Here’s a picture from the Children’s Wish Foundation run.
Click the thumbnail for a bigger pic and more information!
That is a really nice photo! Thanks, for sharing it!
My questions;
Behind the diesel engine is a box car (kind of non-descript (normal looking!).
and what appears to be a MOW Car behind it (A/C’s on roof(?).
We are all used to seeing different types of auxiliary use cars behind UP’s moves. Is that the function of these two cars? They sort of seem out of place on such a train as the one pictured.[2c]
Thanks, Sam!
The boxcar is a tool car, and the MOW car behind it is a power car generating HEP for the coaches. That’s because the diesel is a normal GP38-2 pretty much straight out of revenue service, though I’d speculate that it has power connections on either end for when it’s coupled behind CP’s F units.
I have so much info on these cars spread out over so many locations that I don’t have time to get the official version right now so I will give some general info.
The box car is a high speed Express Box Car. This car and a similar one at the West Coast rail museum at Squamish, BC, carried storage mail on “The Dominion”, Canada’s premier transcontinental train prior to “The Canadian” for decades. It had a lightweight body and most importantly High Speed Trucks. Regular CPR trucks had a wheelbase of 5’7" and a “rated” top speed of 50 MPH. and these trucks had a 7’ wheelbase, special springs, and were good for, I think, 90 MPH.
The “MOW” car is not in fact a gang car, but a Box Baggage Car. They were used on trains that didn’t warrant a full baggage car or used as overflow baggage car’s on mainline trains. CP and CN used similar car’s. A MOW crew at Revelstoke, BC had been assigned one after the passenger era to use as a tool car, and the foreman there knew what he had and always looked after it, one day thinking it should go to a museum. When the Empress 2816 program started it was brought to Calgary, but it was felt it was unsafe to use due to metal fatigue.
CN meanwhile had converted some of their Box Baggage Car’s to be Steam Generator Car’s for use on their streamline passenger trains. CP got one of these cars and looked at modifying it to appear like a CPR model, and were astounded at what they found. Despite being built by separate companies at separate locations, at different times, the dimensions were almost identical. Apparently the windows on the sides were set at 3 or 4 inches differently in height, and there were a couple of more equally small variations. So all they had to do was remove the Steam Generator, install HEP, and paint it CPR colours.
Well, I had no idea about the box baggage car! I have a model of the express boxcar on my MRR, though.
Make that ME, TOO!
I am constantly amazed at the knowledge base found among the contributors to these Forums. It is an an amazing resource, not to mention some pretty good reading, as well! It is no wonder that from time to time I find links to the THREADS posted on these FORUM pages within Internet Searches. Google, particularly seem to have them within search results on a very frequent basis.
THANKS, BRUCE!
I found pictures of the Express Box Car and the Box Baggage Car. You can click on them to blow them up. There is something fishy about the build date of the power car though. The 1956 date mentioned must be the date it was rebuilt to be a Steam Generator Car, because I think those trucks are a lot older.
http://cprsteam.com/SupportEquipment.htm
Bruce
They may have reused trucks from a scrapped regular passenger car?