Canadian Railroads > advance "on this day"

Busy tomorrow, here is the "on this day" offering, a day early. November 27, 2006, three images of the BCOL 4642, our lead unit, at Williams Lake, BC. I had a few moments while "pumping air" to take the images. Winter had arrived, a cold and snowy afternoon. These units were not popular with the BCR crews, I found them to be noisy and drafty, crews Prince George & north complained about irritating vibration and did not want these units leading.  Doug

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That's a lot of red, white and blue.

KG

hoggerdoug Wrote:
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These units were not popular with
> the BCR crews, I found them to be noisy and
> drafty, crews Prince George & north complained
> about irritating vibration and did not want these
> units leading.  Doug

Nice photos Doug, thanks for posting them.

From what I understand the vibration issues were determined to be caused by the frame and fuel tank being designed as an integral structure. There was no way to solve this besides cutting the tank off,and making it a separate piece with no guarantee of the vibrations being solved. The decision was made to have them used as trailing or mid-train units only. This was to the dismay of the mechanical department of BC Rail which had already spent the time and effort to fit an extra door on the LH rear of the cab. Crews refused to have the units leading trains when they first arrived.  The door was to aid the crew if an emergency exit had to be made from the cab.  

Despite all this, the CWL's managed to show up on the point from time to time. I saw them much more frequently used in the trailing/mid-train position.

One crew member I spoke to said the vibe was really only noticeable when the locomotive was lugging hard up grade. I personally have no first hand experience with this myself. I was unaware they were noisy/drafty as well, but I had read somewhere the Dash 8 40CM cabs were drafty too. The two locomotives have a very similar cab design.

A couple of comparison photos of the frame / fuel tank interface of the Dash 9-44CWL and later Dash 9-44CW.  First two are of 4643 (CWL), last is 4654 (CW)

Mike N.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/27/16 13:50 by Helo-Mech.

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kgmontreal Wrote:
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> That's a lot of red, white and blue.
>
> KG

Very red, white & blue for patriotic colours south of the border.