Stopped by CN yard

60103

Pooh Bah
There was a cartoon when the map paint scheme first came out. Two cleaners working on the side of the loco and one says " Now look what you've done".
When I got my digital camera, I put in the supplied batteries and by the time I did all the setups and tested a few bits, I went to take a picture and the batteries failed! I scrounged a few duracells and went out the next day to buy the rechargeables.
 

Goattee

New Member
The windsock is part of the HASMAT reaction program.
The first time they tested it at Memphis shop, we were to report to spot “A”. Here a roll call is made. The person in charge gave us that old speech about “You did pretty good B UT you need to do better.” Well all was going very well until someone noticed the crisp new windsock was aimed directly at us. At that point the faces got red and all of a sudden they were late for a meeting. True story.
 

Lighthorseman

Active Member
Mmmmmm...Trains.

Hey, TC, I'm no diesel expert either, but number 5533 is an SD 60. There were 3 locomotive types that had the "Draper Taper" carbodies...SD 50s, SD 60s, and GE Dash 8s. Have a look on the angled part of the roof, between the top of the cab, and the grilles at the rear. The SD 60s were flat. The SD 50s had vertical lines along this roof section, and I identify the GE Dash 8s by the fact that their engine numbers are in the 2400 series.

I will dig up an aborted, furtive attempt at a GMD-1 kitbash I tried years ago and post it, if you like.
 

TrainClown

Member
MagicMan: Not a soul around when I was there. Except for the guys on the trains. I just walked in and no one said BOO. Its different at the CP yard. There they don't like it at all.

Lighthourseman: Sure! I would like to see what you got there. Interesting detail you shared with us. I saw 5533 go past the house today pullin' a coal drag. The CN container yard is in Moose Jaw (so I hear). CP has it's container yard here in Regina.

Here is the west end of the CP yard.
 

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TrainClown

Member
They did have a strange looking MOW thing sitting there. Looks like a snow plow.............but.
 

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TrainClown

Member
If there gonna' have all those containers, they need something to move them around. They got a BIG machine to do this. This was the best pic I could get of it.

Hope you liked these pix.

TrainClown :wave:
 

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Glen Haasdyk

Active Member
They did have a strange looking MOW thing sitting there. Looks like a snow plow.............but.

TC,
That's a spreader. It's like a plow but wil often be run behind the snowplow. The two rusty blades that you see on the sides can be pushed out to enlarge the plowing area (hence the name spreader)
 

mykroft

New Member
Actually, there were 4 Draper Taper's on CN. The Dash 8-40CM's, the SD50F's, the SD0F's and the HR616's. The Bombardier HR616's were the first Draper Taper units, and are often refered to as just 'Draper Tapers'. These were also the last Alco-powered units ever made for freight service, in the early 80's. CP of course had the very similar SD40-2F Red Barns.
 

Lighthorseman

Active Member
Aha!

See? You learn something new every day! Thanks for the info, Mykroft. :thumb: Were the HR616s mainly used in the east? I've never seen one out west.
 

mykroft

New Member
I'm not sure, but I think so, All of the scrapped units were scrapped in Quebec or Mocton, which argues for an eastern assignment.

All the HR616's were retired between 1995 and 1998, at the same time as the M636's and C630M's they were intended to replace.
 

siderod

Member
i hate to nitpick, but in all truth, those are GMD1u's...rebuilt in 1988-1990. Remotored, rewired, rebuilt almost completely and demoted so to speak, from A1A-A1A trucked to a B-B configuration...we got sister-unit 1423 runnin the WHRC shortline near my place.

All in all, great pics!

What kinda camera?

EDIT: GMD1 origionally built in 1950's...'55-'60...as old as the ALCo RS23's i see everyday!
 

mykroft

New Member
While those are indeed GMD1u's, not all GMD1's were A-1-A, they were built both as A-1-A and B-B units, depending on intended service. The 1900 Series were built with B-B's, and some of these were rebuilt into 14xx GMD1u's
 

siderod

Member
mykroft said:
While those are indeed GMD1u's, not all GMD1's were A-1-A, they were built both as A-1-A and B-B units, depending on intended service. The 1900 Series were built with B-B's.

Thats not what the Trackside guide for 2004 says, nor is that how the crew that brought the GMD1u from Halifax say that. i asked about the 'u' and they gave me the story...clearly saying most GMD1's and all the 1400 was A1A

They and i might be wrong though
 

mykroft

New Member
GMD1u's #1400-1402 were rebuilt from 1900 series B-B GMD1's #'s 1913,1916 & 1917. These were the first GMD1u's rebuilt as far as I can tell, in 1989.

There were only 18 B-B GMD1's originally built. All B-B with Steam generators.

the next 21 units (1403-1423) were from 1000 series GMD1's, and acquired B-B trucks from retired GP9's. These were also built in 1989.

The last 21 units (1424-1444) were from 1600 series GMD1's, with fuel tanks & trucks from 1100 series GMD1m's (which had been rebuilt in the mid-late 80's with B-B trucks, from 1000 series GMD1's). These were built in 1998-2000. 1600 series were the lightweight GMD1's, with small fuel tanks.
 

TrainClown

Member
Interesting myKroft. Where abouts did all this loco bashing take place? To look at the engines around here in the GMD1 category, They look older than 6 or so years. For some reason 1432 isn't around at all right now and 1439 is carrying the loads for now. The engineer waved to me today as I was working in the back yard. He was doing his usual thing, hauling 3 or 4 cars of different types back to the CN yard for sorting out I gues. For some reason he was blowing his horn more than usual. Maybe he had a hazardous load.

Siderod: I just got me a new Canon PowerShot A75. I love my new toy. :D More pix to come for sure.

TrainClown :)
 

mykroft

New Member
I'm not sure where the rebuilds happened. As to how old they look, well, I'm not sure if they got entirely new paint when the rebuild happened.

I'm working from info on the CNLines SIG webpage, which has solid data about which locomotives were rebuilt and when, but not where.
 
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