VIA Rail turbo trains?
William Ing
that looked something like a twin rotor Sea King helicopter by the way
it was all curved and had few angled edges? It just struck me as odd
since I've never seen anything like it before around here.
I was in a model train store a week ago and was flipping through a
book and saw a photograph of it. I didn't think much at the time
about asking the staff there. Also, what route or routes was it used
for and why was it disocontinued?
Cheers
Ken Healy
The turbo was made (and designed?) by United Aircraft Canada Limited of
Longueil, Quebec (now Pratt & Whitney) and ran for a few years on the
Montreal-Toronto service in the late 60s/early 70s. One train set was also
used for a short time in New England, but was not popular. Many problems,
some related to the unusual suspension system, caused the demise of the
train. Sorry I can't be more specific - I am writing this from memory. I
am sure someone will respond with more specific information, but if not I
can research the C. Robert Craig Memorial Library here in Ottawa.
--
Ken Healy
Colin Goodall
an article on the news about the official "retirement" of these trains.
I remember that they did not scrap them (at least not all of them) and they
were placed in permanent storage. I believe they were stored under Montreal
Station (I remeber somehting about Montreal when they were being stored).
Does anybody have any more information about the final whereabouts of
these trains. I never got a chance to see one in person and would be
interested in finding out where they reside.
-----------------------
Colin Goodall
goo...@esltd.com
-----------------------
Colin Goodall
Tom Box
>I am going by memory here but I remember about 7 or so years ago seeing
>an article on the news about the official "retirement" of these trains.
Longer ago than that, I think. As I said previously in this thread,
the last time the Turbos were listed explicitly in the VIA timetable
was 1981. They may have lasted a little longer than that, but not
much.
>I remember that they did not scrap them (at least not all of them) and
they
>were placed in permanent storage. I believe they were stored under
>Montreal Station (I remeber somehting about Montreal when they were
being >stored).
Tracks 4-6 at Montreal Central Station were still referred to as
the "Turbo Bay" in the April 1992 CN employee timetable (the latest
I have), but I'm pretty sure there are no Turbo trains hidden away
there. These tracks are used for light maintenance of the
Deux-Montagnes commuter trains and for storage of business
cars, track inspection cars, etc. They're curtained off, but
you can ocasionally get a glimpse of what's in there from
on board a train on Track 7. In two years of daily commuting,
I never saw anything resembling a Turbo in the Turbo Bay.
I'm not absolutely sure what happened to the UAC Turbos, but
as far as I know, they were scrapped.
Tom Box
tb...@mta.ca
Tobias Benjamin Koehler
of new ideas were implemented and not really tested before
putting them into regular service. I have a book here (Turbo-
trains International by Wolfgang Stoffels) which describes the
various gas turbine trains of the world: British Rail APT-E;
SNCF TGS, ETV, RTG and TGV 001; DB 602; New York Central M497;
MCTA/MTA Garrett and GE railcars; Amtrak UAC, RTG and RTL; CN
UAC; JNR KI-HA-07 901 and KI-HA-391; SZD ZN II MPS and jet
propulsion railcar; Iran RTG. Of these, only the ETG and RTG of
the SNCF and the derived RTG and RTL of the Amtrak are still in
service. In 1983, the SZD allegedly had some heavy gas turbine
locomotives in service; I don't know what happened to them
meanwhile.
Gas turbines have a very good power to weight ratio, but they
consume a lot of energy especially if they don't run at full
power all the time (as in a plane or ship), and they have
difficulties if the operating conditions are rough (for example,
the incoming air must be clean of dust). Because of these
problems and the improvements of Diesel engines, the railways
went back to Diesel driven trains on non-electrified lines.
bye, toby
--
tobias benjamin köhler ,-/o"O`--.._ _/(_
_,-o'.|o 0 'O o O`o--'. e\
s_...@ira.uka.de (`o-..___..--''o:,-' )o /._" O "o 0 o : ._>
``--o___o..o.'' :'.O\_ ```--.\o .' `--
<<la propriété, `-`.,) \`.o`._
c'est le vol>> - p j proudhon pic: felix lee `-`-.,)
Andrew Toppan
: I remember that they did not scrap them (at least not all of them) and they
: were placed in permanent storage. I believe they were stored under Montreal
: Station (I remeber somehting about Montreal when they were being stored).
I'm quite sure that they were all scrapped.
Andrew
--
Andrew Toppan --- el...@wpi.edu --- http://www.wpi.edu/~elmer/
Railroads, Ships and Aircraft Homepage, Tom Clancy FAQ Archive
Tom Box
>Originally there were five five-car
>sets; this was changed to three seven-car sets with the remaining power
>cars sold to Amtrak. One of the US-bound sets caught fire on a test run
>before delivery and was destroyed.
It didn't just spontaneously combust (though this did happen to a
CN/VIA Turbo on another occasion). It hit a freight train at
Ballantyne, between Montreal and Dorval. The freight was
crossing over between tracks to get to the entrance to the
Taschereau Yard, and wasn't clear of the Turbo's track when it
happened along. One of the trains had run a red signal; I don't
remember which.
Len Bachelder pointed this out to me in a previous rec.railroad
discussion of this topic. Len happened to have been in Montreal
at the time of the accident.
>The equipment was compatible with conventional locomotives, and
>I always wondered why VIA elected to scrap it rather than haul it
>behind LRC locomotives.
I rode the Turbo from Toronto to Montreal in 1981. It wasn't
listed as a Turbo run in the timetable -- it was the early-morning
Rapido -- but when I showed up at Union Station, there was a
Turbo trainset. However, it was pulled by an FP9A.
Tom Box
tb...@mta.ca