CN 418 slop freight

[geepster775]

I figured since a Windows 10 update must have broken everyone's Print Screen button, my trusty Win 8 machine might pull through get things rolling across the Ontario hinterlands.



CN 418 with a GP40/SD40 duo passing trackside wildflowers.





Lined into the hole at Foleyet to make a pickup.







Need to grab all the cars on both tracks. The far cut is going to need some front-coupling love.







Power cut away.





HOT RAIL!!! proclaims the 418 rear end crew member on the caboose over the radio.

[geepster775]

I wander through the yard tracks, backing up, until I actually run around my train.





418 caboose in the foreground as a nose nuzzle happens to the 2 car pickup.





Very tight headroom here. Just enough clearance to throw the switch leaves only 17 yeards to the siding signal behnd me (I ran through the signal on first attempt).





Both pickups combined into one, all that is left is the run around and the skeeeedaddle.







A close-up look-see at my hearty steed while the air is pumping.







Alongside the head end of 418 on the siding.





Rats, not enough headroom without needing a signal, which the dispatcher declines to give.





Returning the HOT RAIL!!! favor over the radio to make sure my caboose guys are in the clear.

[geepster775]

Finally get the signal to make the double after the westbound clears.





Examining some new railcars during the air pumping exercise as 418 is all back together.







40 minutes later, 418 finally departs the bustling hamlet of Foleyet.

[geepster775]

We got regular sill covered gons and fishbelly sill covered gons.





Heading into the hole to meet an intermodal.







Intermodal is already there.











A (canadian eh) skeletal 85 foot flat.







Van on the run! (apologies to McCartney)

[anderson martins]

[QUOTE=geepster775;1952028]Finally get the signal to make the double after the westbound clears.




very good !!

[Rick-MONON]

Nice shots!!!!!!!!

[rodrigoville]

Very nice shots!! Excellent!

Regards

Enviado desde mi SM-A720F mediante Tapatalk

[Timbit]

Hi,
I have this route as well, and really like what I have seen so far, I just want to thank Jason and his team for doing a great job, keep up the good work.
Tim

[geepster775]

More shots of new, never-before released rolling stock.


Different style ballast car (rib pattern different), plus, finally, an empty version.





A single-trailer flatcar rebuild from a boxcar. I think CNW and SOU did the same thing.







A new style woodchip car. Comes with empty version as well. These could easily be re-worked as those high sided municipal waste gons.







The blue well cars are 5-unit 48' drawbar-connected husky stacks (full wheels on both ends of every platform) that do not have trailer hitches.





The red well cars are 5-unit 48' drawbar-connected husky stacks (full wheels on both ends) that do have trailer hitches. They also re-worked the previously released red LASER 5-unit articulated (truck-sharing) version with the hitches.





Some of the new early 1990s automobiles. Olds Cutlass, Chevy Impala wagon, Jeep Cherokee, Chevy Blazer, an early Hundai sedan, just to name a few.

[TrainSimulations]

This is great stuff Geepster! Thanks for posting. There are several new freight cars in the mix. You've hit on a number of them.

- The TOFC flat cars were actually purpose-built in 1966 by Vancouver Iron and Engineering Works. Originally, they had two 28ft trailer hitches for pup trailers, but sometime in the 70s or 80s, the hitches were reduced to deal with the longer 45' and up trailers.

- The drawbar connected well cars are unique to CN. The blue ones built in 1992 by Trenton Works in Nova Scotia, and the red ones built by at the CN Transcona shops. The blue ones disappeared off the roster just a few years ago, before they were even 20 years old. Not sure what happened to those cars, but they were used to handle 40' ocean containers once the 48' domestic containers moved to 53' feet long. The red well cars are still in service, but they are so grimy now, they look closer to dark red brown in color.

- The woodchip gondolas were also purpose built by CN Transcona in the early 1980's I believe.

- There are a couple new CN boxcars, besides the one ones you listed above. Both built in the early 1970s by National Steel Car (Hamilton Ontario). One has a 12 ft plug door, the other is an insulated boxcar also with a 12ft plug door and under-slung alcohol heater.

- The 85 ft COFC flat cars were built by Marine Industries Ltd (Sorel Quebec) in 1980. This was the last series of these cars built specifically for CN. I know CP had similar cars, but I think only CN had the 100 ton variant. In the early 1990s, the movement of containers in large numbers, to the west coast of Canada, was still in its infancy. CN had, up to that point, primarily shipped containers to the east coast port of Halifax Nova Scotia (my hometown). I remember seeing entire trains of these black COFC cars with European containers when I first moved to Halifax in the early 1990s by the late 1990s, they were seen less often, being replaced mostly with the new CN drawbar connected well cars, and a massive influx of TTX equipment CN started leasing. Today, the TTX equipment is the norm, and the CN equipment the exception.

Cheers,
Jason

PS. Before the early 1990s, most Canadian freight cars were built in Canada, pre-NAFTA. If you see US built cars in the route, they will have CNA reporting marks. Those with CNIS reporting marks were Canadian-built cars for international service. CP had a similar reporting mark scheme. CPA reporting marks were for US built cars, and CPI for Canadian built cars for international service. I believe this reporting mark system is still in effect today. CN took a large order of boxcars from Trinity in 2003, all with CNA reporting marks.

[geepster775]

Just a heads-up, Jason, there is an issue with one of the new models, the CN 799010. Car only has 300m and 600m LODs, no 2000m. So the car just blanks out at distances beyond 600. You can see the car missing at a distance in the shot of the train in the S-curve at Singe Lake. It is the last car in front the tankers that are in front of the caboose. No rush, if there are future equipment packs planned you can just push a patch then.

[Curt C]

A question on the drawbar-connected well cars: what is the correct connection? A-E-D-C-B or A-B-C-D-E?

[geepster775]

A question on the drawbar-connected well cars: what is the correct connection? A-E-D-C-B or A-B-C-D-E?

It should be A-E-D-C-B, probably a universal thing for car repair issues or derailment forensics, but that's not how they are in the consist. I think they have C and E in each others spots. It's always B on one end and incrementing higher in order, with A on the far end

[geepster775]

By federal law all railcars can only have an A and B end. The B end is where the required handbrake goes.

When you have 3 unit well or spine cars, platform order is A-C-B with handbrake on B platform only.

When you have 5 unit well or spine cars, platform order is A-E-D-C-B with handbrake on A and B platforms on account of greater weight that may require more than one handbrake to hold car.

[Curt C]

By federal law all railcars can only have an A and B end. The B end is where the required handbrake goes.

When you have 3 unit well or spine cars, platform order is A-C-B with handbrake on B platform only.

When you have 5 unit well or spine cars, platform order is A-E-D-C-B with handbrake on A and B platforms on account of greater weight that may require more than one handbrake to hold car.

Yes, I was aware of that (although I did not know it was federal law! , but I know that some of the connected wellcars in the library and elsewhere. are occasionally A,B,C,D & E.