Canadian Railroads > F-unit Friday CP Rail 1976

In April 1976 CP Rail 4040, a 1951-built GMD FP7, led an F7B, an RS-10, RS-23 around the diversion for the construction of Autoroute 13 in Lachine, QC.  The drag freight had come from Smiths Falls, ON and in addition to dimensional loads was hauling a pair of ex-Union Pacific Alco C-630 units, sublettered DM&IR, on their way to Quebec Cartier Mining.

Unit 4040 had quite a history of renumberings.  In 1955 it was renumbered into CPR's passenger number series as 1433.  But in 1960 it returned to its 4040 number.  Then in 1982 it was sold to Montreal's commuter agency the STCUM becoming their 1306.  STCUM became AMT, 1306 keeping its number.  Eventually it turned up on two different U.S. tourist railroads.  (Source: www.mountainrailway.com)

The B-unit was built as 4444 in 1952, was renumbered 1918 in 1954 and then returned to 4444 in 1965.  (Source: www.mountainrailway.com)

Ken Goslett



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/27/15 08:45 by kgmontreal.

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What a catch! The CP today is really boring by comparison...

Ray

Unbelievable.

Michael

Just plain Fantastik!

YY

One word, AWESOME.  Must have sounded good too.  Ben

Do any mechanical types know why they stacked two cold weather winterization hatches on those F's? Seems to have been a common practice in the northern climes as on the WYCO, our 3 ex-Alaka F's also had the two stacked. I climbed up and looked, and the box that was welded on top of the other one on all the units had the roof radius on the ends, and one was simply welded on top of the other. Thinking I know how these worked, what would be the advantage of two stacked? Just higher clearance for more snow buildup on the roof? The two stacked was always a mystery to me, and I ran the things on the WYCO out of Laramie, WY. After I left the WYCO, I was there photographing in the snow and cold one day, and they were having trouble with one FP that kept shutting down because it was too cold. I mentioned the cold weather winterization hatches to the new boss and he had never heard of them. I said well gee, these had some of the best around, and informed him to close both hatches on the roof of both FP's. He went up and did just that, and the problem was solved during the course of that days run, and they were able to take off the third unit they had added to the front to take the place of the FP that would not run. So I assume after that, he knew what those hatches were for. Now the FP's run on another tourist railroad in warm Arizona, and they have much less use for those fancy doubled hatches. But again, why were they stacked two high? === === = === JLH

I never realized that the taller winterization hatch was two stacked atop each other.  I assumed it was simply a taller design.  Do you mean to say that there were two hatches each with a separate flap control on top of each other.  If so, how did the airflow work?

KG

Yes, each had their own flap control, they were simply one welded around and on top of the other. As I said, knowing the principle behind their operation, it never made much sense to me, I just know that closing them both kept those FP's running in the winter! === === = === JLH

I always found it unusual that Canadian Pacific never owned a standard F7A or F9A, and instead opted for FP7' and FP9's only. Neighbor CN owned a large number of F7's.

Flexibility in motive power assignment was key on CP in early years. Some of their Geeps also had steam generators so they could pinch hit on passenger trains, and FPs worked on either, while a straight F would have been unable to work on a passenger train.

Darren Boes
Lethbridge, AB
Southern Alberta Railfan