Canadian Railroads > Fix It Friday - An MLW Big Without Its Front End Hardware

Here we have MLW M-636 4737 in need of some work, missing some of its front end. I guess it's leader-only for a while. The photos are from February 20, 1981, taken at the southeast side of the Alyth shops. I heard it was involved in a head-on collision at Gleichen, AB, about 50 miles/80 km east of Calgary on the Brooks Sub. It was violent enough to destroy the end sheet, draft gear, and pilot, or at least make the clean-up crew take off the remains of those things to be workable. I also saw an SD40-2, with slightly bent front handrails, which may have been the offender. Lower deck height gives the advantage to the GM product (the equivalent of lowering your pads in football to win the battle). At least the cab was intact.
At the time, a tenant in the apartment below us worked for CP in the radio department in some capacity. When I told him about seeing this, he told me you could hear the dispatcher (RTCs hadn't been invented then if I recall) trying to find where a particular train had gotten to. As he contacted successive stations, the operator at Gleichen was supposed to have said, "No sign of it. Oh, wait, I see its headlight now. Talk to you later." He was evidently aware of what was about to transpire in front of his bay window. After a period of radio silence, he was back on with, "You better get the big hook down here." I was always somewhat skeptical of the story, because I figured the dispatcher could radio the train directly. If anyone has any knowledge of this event, I'd be happy to hear.
Fred



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/21/25 18:36 by feclark.

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OUCH!
Bob