I was near Shops (NFDL, W) Yard today and heard two conductors talking back and forth over the air. One train (CN 2627 South) was heading for Byron Hill with a pretty long and heavy train (13,500 tons and 8700 feet) and there were a pair of helper units waiting at Valley to tie on the back of the train to help it over the hill. The conductor on 2627 asked the conductor on the helpers “Which’ll we be using today: the Toyota or the Mopar?” and the answer was "Both, with the train you’ve got. CN 2627 south had a pair of -9Ws on the head end. The helpers were CN 5606 (EMD SD70i) and IC 6201 (EMD SD40-3 IIRC).
My question is this:
Why “Toyota” and “Mopar” and which was which? TIA.
lnteresting Larry, I figured the other way. Maybe the IC SD40 would be the Toyota (them things never die) and the Mopar would be (by default-no other reason I can think of) the SD70.
I guarantee they weren’t talking about which main they were on…this was a direct reference to the engines.
I could probably argue either way. I took it as the SD40 being the “legendary” (like Mopar) power, with the SD70 being the new (but still respectable) newcomer.
To my knowledge the nearest working Plymouth Locomotive is/was in Crivitz, WI and on the ELS. I could be wrong though…
I would have also thought of the “GM” reference too…EMD/GMD, etc…either way I have since heard those terms in reference to GE locos too…so I’m going to have to go to a “source” that may know more.
well, here’s what I’d think. I’d suspect that whatever loco they were calling the toyota would be a short stroke, high reving engine, that you really have to get the rpms up in order to get any power out of it. (likely turbocharged)
As opposed to the brute force of a lower rev ving, longer stroke engine typified as being the Mopar.