8829 idling on the waterfront

Sunday afternoon, 8829 was in the Rupert yard idling, waiting for a crew. I thought I'd do something different and decided to upload them as black and white images.

CN 2699 engine failure

Canadian National locomotive number 2699 is a 212 ton machine powered by a 183 liter 4400 hp V16 4 stroke diesel. While working under load, 2699 experienced what is known in the trade as a catastrophic uncontained engine failure. The train was passing the town of Independence , La at the time.
The first picture below shows that one of the 16 cylinder packs that form the engine was ejected through the engine bay body side and thrown clear of the locomotive.
In addition to this the piston from that cylinder was thrown free by the force of the failure. It was ejected so violently that it traveled through the air and crashed through the roof of a nearby home where it embedding itself in an interior wall.

Wye Oh Wye - turning locomotives

BC Rail 4610 is seen entering the North end of the wye in Rupert with 2525 as the trailing unit. 2525 becomes the lead unit once it exits the wye heading South out of the yard.

Hand brake......what hand brake?

Just had to post this video clip of a group of Norfolk Southern locomotive going past a level grade crossing in the dark. Can you spot the problem? Video clip by unknown.

Why they mark cars with rotary couplers?

The answer is so they avoid an accident like the following that happened at dumper 31 Westshore property at Roberts Bank. A snafu, first coal car behind locomotive must have a rotary drawbar next to locomotive. Photos by unknown.

SD40-2 working the waterfront

Well once again the rail barge is in from Alaska so I managed to get a couple of quick shots of SD40-2 number 5293 pulling the cars to be load on the barge out of the Rupert yard. With a wave to the engineer I got him to crack the throttle in hopes of getting a cloud of black smoke out the exhaust to photograph but the weather beaten unit just roared and discharged nothing but heat waves into the air.

Did you say Train or Grain

Well not much going on today along the waterfront so I decided to go visit some longshoreman friends of mine out at Prince Rupert Grain where the vessel GREAT LEADER was taking a load of Number 1 grade grain. Prince Rupert Grain has 3 loading towers (Alice, Bob and Charlie), the first photos are from the middle tower (Bob) of the chute pouring grain into number three hold. No that isn't Bib the Michelin man......the grain is so dusty even after being cleaned, workers wear disposable coveralls to stay clean. A group of uninvited guests stopped by for a little light lunch on top of the number 4 hatch cover.

This just Blows! Part 1

I have no idea who took these photos but I had to post them.

Note: No revenue loads attached to the plow. South Saskatchewan short line railways take note!!!!!!!
These photos were taken on the Bellwood Subdivision, between Seward and David City, Nebraska on the BNSF Ry. Seward is about 25 miles west of Lincoln, on the Ravenna Sub. A few blizzards and sub zero temperatures coupled with moderate winds made for a beautiful, but, flash frozen environment. A freight train was snowed in at David City and a rotary snow plow was sent to clear the track of drifts that varied from 6ft or less up to 12ft in spots!! The photos were taken on Jan. 8th through Jan. 10th.

This just Blows! Part 2

I couldn't resist posting these photos along with the following caption.

Note: No revenue loads attached to the plow. South Saskatchewan short line railways take note!!!!!!!

These photos were taken on the Bellwood Subdivision, between Seward and David City, Nebraska on the BNSF Ry. Seward is about 25 miles west of Lincoln, on the Ravenna Sub. A few blizzards and sub zero temperatures coupled with moderate winds made for a beautiful, but, flash frozen environment. A freight train was snowed in at David City and a rotary snow plow was sent to clear the track of drifts that varied from 6ft or less up to 12ft in spots!! The photos were taken on Jan. 8th through Jan. 10th.

Hockey weekend gone bad!

Well as you already know my son Garrett and I were in Smithers over the weekend for Hockey. Unfortunately his weekend was ended early during the second period on Saturday night when he slid into the end boards on a break away. The end result was a trip to the hospital by ambulance where we found out he had broken his right tibia finishing his hockey season. I have to tell you he`s one tough kid...... not a tear! The crappy thing is he`s now in a cast from his toes to the mid thigh.