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Caption: Busy morning on the Coronado. These section fellows left first thing to do work west of Redwater. When busy at the air base, they will call 2 extra fuel trains in a week rather than just the one on Thursdays. So, on this Wednesday, a fuel train headed out at 9:30 (5578, 5587). At 10:30 a unit train with 30 loads goes home (4300, 9163, 4368). Then at 11:45 584 rolls east thru town with empty grain cars (5568, 5514). Following right behind 584 are the section guys. Coming home for lunch. They had their share of stick handling with 3 trains going by in the morning. Also, CN 16013, the last number is hard to make out, could be 3 or 5.
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Always nice to a piece of Work Equipment show up.
Great action shot of a Fairmont MT-14 section track motor car. It’s powered by a 20 horsepower Onan CCKB gasoline engine coupled to a 2-speed reversible transmission. The running number would certainly be in the 160-1x series.
CN Track Motor Car Numbering:
At one time, there were 1500+ track motor cars on the CN system. They were a major portion of the CN work equipment inventory.
Motor cars were numbered by type of car (inspection, section, gang).
If memory serves me correctly, they were numbered as follows;
CN 130-xx through CN 149-xx inspection type motor car (2-man)
CN 150-xx through CN 179-xx section type motor car (4-6 man)
CN 180-xx through CN 195-xx gang type motor car (8+ men)
There were also some special numbering sequences;
CN Telecommunications CN 100-xx
Test, demo, special projects CN 999-xx
Thanks for the all the great number info Paul. That is a large fleet of motor cars to take care of. It could not have been cheap to run and maintain, trucks were certainly the way to go.
So cool, and this type of railway equipment was often photo neglected in favour of prize mainline or even switching movements
Great big diesel units and 2 guys ride up there. The guys that swung hammers, pulled wrench’s all day and worked in dust, a zesty sardine can that rode like a lumber wagon.
Nice. Great memories of riding the rails back in motorcar days.
I am in posession of CN motorcar 173-51. Its very similar to this car but has a different roofline-it appears taller(perhaps to give more headroom) and has more head lights and red tailights installed .Big whip antenna and speaker are the same. These must have been awful in the cold of winter and the blazing heat of summer.
TMike,
Would sure like to see a photo of your CN 173-51.
The CN running number suggests to me that it is a 4-6-man section track motor. My records suggest it is likely a Fairmont model MT14 car with an Onan 20hp CCKB gasoline engine, however, there were some Woodings Railcar track motor cars sprinkled in at that time, which could explain the cab height differences you mention.
The moderators have my permission to provide my personal email address should you wish to correspond.
Paul O’Shell
Perfect, after reading your comment, Paul O’Shell seemed like the source you needed to hear from. Our man of knowledge on everthing track oriented.
Thanks Paul.
Thanks for those kind words L. Parks.
I’m not so sure I can measure up as ‘the man of knowledge on everything track oriented’, but I will take credit for being (at one time) a Subject Matter Expert (SME) in Engineering Work Equipment.
While I am still able to, I’m glad to provide specific detail information on MoW track machinery images that pop up from time-to-time on RP.
Wishing everyone a great day.
TMike,
To answer your inquiry about riding track motor cars in summer and winter conditions, I can personally attest to how awful it was on most occasions.
In the late 1970′s and well into the 1980′s track motor cars were still void of heaters and air conditioning. Occupants were lucky to have a ventilation fan to circulate air in the fiberglass enclosed cabins.
The introduction of enclosed cabs on track motor cars kept the occupants out of the elements, however, it magnified the ambient noise levels inside the enclosure.
The advent of hi-rail vehicles was a welcome upgrade for Engineering Dept. forces.
Having said all that, traveling in a track motor car for work purposes back in the day was a lot of fun.
Yes its an Fairmont MT14. No seats-just wooden bench in the middle of the cab to sit on (just like the above picture) Mine also has a bit different corner windows and one piece doors (not a “bi-fold”) I would enjoy emailing with you. Mike