CN 1501, Finally

RDC CN 1501

Like other railways, CN inspects its track and roadbed regularly. It does this with a combination of manual and automatic methods, such as visual inspection by foremen and inspection vehicles like Sperry rail vehicles and CN's TEST train. One vehicle I was aware of, but had never seen, was CN 1501, an RDC (Rail Diesel Car) converted to a Self-Propelled Track Geometry Car.

CN 1501 was originally a CN RDC-1, labelled D-108, built in 1958 for passenger service. As an RDC-1 it had coach seats only. All RDCs, except for the RDC-5/9, have two diesel engines driving the wheels, so they are self-propelled and have operator controls at each end.

D-108 was renumbered to CN 6108 in March 1969, then became VIA 6108 in March 1978. I'm not sure when CN acquired it from VIA but it was rebuilt into a rail test vehicle and was in service as CN 15016 in 2010. I heard it was fairly quickly renumbered to CN 1501 when it was realized that CN's dispatching software only accepted four digits for a locomotive number.

Anyway, back on July 27 2016, I heard on RailsMBSK that 1501 was in Symington yard, ready to go east on the Sprague subdivision. Since I only live about 15 minutes away from Symington, and happened to have some time, I decided to run over and see if I could grab 1501 before it got away. It's been in Winnipeg before but I was always either out of town or unable to go see it.

When I was approaching the Sprague sub, I saw a freight train coming into Symington off the Sprague. I made a guess that 1501 had already left, so I headed east on the Trans-Canada Highway.

The highway parallels the Sprague sub for at least 25km so it's a good area to chase. I was hoping to overtake the RDC before Ste. Anne where the railway diverges from the highway.

As I approached the first siding, Lorette, I saw headlights from a westbound train. I pulled over to photograph CN 2874 and 2852 running elephant-style with a mixed manifest.

CN 2874 and 2852 near Winnipeg

After grabbing the head end shot, I hit the road again. As I approached Lorette, I saw this:

CN 1501 in the Lorette siding

Score!

CN 1501 was in the siding, crawling toward the west siding switch. I snapped a few photos as it passed.

RDC CN 1501

There was a hi-rail pickup truck pulled over on the highway shoulder, and the CN foreman gave me a wave as I walked past - thanks!

They pulled through the signals and out onto the mainline, blowing the horn for the Station Road crossing as they went.

Red-nosed CN 1501

CN 1501 tested more than 25,000 miles of track in 2013. It gets around! If you search online for photos of 1501, you'll see it everywhere on CN's system.

CN 1501, and partner rail car CN 15008 (not self propelled), both collect rail profile data at one foot intervals. The kind of data they collect is the gauge of the track (distance between the parallel rails), superelevation, curvature, alignment, surface, and wear data. Here's an example, taken from a CN presentation at a 2014 Heavy Haul Seminar (PDF).

Example rail profile data, from CN

The raw data is processed through Holland's Rangecam software to produce various reports. This can result in immediate slow orders being issued to CN for any serious defects, and reports are used in planning maintenance for coming weeks and months.

Rail defect cars are known for leaving a trail of slow orders behind them! It's good, because they are finding issues that can be corrected before a serious accident occurs.

After CN 1501 was on the main line, the RTC lined the switch for the main and 1501 took off. I took a little video with my phone. The engineer gave me a nice toot on the horn as they passed!


I chased them down to the other end of the Lorette siding and grabbed this iPhone shot of them passing the work crew at the east end of the siding.

CN 1501 approaching the signals at Lorette's east end

So, finally, I caught CN 1501. One more off my list!

CN 1501 departing

See also:

• CN TEST train blog posts
• CP TEC train blog posts
• Introduction to RDCs
• CN Safety Technology Toolkit (PDF)

RDCs On the Chopping Block

Ex VIA 6133 in Moncton, June 2013 - saved from the scrapper!

This past week saw many of the RDCs (Rail Diesel Cars) at the former IRSI (Industrial Rail Services) facility in Moncton go on the chopping block... literally.

Since IRSI went into receivership in early 2012, the province and other creditors have been working to recover whatever they can.

