Ontario Northland F40PH/NPCU purchase

[Tadman]

This is a real low-profile news item, but it appears ONR bought two solid-blue F40PH. Some are saying they are now just NPCU cabbages. Has anybody heard about this? There are a few pictures out there.

Also, if ONR gave up the daily Northlander a few years ago, don't they have surplus equipment now?

Any ideas where these came from?

This is the image, it's been quietly going around the internet with the photo uncredited. Was taken somewhere in Chicago area I think.

https://scontent.ford4-1.fna.fbcdn.net/ ... e=5D50234C" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[XC Tower]

Hello,
I can confirm that these two units were indeed in the Chicago area as of last Friday, March 15th. Heading back into Chicago while riding Amtrak's Texas Eagle, I almost twisted my head off being surprised when spotting them!....The Eagle was on the CN trackage some distance after the last stop at Joliet, IL., nearer to Chicago...(Was the track on the former GT?....I spotted lots of its power in the blue and red still)....I may be wrong, but I believe they were parked in a small yard. Whether it was CN or BNSF isn't clear to me as the scenes out of the window change real quick with all the trackage near the "Windy City"....The one thing I can confirm is that they were in the Chicago area as of last Friday (and my neck is okay...)
Awesome if these fit into an Ontario Northland plan......Possibly for use on the train from Cochrane to Moosenee?......Or: A resuming of The Northlander?....Has there been any realistic talk of this?....It sure would be great if the folks in Northern Ontario had their train back....


XC

[Backshophoss]

Were these the units for the "Florida Fun Train" a stillborn project back in the late '90's.

[electricron]

Were there any markings on those in the photos that identified who owns them?

EMD built a total of 475 F40PH locomotives, MK/MPI built 31, for a grand total of 506 according to Wiki. The five largest customers were Amtrak (210), RTA (74), VIA (59), MBTA (56), and METRA (41). No other customer totaled more than 20, less than half I listed earlier.

I have no idea who owns how many today, or where to find that information.

[Backshophoss]

There was a paper taped to the window glass,was unreadable.

[briann]

Compare the locomotive paint job with the newly refurbished passenger cars for the Polar Bear Express:
http://www.trainweb.org/oldtimetrains/p ... r/four.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Photographs 11-17 in that collection seem to show the same blue colour. Maybe that's the confirmation?

[Ken V]

DELIVERED! Today the blue EMD pair arrived at the Ontario Northland Railway Locomotive Shop in North Bay March 21st,2019

https://www.facebook.com/CanadianRailwa ... 3496590758

According to the post these are ex-Amtrak, HEP engine equipped, NPCUs.

[MACTRAXX]

Compare the locomotive paint job with the newly refurbished passenger cars for the Polar Bear Express:
http://www.trainweb.org/oldtimetrains/p ... r/four.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Photographs 11-17 in that collection seem to show the same blue colour. Maybe that's the confirmation?

Briann and Ken:
I found those Hawker-Siddeley-built ONR cars quite interesting especially with that blue color
scheme standing out...Were these former GO cars or CN Tempo cars rebuilt?
Are the two F40 former Amtrak NPCU numbers known?
MACTRAXX

[Tadman]

I'm pretty sure those cars are former GO cars rebuilt for LD service up north. I also think they are on a common body shell and engineering platform with a certain generation of TTC subway cars and the Tempo cars. The reason I think they're rebuilt GO cars is that Tempos had smaller windows.

They were all a bit ungainly in proportion but I think that has to do with the subway heritage of the body shell. Modern subways (postwar) like TTC are all pretty wide for maximum capacity at rush hours. Because the Tempo and GO cars had little or no high platforms and TTC did, the TTC got to set the width.

[Ken V]

Yes, these ONR coaches are all former GO Transit cars. I don't know the former Amtrak numbers of the two F40PHs but I'm sure someone does.

[NS VIA FAN]

Yes as other have said…..former GO Transit cars. When the xTEE (Trans Europe Express) equipment was retired in the ‘90s…..ONR acquired the GO cars and rebuilt them for use on the ‘Northlander’

[Tadman]

So here's an interesting question: given that there are no high platforms on the ONR network, why did ONR rebuild them with traps? Seems like something that adds no value but easy to ice up in Ontario winters.

[NS VIA FAN]

So here's an interesting question: given that there are no high platforms on the ONR network, why did ONR rebuild them with traps? Seems like something that adds no value but easy to ice up in Ontario winters.

Guess there’s the possibility they might be used at a station with high platforms someday.

When Montreal’s AMT acquired those xGO cars they had to be modified. One door as shown open in the above photo was retained as-is but the stairs at the other end were covered over with a platform and the door re-cut higher so they could be used at Gare Centrale.

[briann]

Were traps not used to make wheelchair access easier? I recall seeing a wheel chair lift being used to directly load a wheel chair into the car.

[dowlingm]

With details applied https://m.facebook.com/onrgallery/posts ... 6802645072" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;