Sunday, April 10, 2011

A Different Kind of TOFC

Many readers will understand the usual meaning of TOFC - Trailers On Flat Cars. On the 8th I saw a different kind.

I was out and about in Winnipeg in the morning. First I saw CN 532 head south on the Letellier. I think the lead unit was CN 8927 but I could be wrong. Later, I saw a CN intermodal train roll west into Transcona. I didn't see the head end but it had a DPU and the engine on the end was CN 2533.

At the west end of Transcona, a CN intermodal was stopped, getting refueled by a tanker truck.
CN 2524 in Winnipeg

I went down to the south end of Symington and saw this very interesting sight.
Tanks on trains

There were twelve Leopard tanks and one engineering vehicle on the train. Tanks On Flat Cars!
A Leopard tank on a flat car

They were on a train being shoved up the hump by CN 7513, among others. I assume / hope that these cars were cut out of the train and not sent over the hump! There was one engineering vehicle there too.
Army engineering vehicle on a train

It was nice to see some of Canada's military together with my favourite hobby.

4 comments:

Eric said...

Tanks for sharing, Steve! I'm not going to say "Tanks for the memories" because that's going too far, and I don't want to give you any ammunition!
Speaking of our tax dollars at work, I've got an upcoming Trackside Treasure post about the Signals Regiment heading to CFB Wainwright in 1987. Impressive logistics.
Eric

Canadian Train Geek said...

Heh. I look forward to your post! I have a CN employee magazine describing the logistics involved in Exercise Rendezvous in 1981 at CFB Gagetown. It was quite interesting.

Blair Ivey said...

Why in the world is a Class I railroad getting refueled by tanker truck trackside!?

Canadian Train Geek said...

It happens all the time, at least here. For run-through trains that don't do any switching at the yard, it's quicker to top them up on the main line and keep them rolling than to take the engines off and run them into the yard for refueling.