Canadian Railroads > Class 66 Delivery

Back when locomotives were still being built in London, ON many Class 66 locomotives were exported to the UK and Continental Europe.  As these were completed they were shipped in small batches from London to a seaport to be transported across the Atlantic by heavy lift ship.  Often that port was Halifax, and we would usually get a day or so notice about special moves being made on CN.  The locomotives always travelled on their own wheels, sometimes with North American couplers fitted temporarily, or often with transition flatcars at both ends of the consist if equipped with screw and buffer couplings.  The locomotive's air brakes were hooked up, but because of some problems discovered early on, the crews operating these trains were instructed to only use the independent or dynamic brake of the working locomotive if at all possible.  The class 66 brakes did not always release, resulting in flat spots on brand new wheelsets!

One of these moves, a train 486, arrived in Nova Scotia on April 5, 2010 and I followed it from New Brunswick back to Halifax.  486 was powered by SD60F 5504 and had 8 Class 66s for Euro Cargo Rail, along with the two transition flats.  The two views here were taken at Nappan with the Sifto salt mine in the background, and the west end of the former siding at Salt Springs, mile 53 of the Springhill Sub.  Although the siding had been removed 10-15 years earlier, the 3-head searchlight remained as a control point until recently.  Mile 53 is still the location of a hot box detector, but the Salt Springs station sign is now gone.

GTD

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Nice images, Geoff!

texchief1