|
Caption: Just off Wentworth Av in Hamilton's industrial area near the CN line stood one of the Westinghouse factories. And driving by one day I spotted their company switcher!! Waited for the snow to stop, but it just kept on; so this is the resulting photo. Built by CLC in 1950, this 50 tonner was a rare specimen, being a side-rod unit. Westinghouse manufactured air brakes for the rail industry here, it was taken over and became Siemens Westinghouse Power around 1997 and in March of 2010 Siemens announced they were closing and that was the end of 100+ years of Siemens/Westinghouse in Hamilton. I would like to know what happened to the switcher........
|
That’s a good question, maybe Ray Kennedy’s heard something (he keeps a neat photo gallery of industrial switchers on his site).
This one is one of about only 6-7 built by CLC-Whitcomb in Canada. Today there’s one of its sisters operating on the PSTR, and another one at the TRHA’s Roundhouse Park in Toronto.
It went to a Siemen’s plant in USA. I was very much interested in preserving it locally (I knew the engineer way back when, Tommy Gold and he ran the fireless cooker!) I trusted a Hamilton railfan to approach them about it as I felt a local would get a better reception rather than someone from Toronto. Unfortunately, he let me down, doing nothing.