IRSI had a large shop in the former diesel maintenance facility at Gordon Yard in Moncton, as well as a motley collection of former VIA RDCs, passenger cars, and a few diesel locomotives, as well as tools and other materials for the car repair work they were doing.

6221, 6114, 6130 and more at IRSI, June 2013

At the beginning of January 2016, the word went out that the shop and land had been sold, and IRSI's collection of RDCs was to be scrapped. Jason Shron, president of Rapido Trains and a well-known passenger train advocate, flew out to Moncton with locomotive mechanic/restorer Chris Fox to see if any could be saved. When they arrived on January 14th, the scrapping was already underway.

You can see a short video of the scrapping here (warning: not for the faint of heart railfan).

Jason and Chris examined the RDCs with locals Luc Doiron and Wendell Lemon, experienced railroaders both, and after negotiations, VIA 6133 was saved from the scrapper.

Yay!

---

Now Rapido is asking for funding assistance to transport 6133 to Toronto and begin restoration. They estimate it will take a total of about $45,000 to move it and do an initial restoration. You can donate via PayPal by following the link at the bottom of the story of saving VIA 6133.

Ex CP 9250 at Delson, Quebec, July 2005

Railfans are notorious for saying that such-and-such unit "should be saved", and that "someone" should preserve unit X. It's easy to make those statements while sitting at home. People like Jason and the all-too-few museum volunteers and supporters around the country do the actual work of preserving our railway history.

I've put my money where my mouth is and made a donation. I'm also putting a link in my sidebar and I'll be doing my best to encourage others.

Will you help out?

Donate! (see bottom of his page)

News On IRSI

The CBC is reporting that a deal has been struck to get some VIA railcars finished at the former IRSI facility in Moncton, New Brunswick.

14 railcars will be refurbished over the next 19 months. These 14 include 4 RDCs and 10 LRC cars. The work will be overseen by CAD Railway Industries, who certainly have the expertise required, given that they have been refurbishing VIA's locomotives.

IRSI will remain in receivership and the province will not recover its $20.5 million investment in the company and the VIA Rail project since it began in May 2009.

Wendell Lemon noted that there are 12 LRC cars (3303, 3310, 3320, 3321, 3326, 3327, 3330, 3332, 3345, 3362, 3452 and 3461) and 6 RDCs (6105, 6208, 6217, 6219, 6250 and 6251) in the shop at the moment. Presumably two of the LRC cars and two of the RDCs can be moved to another facility (CAD's?) to be completed. Thanks toWendell for this detailed information.

The whole thing is a darn shame for IRSI, for VIA Rail, for the province and especially for the workers. Hopefully some of them can get some work for the next year and a half.

Great Old Maritime Railway Slides and Photographs

Jon Archibald has posted a great deal of cool old Maritime train photographs to his Flickr stream. There are VIA Rail photos from the 1990s that Jon took himself, as well as a bunch of old slides from John McIntosh and others.

Here are a few of my favourites. First, disused VIA Rail RDCs sitting at the Halifax station. This photo is great not only for the RDCs but also for the view of the old train shed.


Here's a rail removal train in Newfoundland, parked for the weekend. Jon caught the very end of the Newfoundland Railway.


Here's CN train #6 ready to leave Sydney, Nova Scotia, in 1958, a slide by John McIntosh.


Finally, here's a 1953 shot of a Newfoundland Railway steam engine. There are a lot of Newfoundland Railway photos and slides in this stream.


Please go look at all of Jon's Flickr stream.

RDCs Everywhere

Lots of RDC news these days. For example, VIA Rail posted a short article about their refurbished RDC going for a test drive.

This RDC is a baggage car, VIA 6251. It has a new, lower-emissions engine as well as numerous other improvements. It has been refurbished at Moncton's Industrial Rail (IRSI) facility.

An RDC was spotted on the tail end of VIA 2, the eastbound Canadian. This was IRSI's 6202, loaned to VIA to work on the Sudbury-White River run. I'm guessing it was tacked on to the end of the Canadian because there were already two Rocky Mountaineer cars on the head end between the engines.


Of course, I already mentioned the RDCs that passed through Winnipeg on their way east. There are rumours that one of them is stopping at Sudbury to work the run to White River.

