Urban Sky
Senior Member
Just a friendly reminder that the HEP-1 fleet entered service in 1955, which means it will be 80 (!!!) years old by 2035 - and the locomotives will be 50 years old, which is equally ancient…
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VIA Rail
- Thread starter ehlow
- Start date
lenaitch
Senior Member
Taking lessons from DND.
micheal_can
Senior Member
Oh you mean my 50 year old ship I was on?
With the LDF renewal not yet out for tender, my thinking is that once the last Siemens train has arrived, Via will have the LDF be replaced in much the same way. They will likely go after the parts that are in the worst shape and retire them.
This tender also indicates tome that unless something comes out, those P42s will be used till they are no longer reliable.
Urban Sky
Senior Member
Friendly reminder that the P42s can only be used on the Corridor and therefore lose any usefulness the second the 32nd trainset enters service, irrespective of their younger age than the F40s…
Edit to add: A “full fleet renewal” is a full fleet renewal; there won’t remain any Corridor fleet other than the Siemens trainsets. Whatever non-Corridor fleet will remain in VIA’s roster will also have to act as backup for any fleet shortages on the Corridor…
Edit to add: A “full fleet renewal” is a full fleet renewal; there won’t remain any Corridor fleet other than the Siemens trainsets. Whatever non-Corridor fleet will remain in VIA’s roster will also have to act as backup for any fleet shortages on the Corridor…
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micheal_can
Senior Member
Sorry if you thought I meant they would be used elsewhere. I meant that they would stay on the Corridor and be used there as they see fit. If the plan is only the Siemens trains on the Corridor and the rest gone, then that is when the P42s become surplus. From what has been posted, that is about 2 years from now, right?
dowlingm
Senior Member
it makes some sense to retire the 42s given the very different situation between getting parts for a GE vs EMD - having these parted out for control boards and trucks and the like will probably sustain remaining 40/42s in the U.S., and VIA has no corridors or compatible cars where a 42 can hit 110mph as in Michigan.
I don’t understand why they can “only be used on the corridor” however, when Amtrak uses P42s on LD trains. Is there something about VIA P42s that differs from U.S. ones, or VIA current thinking on LD operations is that such trains should get HEP from dedicated sources only as the F40s have?
dowlingm
Senior Member
good news from VIA in that they have an intent to maintain 39 usable locomotives and therefore off-Corridor operations, but not great news in that the notional green nature of rail transit is obscured by persistence with Tier 0 prime movers smoking their way around the nation. There can’t be a lot of improvements left to wring out of that platform at this point since VIA already fitted HEP units and stop/start facilities to the existing ones.Some good news from Via. A tender is out to refurbish the F40s.
Gpa-30h - Locomotive Overhaul - 202311011 | MERX
www.merx.com
micheal_can
Senior Member
With the recent breakdown of an engine on the Ocean, and a few years, the breakdown of one on the Canadian, refurbishment of them to wring out every ounce of usefulness till the replacement fleet arrives shows that they are trying to keep things going. If, like the P42s,they were all deemed surplus,it would have signaled to me that they were just going to let the LDS decay further.
crs1026
Superstar
I am loathe to connect two specific dots together and declare that VIA has a reliability problem with the current fleet. I'm sure VIA has a spreadsheet with the true story, but we spectators shouldn't create a narrative with no such data at hand.
From my POV the VIA of 2023 - and the government's attitudes towards VIA - is not the VIA of 1986. Refurbishing the F40's at this point in their life cycle is proactive rather than reactive. State of Good Repair is understood and given appropriate priority. (Anyone who remembers 1986 knows that the F40 procurement was a desperate and overdue measure that Ottawa reluctantly accepted, because the first--generation fleet was being towed dead behind freight engines).
VIA's fleet is not so huge that the carbon benefits of Tier 4+ are first priority, when set against the capital cost of new locomotives.(which may have their own reliability concerns).
This is not a hill to die on, IMHO. I am happy to see these locos retained and refurbished.
- Paul
micheal_can
Senior Member
I wasn't saying it has a reliability problem. I am saying they have older equipment so having spares they can easily swap out is a prudent thing to do to ensure the viability of the line remains. We don't want to be in the position you described before the P42s. Having the old F40s refurbished will hopefully prevent it.
micheal_can
Senior Member
Saw this shared on Facebook.
Any truth to it?
If so, what I talked about a few months ago may come true.
Any truth to it?
If so, what I talked about a few months ago may come true.
Bordercollie
Senior Member
The issue with this is that they will need to rotate F40's on the Canadian through TMC or Winnipeg since all that work cannot be done in Sudbury unless they can use the CP shops.
micheal_can
Senior Member
They could connect them with the Canadian through Capreol/Sudbury Junction.
Bordercollie
Senior Member
They can but it's more mileage. And a spare locomotive would need to be at Sudbury. Given the remoteness of this route this train would b
They can and would need to cycle through TMC or Winnipeg.
Given how remote this route is, it would require two locomotives and that is more fuel than the RDC's. They also need a spare locomotive in Sudbury.
I think DMU's make more sense for this route.
micheal_can
Senior Member
What I had said a few months ago is they could revive part or all of the Toronto-Winnipeg CP route so that they can service them either in Toronto or Winnipeg to solve that problem. If the swap is true, we shall see whether they:
1) just replace the RDCs with the F40s and HEP and service them locally, or
2) whether they try to service them in Toronto (The closest), or
3) whether they extend the route negating this problem.
My guess is the 1st one. My hope would be the 3rd one.