ALCO C636PA

The CN was the only buyer because of Canadian law.

CN, being a large Crown corporation, had to split its loco-purchasing dollars between Canadian locomotive manufacturers in order to appear not to favor any one manufacturer over another. This is why, in the early days of dieseldom, CN had a real oddball fleet consisting of MLWs, GMDs and CLCs - they were the only ones in the Canadian loco game. This is also why CN didn't buy GE units like U-boats until the early 90's - GE built a plant in Ontario, and became a Canadian locomotive producer.

When Bombardier acquired MLW, some new loco designs were pitched to CN. Being a Quebec-based corporation recieving much federal funds, and CN being an arm of the Canadian government, CN was "authorized" to purchase HR412s and HR616s. CP had purged its 244-powered Alco fleet by this time and was beginning a rebuild program of the 251 powered MLWs so it didn't want new MLW power at the time.

scottychaos wrote:

tomjohn wrote:Wouldn't this locomotive be MLW's HR616?

Tom

Not really..
although the MLW could have been inspired by the C636PA, in a small way..
but they are basically unrelated...

The Alco C636PA proposal must have been from 1967, '68 or '69..at the very end of Alco production..
while the HR616 didnt come along until 1982:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombardier_HR-616

Scot

yah, but when Alco closed down, they sold their designs to MLW, so maybe somone stumbled appon the design and realized the potential and got the HR-616

That's doubtful. The carbody of the HR616 incorporated both the CN wide-cab and the CN specified "Draper Taper" design. At the same time these units were being built, GMDD was cranking out SD50Fs and SD60Fs with a similar carbody, as was GE with a line of Canada-only Dash 8s.

The innards of the HR616 essentially duplicate an M630.

daylight4449 wrote:

tomjohn wrote:Wouldn't this locomotive be MLW's HR616?

Tom

well, the model i aquired looks remarably similar, it just dosn't have the "draper taper". my guess is that when canadian national went to look for new cowl, the liked the C636F, but modified it for better rearwoard visibility[/quote
anywho, i stripped the paint off the shell. was looking at the trucks. pretty much just pieces of plastic. not really alco looking. the shell is definitely a splice job. the noselooks like it came off a M420, windows to, and the rest of the body looks like a SDP40-2F that has been heavily modifyed with Alco and Mlw parts

I don't think I will have time to dig through my collection but I have an copy of "TRAINS" magazine from the late 60's that has a picture of a model (clay, IIRC) of the proposed unit. I'm guessing it's from 1968...