Hi everyone!
This morning I went to my first railfan activity. I was watching a freight yard on the south shore of Montreal. The name of the yard or station (I don’t know exactly) is Southwark.
I have seen only two active trains when I was there and I left right after because I was frozen.
Here are some pictures.
Wow. Montreal in July? [;)]
Looks rough!
Nice photos. You have more antifreeze in your system than I do. In my younger days, I liked winter. I would say I could put on more clothing in winter than I could shed in summer. Now I enjoy air conditioning.
Yes I have lots of antifreeze. The worst part is when I had to take photos and getting my hands frozen. For the rest, it was ok.
I have a question for you. I am a complete beginner in railroad watching but yesterday was the first time I saw a loco squeezed in the middle of a train.
I often see two or three locos at the beginning of a train but not in the middle. Is it common? What is the reason?
It’s not that common but distributed power midtrain or at the rear is used for larger trains and can improve train handling.
On the CN main line east of Toronto I see locomotives mid-train all the time.
Distributed Power Units (DPUs) serve several purposes.
One of the top reasons is lessening the stresses on couplers. Having power back in the train means that the lead locomotives aren’t pulling the whole train. The DPU is pushing part of the train and pulling the rest.
A DPU at the rear of the train is pushing part of the train - maybe 1/3 of it, again lessening the stress on the couplers.
A DPU also helps with the brakes by supplying air, but I am certainly no expert on that factor.
The engineer in the lead unit can control the DPU separately, or run it parallel to the lead unit. This is all done via remote (radio) control.
Great Catch, glad your first outing was a success. DPU’s are becoming more and more common, for a few reasons.
If the train needs to go back the other way, for example, CP runs oil trains with one engine on each end, so after they’re done unloading in the Port of Albany they can just jump in the other engine and run the other way.
The crews (at least some of them) say they prefer DPU’s, as it makes handling the train easier and helps with slack action. Sorry if any of this was repetitive, the other answers say the rest.
Thank you guys for the explanation. I really appreciate. I should return to this spot another day.
Welcome aboard, XRR.