Canadian Railroads > Rebuilt West Coast Express 907 in the Fraser Canyon

Newly rebuilt West Coast Express #907 arrived in the Vancouver BC area Saturday evening. I gave chase in the Fraser Canyon and toughed it out during the nearly six hours it was tied down in Boston Bar. The 907 is a former GO F59PH from Ontario that was rebuilt in Waycross, Georgia by Progress Rail. WCE 903 (F59PHI) has also been released from rebuild and is enroute from Georgia too.

1. CN 3903 CN 2946, ex_Citirail CN 2750 and WCE 907 at Ainsle Creek mile 120 CN Ashcroft Sub.
 
2. Crossing Stoyama Creek on the approach to Boston Bar.
 
3. Tied down in Boston Bar waiting for a rested crew.

cp1400
 

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4. After almost six hours in Boston Bar a new crew starts the double over to get train 417 back together and depart.

5. A sunny look at the conductors side at Boston Bar West.
 
6. Departing Boston Bar and crossing the swollen Anderson River.
 
cp1400
 

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7. A better look at the front of this ex-GO F59PH that was extensively rebuilt for WCE service. I was unable to determine the former GO number this unit wore while in Ontario service.
 
8. Along the swollen Fraser River west of Stout.
 
9. Breezing through the Fraser Valley west of Rosedale at Banford Rd.


cp1400

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Some true scenic beauties.
Bob

Interesting stuff, the mix of power, the transit move and also Stoyama Creek making a statement. Are those ex-BCR woodchip gons?

Sat at that tunnel / bridge in #1 for at least 4 hours one day, zero trains, zero pictures, not much for lunch either.
t4p.

+ that last location is pretty cool, great backdrop, lots of room for a long lens to bring up the mountains. Very cool post, lots of details on that rebuild. Very overdue for a visit.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/21/23 17:26 by TCnR.

Excellent series!!

Larry

I was into the tunnel in #1 once, shot a few trains. I honestly don't remember if the scree slope was like that, or if it was treed. Is this open view a function of fires or debris flows?
Fred

cp1400 Wrote:
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> 7. A better look at the front of this ex-GO F59PH
> that was extensively rebuilt for WCE service. I
> was unable to determine the former GO number this
> unit wore while in Ontario service.

GO 533 until 2009, when it was sold to RB Railway Group of Montreal, becoming RBRX 18533. It was initially leased in 2010 to Michigan Department of Transportation for the proposed MiTrain service (Ann Arbor-Detroit) that never got off the ground, but returned to Montreal for a stint with AMT from October 2012 to mid-2013. It was then leased to the Metrolink commuter operation in Los Angeles, first by RB and later by Larry's Truck and Electric, which acquired it in 2016, becoming LTEX 18533. Altogether, it worked on Metrolink from late 2013 to 2020, still wearing the MiTrain livery. Progress Rail acquired it on behalf of West Coast Express in 2021 and carried out the rebuild at its plant in Patterson, Georgia.
 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/03/23 05:49 by railsmith.

Nice pics!!  I like Pic 9!!

For comparison purposes (sorry, don't have one of 533):

1. pulling.

2.  pushing.

3.  at Campbellville, Ontario.

 

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Is it possible to find a psgr locomotive color scheme that respects the lines of the unit? These wild sweeps and diagonals turn a locomotive into a billboard. But maybe that's the idea?

A good example of such a scheme - although on a freight unit - is the "Grinstein Green" of BN's SD70MACs.   https://railpictures.net/photo/799591/

JGFuller Wrote:
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> Is it possible to find a psgr locomotive color
> scheme that respects the lines of the unit? These
> wild sweeps and diagonals turn a locomotive into a
> billboard. But maybe that's the idea?

The intent of the design is to complement the arrangement of colours on the bilevel cars pulled/pushed by these locomotives. The locomotive's colours "flow" into the same on the car it's coupled to.  The design works better on the rounded shapes of the five F59PHI types that are the mainstay power and also the sole MP36PH-3C in the WCE fleet. It doens't work so well on the sharp angles of this F59PH.

Here's how it looks on an F59PHI together with the Bombardier bilevels.

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IMHO ... the yellow stripe isn't needed. It is gratuitous. The Blue upper stripe could have flowed onto the nose of the unit, in a straight line from the blue on the upper deck of the cars, to the front of the cab, then down the nose of the unit, in a "V".

Items like the yellow stripe are trying to make locomotives look like Nike Swooshes. It doesn't work. Just look at any of the EMD Streamliner schemes of the 40s and 50s.

The cars look fine. No swirls of swooshes. Why not do likewise with the locomotives?

JGFuller Wrote:
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> IMHO ... the yellow stripe isn't needed. It is
> gratuitous. The Blue upper stripe could have
> flowed onto the nose of the unit, in a straight
> line from the blue on the upper deck of the cars,
> to the front of the cab, then down the nose of the
> unit, in a "V".
>
> Items like the yellow stripe are trying to make
> locomotives look like Nike Swooshes. It doesn't
> work. Just look at any of the EMD Streamliner
> schemes of the 40s and 50s.
>
> The cars look fine. No swirls of swooshes. Why not
> do likewise with the locomotives?


The yellow on the front helps with grade crossing visability. Kinda important for a public transit agency.

JGFuller Wrote:
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> Is it possible to find a psgr locomotive color
> scheme that respects the lines of the unit? These
> wild sweeps and diagonals turn a locomotive into a
> billboard. But maybe that's the idea?

Just as soon as you purchase your own locomotive, you can paint it however you want.

PHall Wrote:
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> The yellow on the front helps with grade crossing
> visability. Kinda important for a public transit
> agency.

And in this case, yellow is also one of the colours of Greater Vancouver's transit agency, TransLink. It also appears on the nose of the cab cars, for the reason you mention.

The cab car in the first photo from 2023 still wears the purple of WCE's original livery from 1995 when it was run by a provincial agency, four years before TransLink was formed. TransLink's colours are blue and yellow, and the WCE cars and locomotives purchased during its time have been painted blue instead of purple and a different shade of yellow. The second photo from 2010 shows the difference. The car at right is brand new and wears the TransLink livery.

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Equipment leaving the factory at Patterson often shows up on the Virtual Railfan cameras at Cordele and Waycross.

Posted from Android

Nice series of pics.