RDCs in Town

VIA 6135 and 6148 in Winnipeg. Photo by Jeff Keddy

For years, VIA Rail has provided passenger service on Vancouver Island. In recent years that was provided by RDCs (Rail Diesel Cars), but that came to an end early this year when track conditions forced VIA to suspend service and replace the RDCs with buses. The bus service was terminated on August 7 and VIA is, at least temporarily, out of the passenger business on Vancouver Island. There is an travel advisory by VIA about this.

The two RDCs (VIA 6135 and 6148) providing that service were stored in Nanaimo on the Island since May. VIA decided to move them off the island and on Saturday, November 5 they were put on a barge and shipped to the mainland. In the fine tradition of the excellent Oil-Electric blog, I'll talk about the barge too. ;)  The barge in question was the MV Carrier Princess operated by Seaspan Ferries. The Carrier Princess was launched in 1973, is 380 feet long, and has a capacity of 38 truck trailers and 22 rail cars. Oddly, she is powered by four EMD 645 engines, the same family of engine in such diesel-electric locomotives as the GP38, GP40, F40 and so on.  Here's a little video I found of the Carrier Princess.

There's a nice Flickr photo showing her deck with the embedded rails. More information on MV Carrier Princess.

Hey, did you know you can track her position? This link shows her position and you can see her route very well.

Anyway, the RDCs reached the mainland and were put on the Canadian for shipment east. They were spliced between the two F40PH-2 engines, because they do not have HEP connections and therefore could not be placed in the regular consist, much like the Rocky Mountaineer cars are carried. VIA 6434 was leading, followed by 6135 and 6148, with VIA 6412 providing HEP power after.

VIA 2 was almost 2 hours late coming into Winnipeg on Sunday, November 19. Jeff Keddy braved the bitter night cold to shoot them at the depot in downtown Winnipeg. Here's VIA 6135.


This is VIA 6148:


The depot is not very accessible for photographs and Jeff did a good job getting these photos. Thanks for sharing!

The building looming in the background is the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, under construction. When complete it will be a valuable addition to Winnipeg's downtown.

Tom Jankowski shot VIA 2 with the RDCs in Thornhill in the Greater Toronto Area. Nice job!

CN 1501 in Winnipeg

Sharp-eyed Jeff Keddy caught CN 1501 in Winnipeg again, this past Saturday October 30.

You might remember that Jeff saw it here in February 2010.

IRSI's RDCs

There was a recent announcement that VIA is contracting with IRSI to purchase six refurbished RDCs for use on the existing Sudbury-White River run in Ontario and the Vancouver Island run. I'm curious what will happen to the RDCs that are already on the run. One can hope they will be deployed to new services...

A little birdie sent me some photos of the RDCs outside the IRSI shops in Moncton, taken this March.


In the next photo, note the coach 5581 sandwiched between RDCs 6200 and 6122.

Passenger Trains at McGivney

"Back in the day", McGivney, NB was a happening place. It was where the CN Miramichi subdivision (McGivney - Newcastle) and the CN Nashwaak subdivision (McGivney - Fredericton) met the CN Napadogan subdivision (Moncton - Edmundston). Freight and passenger trains rolled through on the Napadogan sub, while local freights went north and south on the other two subdivisions. In time, the Miramichi and Nashwaak subdivisions were abandoned, and all that remains is the Napadogan subdivision with its occasional freight trains.

Danny McCracken noted that the book "History of Boiestown" says the last passenger train between Newcastle and Fredericton returned on January 19, 1961 with CN RDC-3 D354.

Here are a few shots of passenger trains that called on McGivney.

At one time the Napadogan subdivision hosted RDC service. On August 28, 1976 David Morris shot train 619 at McGivney. For whatever reason, this particular train had conventional power on the head end with an RDC on the tail end.

CN 3617 (RS-18)
CN 15424 (steam generator)
CN 5382 (coach)
CN 6200 (RDC-2)
I find it strange that there was a steam generator car on the train in August!

For about six months, VIA ran the Ocean over the Napadogan subdivision due to a landslide in Quebec. David caught train 14 at McGivney on February 12, 1977.

