Tight Spots

"kim" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

Don't suppose you have her telephone number? :-)

It was a woman in rec.models.scale She was asking the best way to dispose of her father's collection but what she really wanted was for the rest of us to take it off her hands at the highest possible prices.

(kim)

They will make it fit!

I've seen a CN switcher being driven by an operator standing on the front using a radio remote control. Can't they do this for B units?

And I've seen VIA passenger trains run backwards with a trainman in the rear vestibule; I don't know if he has direct control, or is just in contact with the loco driver by radio.

The Tri-ang-Hornby moulds are almost certainly smaller the the Chinese moulding machine capability so I guess the TH moulds cound be fitted into Chinese moulds, but, it might be quicker and cheaper to make new accurate moulds.

Greg.P.

Sure, you could fit radio control gear to any existing loco, but it's going to cost $$$ to fit the gear.

Back in 1993 my wife and I sat in the rear of the bullet car, beside the trainman, on the VIA Number 1 "Canadian" as it reversed several miles out of Edmonton back onto the main line. He had a walkie talkie and was in continuous contact with the engineer who drove blind from half a mile or more up front. It was an experience I will never forget. It was all done with messages like "Engineer number 1, keep her coming" and "Engineer number

They can do anything they like by converting the locos to do what they want. See, for example, the Milwaukee Road's method of controlling diesel locos "in multiple" with and from the Little Joe electrics.

The timeframe of my model railway is the fifties and sixties and in those decades they didn't control B units that way. Why would they want to? On the road, they have a cab unit in front of them. In the loco yard they only need hostling at very slow speeds. Therefore there is no need to do it.

I would hope he has direct control. In emergency those few seconds can be vital.

Backing movements with a trainman at the "front" end are quite common, but AFAIK they are done at low speed. (Keith, how fast was that VIA train backing out of Edmonton?) The exception is push-pull trains such as the GO trains in and around Toronto. They last car has a driving cab from which the engineer controls the (pushing) engine directly. The more common solution for such suburban trains is to have a power car at each end, though.

To add to Keith Willcocks story: In Calgary a couple of years ago I observed and photographed a flatcar coupled to the long hood end of switch engine (an SD-40!) with a trainman standing on it, walkie talkie in hand, as the engine backed up to the other end of the yard. Safety First, I guess.

Or you could just use hand signals - we used to quite happily move anything from an engine to a 2000 ton train that way in the yards, and when propelling engineers trains into the section.

Richard

He hasn't, although there was a single lever that could have been an emergency brake.see my earlier post.

I would estimate speed at a max of 10 to 15 mph. I was sitting on the right, end, armchair in the bullet lounge and the trainman took the opposite seat that my wife had been sitting in (she then sat beside him). He opened a small locked compartment under the window that had very little in it but from which he took the radio. It might also have had some form of emergency brake in there. What with that and, later in the trip on board "The Rocky Mountaineer", going through the spiral tunnels after leaving Banff it was a holiday to remember train wise.

Nahh, thats not hi-tech!

Greg.P.

ISTR that when I did the west-bound Canadian in 2004 it also went backwards somewhere near (well, at least by Canadian standards) Toronto.

VIA trains going into service from Toronto to points west are driven backwards from Mimico yards to Union Station. Presumably they are also driven backwards in the opposite direction after their return trip.

Once I saw a GO Train (1 loco and 10 bilevel cars) disabled at Danforth station. It was rescued by a VIA passenger train driven out from Union - actually it was two trains coupled together, which is often done with Montreal and Ottawa trains. The entire consist, including 3 locos and about 20 cars, was driven off in reverse towards downtown Toronto.

Last night I saw a Toronto-Ottawa train with three (count 'em) stainless-steel coaches and two (count' em) 3000 HP locomotives. Pretty good power-to-weight ratio there!

Around 4 pm on a weekday, there are movements every few minutes between Mimico yards and Toronto Union, with both GO and VIA trains going into rush-hour service as well as in-service trains. I don't think any of them, including the (empty) backing VIA trains, travel at low speed, although there are 4 tracks.

I believe they also have a small warning whistle attached to the compressed air line.