Canadian Railroads > Welcome to my parlor, BCR Dash 8

It took a lot of convincing by GE to get CP to buy their locomotives. First, some UP Dash 8's made a quick visit to Vancouver and made a return trip to from Calgary. CP was impressed enough to ask for a longer demonstration , however the UP locomotives were not equipped with Locotrol (the 1990's version of DPU) and GE arranged for a couple of BCR GE Dash 8's to act as Locotrol Master and Remote.

The first image shows BCR 4617 on a coal empties at Revelstoke BC , January 1997.  They were delivered before computer screens and controls replaced earlier technology, so there was a lot of controls to monitor compared to more modern locomotives.

These locomotives are just now being retired by CN, but in the 1990's, they were the state of the art. They convinced CP to purchase AC4400CW's.

BC Rail, CP and the QNS&L stuck with Locotrol from the 1960's through to GE purchasing Harris Controls and developing today's DPU operation from it.

The third image shows the push button air brake controls used in Locotrol 2 operation.  

I hated those push-button Locotrol crap on UP's early units - loved it when they went to the Harris stuff.

Way to go, Phil!! You’re released from all the PTC stuff now ... I’m happy to still be doing it— all will be well!

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