The CN TEST train is in town. A little birdie told me that train CN 496 was tying up for the evening at the Fort Rouge yard, after working the Rivers and Reddit subdivisions today. I went over to see if I could see the train. It is visible but badly backlit.
The train consists of CN 4807, CN 15007 (above) and CN 15008 (below).
The little birdie also told me that this train will be traveling down the Letellier subdivision tomorrow.
3 comments:
those are some pretty cool trains
When I was with BC Rail Engineering department I had the good fortune to ride the CN Test train as it was deadheading from Chetwynd south to the Pine Pass area in the late '90s. BC Rail used to hire it to run over thier system twice a year (except they would not risk that nice expensive train on the Tackla sub). The "box car" has a water tank inside that is filled to various amounts so the car weighs either 220,000 or 263,000 pounds total weight and possibly more, to simulate the weight of a regular loaded freight car that would operate on whatever territory they were testing. The box car has instruments to measure how far the track deflects under load. The passenger car that I was in was an old sleeper from the 1950's that had been fitted with instruments and computers to measure and record other track geometry, such as gauge, super-elevation, change of super-elevation in a certain distance, and degree of curvature. All this data was recorded and shown on the video that they shot with a camera pointing out the back. If any of the measurements were outside permissible limits, a "defect" would be noted on the video so the track crews could find it and fix it. I have a picture or two of the interior but they are on prints. I could scan and send if you want. I haven't seen much information on this train or any interior pictures of this on the web in a quick search.
Hello "unknown" I would love to see some interior photos of the train. Thanks for the great info on the boxcar and the passenger car. I had no idea they could change the weight of the boxcar but that makes sense!
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