and BNSF trains calling the Port Sub RTC for clearances at Colebrook as this is where the BNSF crosses the Port Sub. CN and CP run coal and stack trains from the container port at Roberts Bank so they must call for clearances when leaving going East and when entering from the east going west.
For first time listener's to a Canadian stream you will hear the term RTC which is the abbreviation for rail traffic controller (Dispatcher) or DS as you hear in the USA.
Coverage from the CDN/USA border down as far as South Bellingham. Weather depending you will hear at times as far as Mt Vernon. (N.D.)
ON THE LIGHTER SIDE
A few weeks ago a SUV collided with a truck carrying loaded port-a-potties needing to be purged. The truck tipped over and two of the “johns” fell off the overpass onto CSX tracks, where along came an unsuspecting freight and kablam—splash! Due to crew complaints, the locomotives involved were withdrawn from service!
(thanks to Ryan Cruickshank)
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