6536 (FP9A)
6632 (F9B)
6534 (FP9A)
9626 (baggage)
9483 (baggage-dormitory)
5434 (coach)
5583 (coach)
5644 (coach)
757 (cafe-lounge)
5705 (Dayniter)
1343 (diner)
SOIREE
1178 (sleeper GREENBRIER)
1166 (sleeper GREENING)

Since the cessation of passenger service on the Napadogan, the only passenger trains that can be seen at McGivney are the occasional Ocean detours. David and I shot the westbound Ocean, VIA 15, on July 10, 2005.


I shot the eastbound Ocean at the west end of McGivney siding on September 14, 2008.

This may be one of my last photos of VIA 6400, given its involvement in the recent derailment.

Who knows? Maybe groups like Transport Action can get the various levels of government to increase passenger rail service in New Brunswick, and McGivney could get regular passenger service again. Hope springs eternal!

EDIT: Added Danny's note.

A CN 1501 Chase

Track inspection car CN 1501 was in Winnipeg last week. You may remember that it visited the Maritimes last April. It laid over at the Fort Rouge yard on February 25, and headed west in the morning of February 26. Jeff Keddy gave chase and took some great photos.

Jeff shot it first near Fort Rouge yard. Here you can see the CN Subway sign to the right, and the VIA maintenance center in the background to the right.


Next he shot it at St. James Junction, going over the CN-CP diamond.


Jeff said that 1501 was only going 30 MPH so it was possible to keep up with it and get some shots on the way to Portage la Prairie. They stopped just west of Diamond to drop off a couple of employees.


Here's a closeup of the end of the car, showing the CN Engineering logo.


CN 1501 was running as train #489. Here it is just west of Elie, Manitoba.


Next, the elevator at Oakville, MB.


It stopped again in Portage la Prairie at the station to make a pickup.


Thanks to Jeff for sharing such great shots!

Gaspe Trains in 1983

David Morris shot a few trains along the Gaspe peninsula back in 1983. Here are three of his photos.

The first shows a CN RS-18 leading train 118 at Carleton, Quebec on March 6, 1983.

The train had this consist:
CN 3663 (RS-18)
VIA 15422 (steam generator car)
VIA 9622 (baggage)
VIA 5718 (Dayniter)
VIA 3236 (coach with snack bar)
VIA 5490 (coach)

The second photo shows VIA train 622 at the Cascapedia station on May 28, 1983.

The train had two RDCs, VIA 6218 (RDC-2) and VIA 6118 (RDC-1). Cascapedia was a flag stop at this point in time.

At the time, trains 118/119 and 621/622 were Matapedia-Gaspe trains, while the Chaleur (16/17) ran between Montreal and Gaspe.

The final photo shows an extra train on the bridge at Cascapedia, Quebec on May 29, 1983. This would not be far from the previous photo.

Note the white flags on the engine (signifying an extra), and the two-level bridge. Vehicles used to drive under the trains on this bridge. When I visited Cascapedia there was another, newer bridge for vehicles.

This train had the following consist:
VIA 6530 (GMD FP9A)
VIA 9477 (baggage-dormitory)
VIA 9628 (baggage)
VIA 5584 (coach)
VIA 5653 (coach)
VIA 3034 (cafe-lounge)

I believe this was the former train 119, returning to Matapedia. Trains 118/119 do not show in the May 29, 1983 VIA timetable so I think David must have shot the last train 118 on the Gaspe.

RDCs at IRSI

IRSI in Moncton, spring 2009

Industrial Rail Services Inc. (IRSI) in Moncton, NB has had a fleet of ex-VIA RDC units for quite some time, hoping to refurbish them and sell them to passenger railways. They refurbished one, 6202, to a very high standard and it has been leased to VIA on occasion. It looks like their wait is over, for six RDCs at least. This article talks about a deal to rebuild six RDCs, as well as IRSI's contracts to refurbish 98 LRC cars and 21 Renaissance cars.

IRSI is doing the body and electrical work. The LRC passenger car trucks, RDC trucks and transmission rebuilds are contracted elsewhere.

IRSI has been doing work for VIA for some time, mostly on Renaissance cars. They also do locomotive work, such as the Arcelor Mittal SW1500s they have been rebuilding.

