I’m nothing more than an enthusiastic, if ignorant, rail fan, but from everything I’ve been able to read or observe, I was under the impression that CN used DC power only. Then I saw this.
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=234008&nseq=22
Are those really AC Units?
The caption is wrong, those are SD70M-2 locomotives.
I can’t see CN acquiring any AC locomotives, as they lack any notable grades outside of the former BC Rail lines. CN also has a lower percentage of heavy unit trains in their traffic compared to the other majors.
NS has only the former Conrail SD80MACs. Hopefully some day they will get over their stubbornness and buy AC units for their extensive coal operations.
Thanks for satisfying my curiosity.
this is the first that i have heard about cn having ac power for thier engines as far as i know they only have dc power take as an example the es4400cw that is part of thier motive roster,but what work well for one particular road using ac power might not work well on another road using dc power.
CN has AC power from BNSF and UP on most run-through trains.
Even all these power-hour swaps since the 1990’s have not persuaded the CN management to order AC.
Andrew
What’s the advantage of AC over DC and/or vice versa?
EDIT: Nevermind. I found my answer searching online.
What I’d like to know are the disadvantages of AC compared to DC, besides (I’m assuming) cost. For big Class Ones like NS and CN to hold off from AC power for issues of cost seems a lame reason to me. Hasn’t AC traction proven itself by now?
NS seems to be standardizing its road power on 4000 HP C-C locomotives with DC traction motors. This definitely helps put a major dent in maintenance and upkeep expenses and cost is NOT a lame reason for avoiding AC traction.
A note…someone actually corrected the caption on that photo in their comment below…
I guess I’m just puzzled that a major coal-hauler like NS doesn’t like AC units when everyone says that AC-units are practically tailor-made for drag-freight operations.
How have the SD80MACs been to NS, oddball status aside? Reliable? Rolling pieces of junk? Other?
From what I have read the cost of AC locos are paid for through the life of the loco. Could CN and NS be trying to keep up their near term earnings at the behest or worry of wall street? The article in the past issue of another magazine comparing AC vs DC is veery informative.