I Went For a Walk...


McLeod

Forest Lurker
down by the tracks, to see what I could see.

This following my very recent and sudden interest in trains and railroad modelling after many years worth of plastic and R/C aircraft modelling. I suspect this interest was triggered involuntarily after I purchased my grandson one of the Bachmann HO starter sets for Christmas. Inevitably, I gave the grandson something else for Christmas, and still retain the train set for both of us to play with.

Anyway, I went for a walk down by the tracks over a couple of days last week, and took some photos of the CN happenings in our small town. Whitecourt, Alberta, Canada.
The photographs help me learn about trains and railroading as I can research these machines on google. I thought I might share a few photos with you forum members. If this is 'old' and uninteresting, please let me know, and I'll keep them to myself.

I was very happy to find this MoW equipment, as I've never seen this type of equipment before. They must be doing some tie work:
Herzog Komatsu 10-02-2020.JPGHerzog_HZGX197 02-10-2020 (3a).jpgHerzog_HZGX19700 02-13-2020 (1).JPGHerzog_HZGX19700 02-13-2020.JPG
I cannot find machines with these road numbers on rrpictures.net. I wonder if the MPM XXX power unit is a repurposed locomotive.
So much to learn!!!
Guy

Bye-the-way, I would have liked to get a photo of the front end of that power unit, but, there was an especially grumpy rail worker down there, who was none to happy I was walking the tracks. He was younger than me, but, I was faster than him.
 
Thank you for the link, Rico. I very much appreciate the knowledge base that can be acquired via this forum.

Another very cool item I came across during the walk, was this siding parked, potable water transporter. It is marked as BLT 6-53. I have this vision that it was pulled by steam when it was new. It's 3yrs older than me and still in use. That's amazing to me.
Water Tankcar 02-13-2020 (5).JPG
 
The MPM stands for Multi Purpose Machine, I just about got the job of running it but had a change of heart.
Youll find the info here: https://www.herzog.com/innovation/on-track-maintenance-material-distribution-and-pick-up-machine/

The CPR used it for awhile then built their own version:

MRL has one as well, not quite as flash, but it is just now getting new 60' Gondalas for it. Has a similar car walking machine and it's referred to as the Jimbo Train. Whether that's a name that's generally used to describe the type, don't know.
 
If you visit this post every now and again, you'll figure out that I'm a huge fan of walking and packing along my little Canon Powershot pocket camera. I like to take photos of all the neat stuff I find on my journey. Walking is way more interactive than driving along and missing stuff.

Some may like this rather poor photo of what I think is a light duty track snow plow. It has a rotary brush mounted on the rear and hydraulically adjusted plow blades up front. In the background is an EMD SD70 M-2 locomotive. See, I'm learning already.
Then, as I was walking down the tracks, a freight train came by, pulled by a pair of ES44AC's.
CN2862_02-13-2020 (1).JPGSnowPlow_2-10-2020.jpg
 
Yes, tootnkumin, I've learned that what's written on the sides is an encyclopedia, or just google the road number. That has a lot to do with you're gracious posts of late, somewhere in my other posted ramblings.
Just passing on what I needed to learn also, especially not being "a local". Just imagine trying to do it so speedily without the internet.
 
Just passing on what I needed to learn also, especially not being "a local". Just imagine trying to do it so speedily without the internet.
If not for the net, I'd be down depending on the hit-n-miss small town library, like I used to do. A single reply from you on another post I made, caused me to realize how valuable the information marked on the side of rail equipment is. For that, I thank you.
During my walks, I'm even taking close-up series photos of parked railcars, so I can patch them together at home and clearly study what is written on the sides. I'm also interested in the rust, oil, abuse, and other weathering features.
BC Rail 50ft Bulkhead Flatcar 02-10-2020 (7).JPGBC Rail 50ft Bulkhead Flatcar 02-10-2020 (9).JPGBC Rail 50ft Bulkhead Flatcar 02-10-2020 (10).JPGBC Rail 50ft Bulkhead Flatcar 02-10-2020 (11).JPGBC Rail 50ft Bulkhead Flatcar 02-10-2020 (12).JPG
There is a fairly large siding yard a couple of miles out of town that I mean to walk to when the snow is not so deep. I already know there may be 50 cars parked there of all types. So, I'll be taking a few photos on that trip. I had better bring a sandwich.
 
I set out today for an extended walk, hoping to catch a train on the rail bridge spanning the McLeod River. There's just no way I could have known a derail device would be on the tracks, so no train was going to come by.
Not a wasted trip, though, as I found a brand new ES44AC tucked away on the local turn-around. I'm actually quite surprised that a newer locomotive would be sent up here, being as it's a dead end track. Thought they would use the new locomotives on the coast to coast mainline to Vancouver.
CN3903_ES44AC_02-28-2020 (2).jpgDerailDevice_02-28-2020.JPGMcLeodBridge_02-28-2020 (2).JPG
 
If not for the net, I'd be down depending on the hit-n-miss small town library, like I used to do. A single reply from you on another post I made, caused me to realize how valuable the information marked on the side of rail equipment is. For that, I thank you.
During my walks, I'm even taking close-up series photos of parked railcars, so I can patch them together at home and clearly study what is written on the sides. I'm also interested in the rust, oil, abuse, and other weathering features.
View attachment 44603View attachment 44604View attachment 44605View attachment 44606View attachment 44607
There is a fairly large siding yard a couple of miles out of town that I mean to walk to when the snow is not so deep. I already know there may be 50 cars parked there of all types. So, I'll be taking a few photos on that trip. I had better bring a sandwich.
Must be running short of snow somewhere else?
 
Ya, I believe they might be running a little low on snow down south. We've got lots to go around, though, and it can be had for real cheap.
They'd better get those gondolas moving quickly then, especially as it cost nothing to fill them.
 
They'd better get those gondolas moving quickly then, especially as it cost nothing to fill them.
As a matter of fact, there was a whole row of empty gondolas sitting there doing nothing today. And there was a fella with a shovel down there. If he's still there tomorrow, I'll let him know that some snow is needed elsewhere.
Gondola_02-28-2020 (1).JPGGondola_02-28-2020 (2).JPG
 
I will not be walking the tracks today, as we are getting a mini-blizzard with 20cm more snow and 60km winds. Wait 5 minutes and the weather will change around here.
Walking the tracks is so much more enjoyable than driving down there to see what's going on. Nobody notices an old man walking the tracks; it makes me invisible, and I see so much more.
Thought I'd leave you with a couple more ES44AC locomotive pics from the beautiful, warm day we had yesterday: an older one and a new un-weathered one. I wonder what that native symbols sign on the front end of 3903 is all about?
CN2916_ES44AC_02-28-2020 (1).jpgCN3903_ES44AC_02-28-2020 (7).jpg
 



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