Comments on: A CN special train with GP9 4596 creeps over the single track Humber River bridge on CN’s Halton Sub with a huge load for Ontario Hydro’s Darlington Nuclear Power plant which was under construction at the time. The hoppers were each loaded with about 40 tons of sand for extra braking power.

By: First954

First954 — Sat, 25 Apr 2020 22:15:29 +0000

The hoppers were about half full based on capacity. The situation was simply that the railway did not think the two Babcock and Wilcox 12 axle cars possessed enough braking capacity properly control the train. Partially loaded cars were used because of the fear that empty cars would derail too easily in a heavy braking situation. Agreed that normally empty cars were used to spread the load away from the locomotive, but not in this case. Thanks for the comment.

By: RLK2211

RLK2211 — Sat, 25 Apr 2020 20:48:07 +0000

Ballast cars full of sand for extra braking? That’s a new one to me…..maybe things were done differently back then, but generally speaking the idler cars are for balancing the weight on bridges and other infrastructure…..

Needless to say this is a great picture!!

By: Kevin Flood

Kevin Flood — Sat, 25 Apr 2020 14:31:50 +0000

What an interesting catch.