I'd want to believe they have worked out most of the bugs in those units. I am beginning to think these units and the word "reliable" may never meet in the middle.
It seems like they were designed without thinking of actual, real life weather conditions everywhere on the network, not just in the south. Much like the REM here in Montreal, a cousin of Ottawa's LRT. Like the LRT, the REM, despite "extensive" winter testing prior to this winter (which is turning out to be a real winter, unlike the one before), it's plagued with reliability troubles ("technical issues" ), not only with the trains but with the track switches too! Apparently, they've never heard of switch heaters... (even the heavy-rail commuter trains don't have them...) Train selection checklist: Resistant to banana peels on the rails... check!! Operable in monsoon rains... check!! Operable in winter conditions... *loud buzzer sound* Egad...
Saint-Jerome, QC, February 2020. Probably one of the last operating GP35 in commercial service anywhere .. Dom
Darn good looking! As an ex-SP, it might have been part of the group of GP35s rebuilt at CN's Pointe-Saint-Charles shops. Being at St-Jerôme, I suspect it was on the remaining portion of the old CN Montfort Sub.
I don't exactly know what local railroad network looks like over there. So I'm not able to give you a reply, but I spotted a red arrow on the map below to show you the exact location of the above pics. I guess you'll be able to identify the related sub. Dom
Yup, on the old CN Montfort sub. A little east of where I figured it. There are a whole gaggle of car dealerships that sprouted up recently both north and south of Route 158 on Montée Guénette, parallel to Autoroute 15. I suspect the white building seen behind 2501 is the Mitsubishi dealer, judging by the high lamppost. The Montfort used to go all the way up to St-Rémi-d'Amherst, in the Laurentians southwest of the former CP line up to Mont-Laurier (Petit Train du Nord). Like the CP line, the Montfort Sub north of St-Jérôme was pulled up and turned into a "linear park", or in this case, an "aerobic corridor". Jeez... the names they come up with for repurposed abandoned rail lines...
We have the same prigs here in France. What you are calling "linear parks" or "aerobic corridors" above are on my side of the Pond literally "voies de mobilités douces". I will try to translate this into english, that would give "meek mobility way". We taxpayers are paying fortunes to consulting companies to to gain this c#@p... Sorry folks, I stop politics now, but I'm just fed up with this mess.. Dom
