Yeah, as you probably gathered from the title, they are damned quiet and I nearly got whacked by one today. I was crossing the tracks with a bike on my shoulder and it hit the horn just as I was walking into its track, it was 100 yards to my left and boy did I ever run. I didnt get hit but it was close.

I don't think VIA operates those anymore. The cars are still around, but the power is long gone due to problems. It was probably a GE P42 with some LRC cars. They're rather quiet in low throttle.

This would be an LRC train with power:

http://www.tamr.or...erra/via%20lrc.htm

This is a P42 pulling refurbed LRC coaches:

http://www.trainwe..._St-Lambert_QC.jpg

Posted by Particle Man I don't think VIA operates those anymore. The cars are still around, but the power is long gone due to problems. It was probably a GE P42 with some LRC cars. They're rather quiet in low throttle. This would be an LRC train with power: http://www.tamr.or...erra/via%20lrc.htm This is a P42 pulling refurbed LRC coaches: http://www.trainwe..._St-Lambert_QC.jpg

Im hardly a train whiz but I do stand corrected, it's a P42, the one in the frit set of pictures there Party man.

Yes, they are quite quiet. i live near the busiest junctions on the west coast of canada, and i ride a lot. Via trains are a about 10 times a week, as are the Amtrak Cascadia's. We also have the Rocky Mountaineer, but they are much slower, and use SD-40,2's. Me.........I like the freights;)

... must resist urge to correct SD-40 with GP40-2W... must... resist... railfan urge.

I know, I'm an ass.

Yes the freights are much more interesting. CP runs lots of heavy AC powered trains in the rockies. Lots of AC4400's and SD90MAC's. Mmmn... high horsepower.

here in montreal i love watching the old GP9s still around, cn uses em with slugs remote controlled for locals, the AMT uses CN modified ones for its commuter trains, and next to where i work cp switches a local 3 times a day with 3 gp9s and a caboose!

I didn't think they still ran those old clunkers... Most of the trains out of Toronto use the new Genesis engines for power.

Lets not forget our old EMD power...

click to view

Good old F40's. I catch them every once in awhile going to Niagara Falls as the Maple Leaf service to NYC. They're still chuggin along. I'm guessing the P42's will eventually replace them though.


... and I raise you a trainsim screenshot

Posted by ExKa|iBuR I didn't think they still ran those old clunkers... Most of the trains out of Toronto use the new Genesis engines for power.

That is the one that almost pancacked me into the ties

I've also caught the old F40's going thru hamilton on more then one occation

I find that any train, I hear the tracks making a hiss long before they arrive.

Posted by ExKa|iBuR I didn't think they still ran those old clunkers... Most of the trains out of Toronto use the new Genesis engines for power.

You'd be surprised how much of the Traffic into and outof Union is still F40's. While the P42's are nicer looking, almost all the long haul and a significant portion of the low traffic routes (Niagara Falls, Gerorgetown-Kitchener-London) are still F40 hauled.

Part of it is fleet size too, there are not enough P42's to justify using them on these routes, and in the case of the Transcontinental trains, all the maintenance facilities out west are pretty much set to cater to only the one engine, so why spread the fleet super thin.

Later

DT

Passenger trains are much faster than your average freight train and they usually dont make as much noise. Especially push/pull trains. So whenever on passenger train tracks you must be more aware of your surroundings.

VIA pretty much retired all the original 30 LRC units by 1993. They stopped running thru Ottawa in 1989, but I saw a few in 1991. They weren't all that quiet as they had quite a whine from the turbocharger.

A weird sight was to be seen many times in March 1992 when all the LRC cars were pulled from service due to axles cracking all over the place. The blue cars retired in 1989 were pulled from storage and many trains consisted of an LRC loco, steam generator car, then several blue cars. The low slung locos looked weird with the big clunky steam era cars. About half the older VIA F units had already been sold by then, hence the use of the LRC locos and F40's.

In 1993 the CAW ran special protest trains to Ottawa. One had about 15 LRC cars with an LRC loco on each end, another had 20 blue cars with 2 F40's on one end which they ran around the consist on the way back, and the third train has 20 bi-level GO cars with an F59 at each end. A weird sight in Ottawa, and I got a tonne of pix.

The F40's are the ugliest fucking locos ever designed, and they make LRC trains look like tadpoles. They look OK with the stainless steel cars though. The p42's actually look like they were made for LRC trains.