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Caption: Two new Irish Rail locomotives dressed to travel, submitted St. Patrick's Day 2019.
GM Diesel Division SW1001 plant switcher numbered "1" (ex-EMD LaGrange) is moving Irish Rail (Iarnród Éireann) JT42HCW units 204 and 210 across Oxford Street, presumably to hand off to CN Rail for transport to an ocean freighter. Their 3-axle trucks are not in the picture, typically riding on another flatcar.
JT42HCW locomotives are powered by an EMD V 12-710G3B diesel engine of 3200 gross HP (2970 HP for traction). The railways of Ireland have a track gauge of 5' 3", wider than international standard gauge of 4' 8-1/2", so they cannot travel to the dock on their own wheels.
I have photos showing higher-numbered Irish Rail locomotives on CP Rail flatcars in CP's Quebec Street Yard.
Irish Rail's first JT42HCW unit 201 had the most notable transportation arrangements - air freighted to Ireland (with trucks mounted) aboard an Antonov An-124 cargo plane from London ON to Dublin on 9 June 1994 - sources indicate that a JT42HCW weighs 120 tons ! (in 2000 lb tons - a lesser number of metric tons)
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That guy looking at the camera? Priceless. What’s in the box though?
Air freighted to Ireland? Must’ve been important. Wonder how they loaded that in?
Boxes like that are seen on quite a number of flatcars, my guess has been that it’s a place to store tie-down cables, chains, etc.
I suspect that the air freight of unit 201 was partly for publicity, the aircraft operator wanting to attract other shippers.
“The fully assembled, 109-ton locomotive was rolled onto the Russian Antonov 124-100, the world’s largest freighter, in London Ontario, en route to Dublin. The flight took some 12 hours with refueling stops in Montreal; Gander, Newfoundland; and Reykjavik, Iceland.
Officials who supervised the loading of the June 9 flight have submitted the shipment, which weighed 146 tons in all, to The Guinness Book of Records.”