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Makes me wonder if the Switcher was used to set off the Reefers…. perhaps part of the plan due to six axle restrictions?
This looks like Goreway drive on the Halton sub. The overpass in the background is probably Airport Rd. The track in the foreground looks like the service track into Malport.
The SW was probably marshalled behind the reefers due to marshalling restrictions (if they existed in 1986!). Sometimes yard engines cannot be marshalled behind road power due because their type of drawbar.
The way I understand it is the smaller yard engines (SW1200, some GP9′s) have little-to-no play in them (no “Coupler Alignment Control”), while the road power drawbars will have more play (or does have “Coupler Alignment Control”). The “stringline” forces could cause a derailment hence the marshalling restriction. It could be that once they reached this far, so close to their destination (within the terminal?) the restriction did not apply and the crew kept the power together so when they set their train off at Mac Yard they took all the power to the shop.
I second that….definitely Goreway and Malport.
To Dave Young. The marshalling restrictions did not exist when this shot was taken. The non aligning drawbar rule cam into effect after a derailment in Pickering, Ont when a Montreal bound train with 3 ex GO F59′s jacknifed because of the drawbars. Prior to that the only restrictions we had were on foreign power and the SW9′s without flexicoil trucks which was limited to 30 mph. In the 80 and early 90′s before dynamic braking was standard across the system there was little worry of jacknifing as “power braking” was the norm and most units with DB were assigned out west.
Actually David its the other way around. The older GP9s have too much play in the coupler and can get the drawbars crossed where as the newer power has very little play.In our operation manual we have a list of which units ( very few left) have non aligned drawbars and it tells us what restrictions we have with these units. Including only 1 unit at a time may be moved on a train if it has non aligned drawbars.
Great discussion guys. It seems there wouldn’t have been any rule about where a single switcher would have been placed. Probably just convenience of one of the crews. I had a conversation with a retired CSX conductor who described the non aligning drawbar situation much the same. After our talk, he searched the internet and found this very readable description of the accident at Pickering. http://www.tsb.gc.ca/eng/rapports-reports/rail/2010/r10t0056/r10t0056.asp
I am sure we had a rule that any locomotives in our consist had to be o the head end. I have no idea why the SW1200RS would be behind a few cars in that shot at Bayview.
That’s the diverging signal to get into the passing track at Malport.