Comments on: This is the first deadline I’ve ever seen idling! While all 3 units pictured show retired in the CN system, they’ve all been sitting here idling with batteries charged for a month and counting! Taken by an off duty CN employee wearing all required PPE.

By: Stephen C. Host

Stephen C. Host — Sun, 11 Apr 2021 15:01:52 +0000

ahah wow. Thanks for the info and for doing the research Tim. It is very appreciated

By: Tim Stevens

Tim Stevens — Sun, 11 Apr 2021 14:43:44 +0000

This 4607 was all good and well on train M377 up until around Cobourg where it called it a day. It was retired upon arrival at the Mac Yard diesel shop. Crazy. I’ll see if I can compile a list when time allows.

By: Stephen C. Host

Stephen C. Host — Sun, 11 Apr 2021 14:38:36 +0000

Thanks eh. Tim any ability to put a list of what was retired so far and when in 2021? Curious if it is a slow trickle of retirements or a bunch at a time?

By: Tim Stevens

Tim Stevens — Sun, 11 Apr 2021 06:29:00 +0000

@CP5756… March 9, 2021.

By: ngineered4u

ngineered4u — Sat, 10 Apr 2021 20:22:42 +0000

@Stephen. It would all depend on the size of the fuel tank and a few other conditions, but on average a locomotive burns 3.5 gallons of fuel per hour. So if you multiply that times the capacity you get your answer. Most railroads have 2000-4500 gallon tanks so I think that would be a very long time before running out of fuel. Some of CN’s lower hp (GP9/38′s units have a high idle feature for colder weather. Of course if you multiplied that 3.5 gallons per hour across the whole fleet, thats a lot of wasted fuel. Hence the introduction of “Smart Start” which shuts the unit down until the water temperature drops below a certain level, then it self starts to bring the temperature up again.

By: cp5756

cp5756 — Sat, 10 Apr 2021 20:14:21 +0000

since when was 4607 retired?

By: Stephen C. Host

Stephen C. Host — Sat, 10 Apr 2021 19:46:18 +0000

Not a railroader so a question: how long can a loco idle on a full tank give/take?

By: ngineered4u

ngineered4u — Sat, 10 Apr 2021 19:04:43 +0000

If the units were idling then they are definitely not in the dead line. Dead line units are just that. Dead and drained I will be sad to see these old guys retired, but will have many great memories of operating most of them

By: Brundle

Brundle — Sat, 10 Apr 2021 16:35:16 +0000

Idling for a month plus, boy, are they going to smoke when first throttled up.