Eastern Railroad Discussion > CN 8908 & Mid-Train DPU CN 8958 West, Sunday, January 9, 2022.

CN 8908 & Mid-Train DPU CN 8958 West, Sunday, January 9, 2022.

CN across Michigan is not known to run a lot of bare-table trains. I haven't seen one of these in a long time. Kind of curious what prompted this.

88 in front half, with 42 in the second half.


Ron

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Interesting. One locomotive could have easily handled that entire train.

SantaFeRuss

Okay who said you  can't use a DPU on a baretable.

Proud Foamer
OAKLEY, CA

Nobody has said you can't do that. But, then again, why do that?

Just about the time I retired, 2009, we were getting loaded coal trains with rear DPU's. I only caught a few of them. The CN was kind of the last major RR that got into using Distributed Power. Except one location on the GTW, Valparaiso, Indiana, the GTW really didn't need them across Michigan.

I remember that when we started getting coal trains with rear DPU, the GTW told the other Railroad, mostly BNSF, that they didn't need them, and didn't want them. The BNSF said fine, but you're going to have to pay for the cost of an extra crew or two to take them off, and move them to the head-end.

So, it was OK.....let them come through. And they were almost always taken off the train at Battle Creek, before the train went east.  Even that little chore added an hour or so, for the crew, and if by then they were on overtime, gee it could take longer.

I can see different reasons for Mid-Train DPU, for example the train stops en route to make a pick-up, and that might be another whole train, where they might just couple up the second train to the rear of the first, and away it goes. But, with the Mid-Train DPU facing backwards, that probably wasn't the case here.

But in the above video, one locomotive could have handled that train, and I'm going to have to ask a few Friends that are still working, when they get to Chicago and have to yard that train, that locomotive in the middle will probably add a couple hours time to that event.

Ron

My guess is that with colder weather one locomotive couldn't supply enough trainline air to prevent leakage from applying the air brakes. Putting the second locomotive mid-train would improve brake release and appliccation.