The crew probably knew exactly what they were doing. If I'm not mistaken, a
heavy freight train working east up the canyon out of Golden won't exceed 35
miles per hour at any point from Golden to Field, so working the yard unit
up the hill would have been fair game. I saw a 8100 series RS12 unit worked
exactly the same way on the Princeton Subdivision in 1975. The eastbound
train working from Spences Bridge to Penticton had 3 GP9s and the RS12.
Tonnage for the train was at the absolute maximum for three GP9 units, so
the 8100 was put on line and away we went. The 8100 was the trailing unit
on the consist and I can still hear it howl in Number 8 throttle as we
clawed our way around the Belfort Loops about 12 MPH. I don't think we set
any fires, though, because that thing was working so hard that the carbon
cinders it blew from the exhaust stack are still coming down. The
Mechanical Supervisor at Penticton was pretty choked when he climbed onto
the unit just after arrival in Penticton. You could smell the thing 3 car
lengths away. But, it worked its assignment at Penticton afterwards with no
problems.
Joe Smuin
1. - "Joey, the secret to telling a good railway story is to always try to
stick just as close to the facts as possible." --- (the late) Cliff
Inkster; CPR Engineman, raconteur and philosopher.
2. - The secret to contacting Joe by email is to be sure to insert "Joe" or
"Smuin" into the main text portion of any message you send to him, and thus
your message should percolate through his spam filters.
----- Original Message -----
From: "John" <sutherail@xxxxxxxx>
To: <cpsig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, December 29, 2009 9:12 AM
Subject: [cpsig] Re: GP7u/9u help
And sometimes the train crew doesn't do their job correctly. Many years back I watched an eastbound freight lift a 1500 at Golden, BC, and place it between the pair of SD9043s (alignment control coupler issue?). It was definitely on line, starting several small brush fires at Glenogle and more than likely elsewhere out of sight of the road. The sight really accentuated how much longer the 9100s are. I can't imagine how hard it must have been on the electrical systems of the GP.
John
--- In cpsig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Stephen" <sjlowens@...> wrote:
I can't tell you if it was "alive" or "dead." It is an engine I got excited over because I had modeled it about 10 years before from a photo and had never seen it before. It was sitting in the lashup when I spotted it, and the train moved out before I could get close. I also briefly encountered it after a couple of miles of chasing, but only at a crossing, and I was too busy trying to get what turned out to be a poor picture to get any additional impressions. FWIW, it was not the last engine in the lashup.
Steve Lowens
--- In cpsig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Paul Smith <pbsmith@> wrote:
>
> Steve,
>
> Okay, here is a few questions for you. I'm assuming that you saw 1588
> with a bunch of road units? Sometimes you may see a unit in a road
> consist that is isolated (on idle, not pulling), or dead (not running).
> It may have been en route dead or isolated to Alyth Shop in Calgary for
> maintenance or repairs.
>
> Paul Smith
> Winnipeg
>
> Stephen wrote:
> >
> >
> > It's only a single example, but I saw #1588 as part of a lashup
> > pulling a sizeable grain/mixed freight train heading south out of
> > Edmonton in June, 2008.
> >
> > Steve Lowens
> >
> >
>
>
>
> >
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