Well, It may be yet another record breaking year for the Esquimalt and Naniamo Railroad. It was traditionaly been a poorly maintained, layed back, little traffic railroad. This summer however it looks like there will be 4 REFURBISHED/REBUILT Via Rail Canada RDCs on the Island (6130/6133/6135/6148). They will operate along side the Pacific Wilderness Railways new tourist trains. Last year they did not preform as well as Ross Rowland expected, but hopefully this year it will chnage. There has never really been a time on Vancouver Island where they were actually short on sidings as so many trains, let alone passenger trains were running. Better year than last with those better RDCs... Happy Railroading! Dane N.
Dane, I hope you're right about the better year with your "new" RDC's. In the meantime if you can get some photos of the RDC's, I'd sure appreciate it. I have 3 RDC-1's that I want to weather and need some ideas. I have some photos from the Danbury, CT Museum website, but the Metro-North RDC's look kinda scroungey, as if nobody loved them I'd like my RDC's to look like they had just a little TLC Thanks, Hank
I myself don't have any photos, but I know a few sites that do...I will gather some addys and post them here, or E Mail them to you. The rebuilds done to the RDCs should make them almost new...I have heard they are similar to the BCR rebuild which left the basic shell and trucks. Thats it! Happy Railroading! Dane N.
http://www.trainboard.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=56&t=000195 Start there...I noticed he had some great photos. If you want to do Via Rail Canada RDCs as they are today though I would keep em' fairly clean...just my advice (PS_I don't ven intend to weather my RDCs) Happy Railroading!! Dane N.
Dane, thanks. That's a great link, don't know how I missed seeing it back in March How do CP and VIA keep their RDC's so clean? I'm sure they don't have wash racks installed at their far terminals Hank [ 15 April 2001: Message edited by: Hank Coolidge ]
Hello agian, I am not actually sure how Via Rail keeps the Budds clean, as I am sure you are right..they don't have a car cleaner. There are a few things which I am GUESSING help keep the BUDDS clean. 1) They have a fair amount of down time per car so are most likely cleaned then 2) I also believe they are soaked down becuase some of the scetions of track on the ENR are very grubby 3) They come to Vancouver every once in awhile. Today 6130 was sitting on the ready track at Pacific Central Station with 5 F40PH-2 locomtoives. Hope this helps, Dane N.
Hey guys, First of all we're only going to have three rebuilt RDC's (6133, 6135 and 6148) 6130 is only a rent-a-wreck RDC that was sold to FarmRail. Second, that wasn't 6130 you saw in Vancouver, it was 6133, I know because I was riding 6130 that day on the E&N, also the RDC's are cleaned in Victoria and not Vancouver, the ROW has also been cleaned up a fair bit. The RDC's are maintained in Canada's last fully operational completely unchanged roundhouse in Victoria by the Point Hope Shipyards. Any other questions check out http://enrails.homestead.com Tyler Welsford aka E&NRailway
I didn't mean as in they were cleaned in Vancouver, when they ARE in Vancouver they are cleaned.... Almost every thing gets a wash... You are right it was 6133, my bad. I was standing a fair distance away as it was on the ready track. To get to there I would have to cross thje very busy shop (Servicing that night Canadian) Happy Railroading! Dane N. PS- VIA 6133 is still in Vancouver That is the equip. trace from www.cn.ca EQUIPMENT LOCATION PR DATE TIME L E TRAIN/ DESTINED PR FLAT CAR INIT NUMBER ST MM DD HHMM E V BO/HLD ST INIT NUMB. SCAC ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- VIA 6133 VANCOUVER BC 11 18P2026 E A 56018 VANVIA BC CN EOM [ 21 April 2001: Message edited by: BC Rail King ]
I took the train up on saturday, one car number 6135 with a real SOB for an engineer. On the return trip a passenger opened the blind on the door between the "cab" and the passenger section. The engineer put the RDC into emergency, got up out of his seat, walked over the the door and pulled the blind back down. He then radioed the conductor and said. "Some ***hole opened my blind!" [ 23 April 2001: Message edited by: E&NRailway ]