> I was involved with a short line that
> acquired several of the DL&W motor cars
> for tourist service, and I can tell you why
> most of them have had the electrics removed.
> The FRA inspector told us that as long as
> there were motors and controls, the cars had
> to be kept up and inspected as locomotives,
> not coaches! Never mind that there wasn't an
> inch of catenary within several hundred
> miles - they were still locomotives. IIRC,
> we were allowed some time to make the
> changes, but the traction motors had to be
> removed, and the brake systems modified in
> order for them to be eligible to be treated
> as ordinary passenger cars.

> In addition, of course, there was the issue
> of hauling around the extra weight of the
> traction motors, and the need to keep the
> extra bearing and gears lubed.

> Dick

Hmm. I wonder why our FRA guy allowed us to keep all that stuff on our Canuk EMUs?

The motors, pans, horns, lights, and compressors are still on the three motors we got, as is all the control gear. The one trailer still has a complete control cab. The brake stands were disconnected, but are still in place along with the controllers (hmm, I wonder if we can use one of those stands to put train air on our 25-tonner?). A good bit of stuff was cut off the underframes, but none of the really heavy stuff.

Taking all that scrap metal off the cars has been talked about a good bit. We haven't attempted it yet for two reasons, the main one being that we have no shop building to do it in. The other reason is that once all that weight comes off the cars, they'd have to be resprung and the brakes reset for the new, lighter weight. I think we'll eventually strip the Canuks down, but probably not for a long while.

The South Carolina Railroad Museum
mconrad@compuzone.net

Oh, those Montreal MU's! Neat cars.

I had the pleasure of getting the royal treatment from CN on a tour of the Montreal electric shop and rides on MU and locomotive-hauled trains during the next to last winter they ran.

Man, was it cold on those trains, especially the ones without their own heat!

They'd fill the coaches with steam heat at the station and then hope the heat wouldn't totally dissapate by the end of the run.

Well, let me tell ya', when it is 10 below in December in Montreal, the heat doesn't last very long!

LOL!

Man, I *loved* that CN operation!

Rob

trains@robertjohndavis.com

> Oh, those Montreal MU's! Neat cars.

> I had the pleasure of getting the royal
> treatment from CN on a tour of the Montreal
> electric shop and rides on MU and
> locomotive-hauled trains during the next to
> last winter they ran.

> Man, was it cold on those trains, especially
> the ones without their own heat!

> They'd fill the coaches with steam heat at
> the station and then hope the heat wouldn't
> totally dissapate by the end of the run.

> Well, let me tell ya', when it is 10 below
> in December in Montreal, the heat doesn't
> last very long!

> LOL!

> Man, I *loved* that CN operation!

> Rob

I had the opportunity to ride the line with the new equipment in 2001. That new stuff sure is an improvement over the cars we got from them. My only complaint was the nitpicky one that the new cars are laid out like subway cars inside. But then that makes perfect sense for a commuter railroad. We rode almost all the commuter lines out of Montreal as well. What they did to Windsor Station is criminal.

The comments about the heat is interesting. Our Canuks have a BIG electric heater under every seat. I would think that even half of those things working would keep those cars at least bearable. Of course, we have the opposite problem -- this time of year the things turn into ovens.

Those #$%& school bus windows CN installed when they extended the sides are all pretty well slap wore out now -- not that they were much good when new. They either don't want to open, fall apart when you open them, or close on their own. When we get a shop built and start to overhaul those cars, that's one of the first things I'm going to see gets changed!

The South Carolina Railroad Museum
mconrad@compuzone.net