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Do you have any information on just why this thing could be considered a “failure”?? Five years is pathetic.
If know it spent a lot of of time stationed in Peterborough, on the KLR at the transload facility by Crawford Drive. Didn’t move much from there.
I too, am curious as to why CP let them go so soon.
Guys – 4 years is nothing.
CP purchased 4 kits from Railpower for GG20B gensets… they built two kits at Ogden, partially built two more, and after 2 or 3 months of service in Calgary sent them back to Railpower, who sold to new buyers and repainted them..
In other words, lasted 2 or 3 months in service, if that.
These gensets did get around and did lead on the mainline on a few occasions
More info:
http://www.trainweb.org/gensets/owners/cp.html
http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=10023
That’s good Hosty, but why? They just didn’t like them?
Clinto, the Railpower units had teething problems in general – lots of bugs, but most importantly the batteries did not do well in the harsh Canadian winter. They were simply unsuitable. Since the Green Goats were true hybrids (small engine powered, with batteries for capturing regenrative braking capabilities) the batteries would have had to be reliable to provide the performance desired.
I followed Railpower fairly closely in their day ( as an investor ) and the company kind of failed spectacularly despite a ton of orders from quite a few big name railroads… they had great potential. RJ Corman bought the rights to the company in bankrupcy proceedings and continues to market the green goat line to this day.
I can’t speak to the locomotive above – except the Green Goat is a true diesel / battery hybrid, and the genset above I believe to simply be a multiple engine locomotive (no battery power). It’s similar to the MPI MP54AC though.