Switching question / CP Rail
#1
I take my son to guitar lessons every Thursday. Interestingly, his lessons are very close to the CP Toronto (Agincourt) Freight Yard, so we get to watch CP trains & some switching, etc., just before he goes in for his lesson!

Yesterday, we were watching what I think was some switching. Several times previously, we have watched a small switcher with two (what I think are) GP38's behind it. You can watch this trio of locos move back and forth with many freight cars behind them as we've often seen them in this area.

We saw these three engines yesterday up close and, as far as we could tell, there was no crew aboard any of the engines. The windows of the small switcher at the front were completely boarded up as well, and we could not see any engineers or conductors inside the two GP38's.

So, these units must be controlled remotely! I understand this is fairly common but it was interesting to see.

Workers at CP Rail are also on strike, so maybe this partly explains the situation! This area was unusually quiet yesterday apart from this switching.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts or feedback.

Rob
Rob
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#2
Hi Rob,

From what I understand, you won't see any action at all with the strike on, but HarperGov™ is working to end that soon! Wink

They are likely a remote unit, with the possibility of crew in the first unit. The others are "slaved" to it, and may not have any controls or anything. They may no prime movers either, getting their power from the lead unit. IIRC, they should have flashing orange lights on the roof to indicate they are a remote unit, and you should see a guy on the ground with a big remote strapped on at his waist.

Andrew
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#3
MasonJar Wrote:Hi Rob,

From what I understand, you won't see any action at all with the strike on, but HarperGov™ is working to end that soon! Wink

They are likely a remote unit, with the possibility of crew in the first unit. The others are "slaved" to it, and may not have any controls or anything. They may no prime movers either, getting their power from the lead unit. IIRC, they should have flashing orange lights on the roof to indicate they are a remote unit, and you should see a guy on the ground with a big remote strapped on at his waist.

Andrew

Thanks Andrew -- all of this makes sense. Yes, the first unit, the switcher, always has flashing lights on it, so that gives it away.

I do hope the strike is resolved soon as it will have a negative effect on our economy.

Rob
Rob
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#4
CP has a number of older SWs that have been rebuilt into non-engined RCL (remote control) platforms that can be connected with other standard engines to remote control them. (These are just remote control receivers. No engine and no traction motors.) CP also has a couple of old SWs rebuilt into engineless slugs (has traction motors and draws power from a mother unit) but it sounds like you were looking at an RCL unit.

CN has a lot of GP9s that have the remote control equipment directly installed; these units are often also slug mothers. I live in Sarnia next to one of CN's rather sizable yards, and there's generally about 4 or 5 GP9/slug combos working the yard throughout the day, all remote controlled by the switch crews.
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#5
cv_acr Wrote:CP has a number of older SWs that have been rebuilt into non-engined RCL (remote control) platforms that can be connected with other standard engines to remote control them. (These are just remote control receivers. No engine and no traction motors.) CP also has a couple of old SWs rebuilt into engineless slugs (has traction motors and draws power from a mother unit) but it sounds like you were looking at an RCL unit.

CN has a lot of GP9s that have the remote control equipment directly installed; these units are often also slug mothers. I live in Sarnia next to one of CN's rather sizable yards, and there's generally about 4 or 5 GP9/slug combos working the yard throughout the day, all remote controlled by the switch crews.

Thanks, this is interesting. I didn't know this remote control use was so widespread. Now that CP is back to work, I can start watching this yard again!
Rob
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