This article talks about the possibility of using RDCs between London and Sarnia, Ontario.

Thanks to Tom Box and Wendell Lemon for the information.

The Orford Express

David Morris sent along a few photos of the Orford Express, the tourist line that runs between Sherbrooke and Eastman in Quebec. They travel on the MM&A's Sherbrooke subdivision. I posted about their startup back in early 2006.

The Orford Express has one engine on its roster, #26 an MLW M-420TR built in 1972 (photo). As you can see from the photos, they also have two RDCs, specifically RDC-1 units 6121 Elyse and 6125 Thompson (ex-CN RDC-3 D100 and CP RDC-2 9199).


They have a single dome car #310, originally built in 1954 as Northern Pacific 310.


They seem to aim for the dinner train crowd, and the photos on their web site sure look tempting.

VIA 6202 in Moncton

VIA's RDC 6202 was out and about in Moncton on June 13 to give rides for CN's Safety Day. 6202 was refurbished by IRSI and later sold to VIA. David Morris sent me some photos he took of the unit in the Moncton area.


In Gordon Yard with CN 8853.


At Marsh Junction.


Crossing the new underpass near the downtown station.

CN Test Car Update

An update to my report on Wednesday. CN 1501 has been busy in the Maritimes. It arrived in Campbellton late Wednesday night, did the Newcastle subdivision Thursday (Rogersville 12:20) and arrived in Moncton around 14:15 Thursday afternoon. It was spotted in Moncton Friday night as well.

On Friday it traveled to Dartmouth, arriving at the yard at 19:15 after doing the entire Dartmouth subdivision all the way to Autoport. On Saturday the 11th it left Dartmouth after 9 AM and traveled to Halifax, testing all sidings. It was spotted in Amherst around 5 PM on its way to Moncton.

This Monday morning it was on its way to Chipman around 10:30, going all the way to Edmundston. It should be there by now, I would think.

I had called it CN 15016 but the last digit has been covered on all of the number boards, and the painted number is 1501. Apparently it has been renumbered as an engine rather than work equipment. On the radio the crew is calling it CN 1501.

CN Test Car

CN recently retrofitted an RDC (Rail Diesel Car) as a track inspection car. It can do inspections at up to 60 mph and detect cracks in rail joint bars as small as 1 mm. It is CN 15016 (RailPictures photo by Michael Quagliano).

Wendell Lemon reported it is visiting the Maritimes as train 482. It should be on the Newcastle (ex-NBEC) subdivision today and Thursday.

EDIT: The RDC arrived in Campbellton at 8 PM Wednesday.

IRSI 6202 at CN Safety Day

CN held its annual Safety Day this past Saturday, June 14. The IRSI-refurbished VIA RDC, 6202, was out for rides. Matt aka downeastrailfan was there and took some great video.

A nice runby.


Another runby with Shrek in the front vestibule.


Here it is arriving and disembarking passengers.


6202 tows CN GEVO 2305 into the yard at the end of the day.


Nice videos, Matt!

RDCs On VIA 14

I happened to catch VIA 14 at Beresford yesterday (June 3). While standing on the overpass over the tracks, I heard them call mile 121 on the scanner, and moments later I saw the headlight in the distance. I held my weeny Fuji Finepix A210 camera and waited for the train to go by the Beresford sign.


The lead unit was 6426. Right about then I noticed the stainless car(s) at the end of the train. At first I thought it was a Park car but when I saw the roofline, I knew they were RDCs. I ran across the road and shot a couple of going-away pictures.




The two were VIA 6202 (ex-IRSI demo car 6202), and Farmrail 6130. They were on the tail end of VIA 15 on May 21.

RDCs on VIA 15

David Chiasson got a nice catch yesterday - two VIA RDCs on the end of VIA 15 near Bathurst.

An odd visitor to Halifax

Local railfans noted the arrival of IRSI's RDC 6202 to Halifax Friday in the middle of CN train 148. It was in Halifax for CN's Safety Days on Saturday. It took CN and VIA employees and family on a number of round trips between the Halifax Intermodal Terminal and Rockingham (not a great distance).