Train of the Week

Well since this is after all just a blog, I'm gonna use this week to share some pictures and video footages I've taken at a public crossing near the little town of Indus, Alberta. It's quite a nice and open area where both the Rockies and the small city by the name Calgary are in sight. The line you see here here is Brooks Subdivision of transcontinental mainline of Canadian Pacific and as you'll witness from the photographs and video, CP's mainline fleet is predominately GE. Enjoy and if your bandwidth permits, please do watch the video in 720p resolution. Click here to view the entire photo album

The Regina X55 or SJ 3000, as Sweden's SJ have branded, is the new flagship intercity train replacing the aging X2 or SJ 2000  (one of the two European trainsets tested on the NEC in early 1990s). The train was designed by Bombardier in Västerås, Sweden. She is the finished product derived from the 7-year  Green Train project SJ commenced in the 2000s. As the title suggests, the X55 is an extremely efficient EMU with 20% reduction in energy consumption while maintaining a higher speed and 30% cost reduction than previous generation trains (including previous Regina trains). Over the life cycle of the X55, the EMU produces as little as 0.14 oz. of carbon dioxide per passenger per mile (up to 95% lower than a car, bus, or airplane). The X55 had undergone extreme weather testing in the arctic circle and was designed specifically to operate reliably under the harsh Nordic climate conditions. The X55/SJ 3000 was officially announced by Bombardier and SJ earlier this month.

The Electroliner was an articulated interurban EMU built by the St Louis Car Company in 1941 for the Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railroad . It was smaller than standard mainline railroad equipment in size and was designed to be able to fit within the clearance of the Chicago L and serve downtown stations. It also ran on the streetcar tracks in Milwaukee. The Electroliner shared trucks between cars and ran in 4-car sets. Two sets of the Electroliner were ever built. The Electroliner could reach a top speed of 110 mph but was only permitted to operated at 90 mph, because the streamlined EMU would arrive at a grade crossing faster than the gates could come down. Electroliner at the Illinois Railway Museum Electroliner on the Chicago L Sadly, due to decrease in ridership (with the completion of the interstate freeway system and wider adoption of personal automobiles), the Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railroad, along with the Electroliners ceased operation in 19

The EMD JT42CWR, or better known as the British Rail Class 66 , is a successful diesel-electric freight locomotive in European heavy-haul service. English Welsh and Scottish Railway (EWS), now known as Deutsche Bahn Schenker Rail (UK), first purchased the Class 66 in 1998. The components used on this unit are similar to those found on domestic freight units built by EMD, including the patented active self-steering 3-axle truck. Power comes from a 12 cylinder 710 engine tightly tucked into the full-width car body. The Class 66 weighs 140 US tons and produces a healthy 3,040 tractive horsepower. A standard Class 66 (top speed 75 mph) can produce a maximum of 92,000 pounds force of tractive effort (just over half of what the SD70M-2 produces), a specially geared Class 66 for CWS’s heavy trains (65 mph) can produce 105,000 pounds force. The proven success of the Class 66 in Britain has pushed this locomotive into Continental European and Egyptian markets . Over 650 of these units