Friday, December 18, 2009

DPU Friday

I did a quick trip to the CN mainline next to Wilkes Avenue at noon today, just in the off chance a train was coming. Sure enough, I saw headlights down by CN Waverley. Within a couple of minutes, a fast intermodal blew by.

CN 8865 was the sole unit on the head end. To me, this meant there had to be a DPU unit stuck somewhere in the train. I watched the containers roll by, but no unit, no unit... there's the end of the train... aha! Sister SD70M-2 CN 8862 was pushing on the rear.

CN normally puts the DPU unit(s) somewhere in the train, not at the rear, so this was new to me. CP often has a pusher on the end of its intermodal trains.

Right after they went by at 12:06, I saw BNSF 2001 pushing its train to Fort Rouge, and then a CP southbound freight rolled over the diamond at St. James Junction. Noon is a busy time around here.

2 comments:

Caleb said...

You must be loving the constant train action out west, Steve!

Canadian Train Geek said...

I definitely am, Caleb. It is great to show up at trackside and expect a train to come along within an hour.