Canadian Railroads > Monday Meet

March 13, 2007, meet at Mackin on the BC Rail Prince George subdivision. I was on the nortbound train and cleared in the siding waiting for the southbound. We waited forty or so minutes, a nice sunny afternoon and as the train approached, clouds moved in and a nasty snow squall descended. I braved the elements for some pictures.
three images of train 570 with BCOL 765 leading approaching the north switch at Mackin.

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CN 5648 middle unit.
BCOL 765 passing BCOL 4641
BCOL 758 trailing unit

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side by side
exhaust of the GM's in run eight.
aspen logs for the OSB plant at Exeter.
This was the last time I saw a BC Rail SD40 leading a train and the last "all GM loco consist" perhaps I ever saw again on BC Rail
thanks for looking.
Doug

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Real nice.
JB

Very nice.  Those appear to be two healthy size trains.  That was just seventeen years ago - where has all that business gone?  Is CN just routing it differently, or has it disappeared from the rails?

Dave

Nice Winter photos.
I probably asked this before, but when did they move the horns from over the cab
to a back on the locomotive bodies?
Regards, Jim Evans
 

Interesting photo, had to warm up my coffee though.
Thanks for the detailed log info. Note the converted flat cars rather than the iconic log cars from the PGE days..
t4p.

At the time of these images, traffic was down and CN re-routed a lot of BC Rail traffic through Prince George instead of moving south through North Vancouver. BC Rail used to run three regular daily freight trains in each direction between North Vancouver and Prince George.  CN reduced it to one train each way daily and since then traffic south of Williams Lake is non-existent.
Another thread regarding whistle / horns on the locos moved back on the long hood.  I can't recall exactly when the horns were moved back, perhaps early 1991. The move back on the long hood had to be approved by the government railroad regulating branch, and horn decibel levels had to meet certain requirements. The horn relocation sure made it easy on the hearing of crew members in the cab.
Doug

DavidP Wrote:
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> Very nice.  Those appear to be two healthy size
> trains.  That was just seventeen years ago -
> where has all that business gone?  Is CN just
> routing it differently, or has it disappeared from
> the rails?
>
> Dave



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/20/24 06:31 by hoggerdoug.

Hi Doug,
So you had an all EMD set going passed you and you had a all  GE set.
So Question is,  which set did you enjoy most working with and why please?
EG heaters, quite in cab ride and most of all Which set broke down the least and got you home most days, on time?
BTW Thanks for posting these as they are all GREAT..
Cheers Brian in New Zealand..

Thanks for posting these Doug.  I hadn't realized that the OSB mill at Exeter was rail served for incoming fibre also.

Hey Brian.  My favourite loco to operate was the GE Dash 9. I found the cab comfortable, low noise levels, cab heaters were good, plus they had a standard control stand rather than the back breaker desk top control stand.  I found the GM SD40 to be noisy and had a constant irritating vibration. All in all, the BC Rail locos were well maintained and reliable.
Doug

RogersPass Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hi Doug,
> So you had an all EMD set going passed you and you
> had a all  GE set.
> So Question is,  which set did you enjoy most
> working with and why please?
> EG heaters, quite in cab ride and most of all
> Which set broke down the least and got you home
> most days, on time?
> BTW Thanks for posting these as they are all
> GREAT..
> Cheers Brian in New Zealand..