Canadian Railroads > From way back when

Four images from December 1973 or January 1974. My view from the caboose near mile 809 or at Nig Creek on the BC Rail Fort St. John sub. We had departed our crew change point at Beatton, mile 816.5 and heading south to our home terminal at Chetwynd mile 659.3. Looking at the images it was a bitterly cold morning. Thank goodness for the two oil heaters in the caboose. The images show a typical train of that era, logs, boxcars and tanks. Also we could have pellet sulphur and wood chips. The track at the time was in reasonable shape and we would rock & roll along at 25 mph. I do not recall why the RS3 was mixed in with the loaded log cars although there are two RS18's on the head end and I don't recall any unit restrictions on bridges etc.  When I left Chetwynd for the last time in 1976, the track was in rough shape north of Fort St. John with 90 miles at 10 mph, making for some incredibly mind numbing trips.

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all ancient history and memories.
thanks for looking.
Doug

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Burrrrrr..... You caught the "cold" part of this well. Interesting train for sure.

Certainly January clouds, interesting scene for many reasons.
t4p.

I'm not using the word 'Arctic' though.

I wonder if the RS-3 was providing extra air capacity?

No, the locomotive mid-train would be setup like a boxcar and would NOT be contributing air to the train-line / brake pipe. I can't recall why it was back in the train. Obvious exhaust vapor coming from the stack, it was idling and  along for the ride.
Doug

4489 Wrote:
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> I wonder if the RS-3 was providing extra air
> capacity?

Most likely it was running but isolated so it wouldn't freeze up.

4489 Wrote:
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> I wonder if the RS-3 was providing extra air
> capacity?

No.  As far as the rest of the train was considered, it was just one more boxcar.  If it were set up to provide any air to the train the result would have been disasterous, if, indeed, the crew got the train to even pass its initial air brake inspection and test.

-LD
 

Yes it would be idled / isolated to stay warm. If I recall the those units had a selector switch to leave them in idle at about throttle three as well as a switch for the rad fans, automatic, low, med & high. The unit mid-train is along for the ride, idled and not supplying air to the train line.

Has anyone noticed the TH&B Rly boxcar in between the two BCR box cars. Oddly enough I worked for the TH&B less than a year before this photo was taken.
Doug

PHall Wrote:
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> Most likely it was running but isolated so it
> wouldn't freeze up.