I'm posting this picture because I haven't seen a lot of action in what should be my favorite forum. I know I can find CN stuff at the CN SIG but stories with pictures are rare. This was taken in March 1977 at the station at Kapuskasing ON. During the coldest months of the year the daily CN/ON train from North Bay usually had two cab units (or an A - B combination) and a steam generator car up front, one baggage car and only one coach. The train would turn at the Y near the airport where I maintained the TACAN and return to the station, heading East again, for the trip out to Cochrane in the afternoon. At that time of year the outside temperatures often hovered around -20C around midday but the old Alco's and EMD's were worth the wait. See if you think so. ------------------ Dave Winter Owner/Operator Winter Valley Regional Railway
Man, that shot just LOOKS cold. Musta froze trying to get the shot. ------------------ Corey Lynch VP - Rensselaer Model RR Society NEB&W RR http://www.rpi.edu/~lynchc/Railfanning/railfanning.htm - My Site http://www.union.rpi.edu/railroad/ - NEB&W
Dave, that cold weather must be very hard on machine and rail. Are there more track problems in the winter than the summer? Good picture... makes me cold just to look at it . ------------------ Residing in BNSF's St. Croix Subdivision near Trempealeau, WI
Years ago I used to travel in and out of Kap on business. Sometimes by air and others by car. During winter the air is crisp and clean. There is nothing like watching an outdoor game of ice hockey. GM used to winter test their vehicles here too. They may still do so. One day, I want to ride the Polar Bear Express to Moosenee on Hudson Bay. It is operated by the Ontario Northland Railway. This is my kind of country. ------------------ Robin Maberly and Tayside
Yes it got VERY cold up there from time to time. It seemed to last for weeks. Always sunny though. The winter wx didn't seem to cause problems with the roadbed, although I'm sure it bothered the switches, but the spring was trouble. The ground is very "boggy?" and when it thawed out the rails would sag quite a bit. It was sometimes fun to watch short trains rock and roll down the line at about 15-20 MPH. Come summer though and the Black Flies were so bad you couldn't even venture outside for very long. Therefor...mostly winter pictures. ------------------ Dave Winter Owner/Operator Winter Valley Regional Railway
That is a great photo. My dads uncle was an engineer with CNR and Via Rail Canada. His dad was an engineer with GTW and CNR. They both had run the FPA4. My great uncle described them as one word.... "Crap". Although, I beleive he was on one of there last runs, so they were tired. Anyone been on the Super Continental between Jasper and Edson, AB? Happy Railroading, Dane N. ------------------ BCRailKing@Canada.com Teen Association of Model Railroaders- for information, contact Dane N. at TAMR2860@Canada.com http://www.tamr.org "I was DC, and went DCC!"
It's been a "truism" that you can't be a railfan and an emplyee at the same time. The real world always kicks in. I loved to see the smoke pouring out of the FP4's and they looked so brutish and powerful. Great lines. Better than GM units I think. But I understand they were dogs to drive and worse to work on. There you go. Truth meets fantacy. Dave
The only FPA4's I have seen were VIA Rail ones, in Toronto in 1985. I fell in love with them right away I too, think they look better than GM F's. But if you worked on them it was no doubt a different story ------------------ Alan The perfect combination - BNSF and N Scale! www.ac-models.com Andersley Western Railroad Alan's American Gallery
