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Canadian Railroads > Bombardier TuesdayDate: 04/16/19 12:16 Bombardier Tuesday Author: moonliter Was busy Sunday night so I missed posting my MLW Monday photos, however Bob and Doug's great photos filled the void.
If later MLWs became Bombardiers so why no late MLW Mondays posts became Bombardier Tuesdays? In my mind the engine that encompasses both periods is the LRC. Ever since the late sixties there was talk of new high(er) speed train in this area of Canada. The names "Turbos" & "Tempos" were on everyone's lips except perhaps the CPR's. It was not the railways or the locomotive/car manufactures that came up with the idea of a Light, Rapid & Compfortable train but rather Bill Bailey, an engineered applications manager for Alcan Canada Products back in 1966. Bill Bailey with the help from senior engineer Ian Tomaka convinced Alcan, Dofasco & MLW to form a consortium to pool their talents to develop at least one locomotive and coach for a demonstration purposes. The failure of the Turbo to be ready for 1967 resulted in an opportunity for Alcan as it prompted CN to look for other prospects while the Turbo's teething problems were being dealt with. Late 1967 the Alcan, Dofasco, MLW group made a presentation to CN and the Canadian Ministry of Transport. In early 1968 the group applied for and was granted development money from the department of Industry, Trade and Commerce. On July 23, 1971 the LRC coach rolled out of the shop and was tested mostly over CN lines. The locomotive was completed in 1973, in 1974 both the coach and locomotive were sent to Pueblo, CO for extensive testing. The results were positive so much so that in January 1977, Amtrak signed a two year lease for 2 locomotives and 10 cars with the intent to operate them between Vancouver, BC and Portland, OR. Because the Canadian government was busy with the creation of VIA an order for LRCs did not happen until 1978. Finally on August 25th, 1980, I saw my first LRC train here in Ottawa. Being in Canada one might suspect that it would be a VIA train but it was not, it was an Amtrak set of one locomotive and 5 cars. The trainset was being tested over CN's Alexandria sub before sending the train sets south to Amtrak. Gerry Gaugl Ottawa ON Image 1: Lots of promo material about the LRC in the seventies so I was pleased to receive some 8X10 colour glossies from MLW when I wrote to them. I only saw the demonstration set once and that was from a car driving along the 2 and 20. (that what the road paralleling the CP & CN lines was called back then) The photo I liked best was the aerial shot of the LRC westbound over the CP line. Remember this photo was shot before drones became commonplace. Photo credit; Forster, McGuire & CO., Limited. 1975 Image 2: The Bombardier-MLW Group catalogue from 1975 when the company was still officially MLW-Worthington. Image 3: Alcan News 1977 cover with all the news to date about the LRC. VIA had not place an order for the LRC as of yet so Alcan doctored a black & white photo from the LRC press kit by adding colour and VIA paint to the photo. I imagine this was to inspire VIA to order this modern trains. VIA must have shown some interest in the proposed look of the LRC because in 1980 they painted FP9A 6532 and coaches 5558 & 5590 in a similar silver & yellow scheme.    Date: 04/16/19 12:21 Re: Bombardier Tuesday Author: moonliter Image 4, 5 & 6: Ottawa Station August 25th, 1980 Test trains running over CN's Alexandria sub to and from Ottawa.
Gerry Gaugl Ottawa ON    Date: 04/16/19 12:30 Re: Bombardier Tuesday Author: moonliter Finally, almost a year later, I saw my first VIA LRC here in Ottawa. One August 15th, 1981 VIA had an open-house displaying their new train. Engine 6903 was on the other end on the consist.
Gerry Gaugl Ottawa ON  Date: 04/16/19 12:48 Re: Bombardier Tuesday Author: ghCBNS Nice post Gerry!
Thanks, Gary Posted from Android Date: 04/16/19 16:15 Re: Bombardier Tuesday Author: joemvcnj Where is the Amtrak set of 10 cars rotting away ?
Date: 04/16/19 19:34 Re: Bombardier Tuesday Author: feclark That's a nice, meaty post, and a good historical sweep, too, Gerry. My abiding memories of the LRCs in VIA were that the undercut nose/pilot was almost always in shadow (thus tough to shoot satisfactorily [is that a word? doesn't look right to me]), and that the yellow on the cab face (but not the stripes) somehow faded to an off-pink hue, and looked horrid.
Fred |