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Caption: Hapag-Lloyd running "Southern Style".... CP's Hapag-Lloyd unit, working as 'Work Extra 8781', pulls a dead Train #244 into the siding in Tilbury, Ontario on March 24, 2022. Here's how the story goes.... So around 6:00am on March 24th, UP 8849 East, a 244 train, departed Windsor for London. Around MP 86 UP 8849 ran out of fuel and came to a stop blocking the Gracie Sideroad just west of Tilbury around 6:30am-ish. Talks then begin on what to do. "Is there power in Windsor to go out and drag 244 back to Belle River?" 'Nope'. "Is T69 still around Chatham and they can go back to Tilbury and pull 244 east and clear?" 'Nope'. So with nothing around to do an assist, and UP 8849 far enough past the Gracie Sideroad that they can't refuel it, the only hope is for Train #141, which was still in London, to do a rescue. But 141 isn't ready to Leave London yet. Eventually, around 0930 CP 8781, with train #141, departed London to the rescue. After leaving London 141 got hit by the Hotbox detector and had 4 'hot wheels' so they had to stop and inspect the train. After a set and release they were able to continue east with no further issues at the next HB detector. 141 finally arrived at MP 74 around 12:00pm-ish. Here the crew of #141 cut 8781 away from the trailing CP unit and left the train behind as they headed west at 10mph to get 244. Upon arrival at 244 they had some issues making a good joint. The crew of 244 by this point was out of time and once 141 had the air up on the stranded 244, the 244 crew walked to their cab to leave and book rest. At this point 8781, leading long hood forward, dragged UP 8849 and train #244 east and into the siding in Tilbury. Of course 244 was 2 cars too long for the siding, so they had to double over 1 rack and the UP 8849 in to the back track. Once completed 8781 was able to head back east to MP 74 and their 141 train. After everything was setup again 141 got away and finally cleared into Windsor around 4:40pm, a mear 7 hours after leaving London. All in all there were 4 trains delayed due to the rescue with one left in the siding for 2 days with no fuel. This my friends is what results from "Precision Scheduled Railroading"....
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34Ian Deck, Mike Molnar and 32 others
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Nice shot and thanks for the detailed narrative.
I was at Campbellville a week and watched 246 stalled on the hill blocking Guelph line.MMM maybe the same problem called precision railroading
That’s a great shot! The “Saint John Express” on the long hood makes it along with the Canadian Flag.
Geoff, great caption and very nice picture . . . Precision Scheduled Railroading at its best ! Ha, ha, ha. Of course to keep a spare unit at Chatham for such emergencies (which seem to occur all too often) would be way out of the question, way too expensive for the bean counters to have a unit sitting around. Of course the fact that it could be used as a helper for super-long-under-powered trains is way beyond their thinking.
Question, who was the “tall forehead genius” that OK’d 244 to “get out of Dodge” without checking UP 8849’s fuel guage ? Well maybe the fuel guage was faulty – nothing like the old dip stick to see how much fuel in the tank. Or maybe there was a fuel leak somewhere, which a good “walk around” the unit would have disclosed – dripping, pooling diesel oil can be seen and smelled – oh but that’s not in the job description of the engineer and the conductor undoubtedly had too much paper work to do. Where was the Windsor locomotive superintendent who would have on his examination of each diesel unit discovered the low fuel level ? Oh, his job was eliminated by a Calgary “scalp scratcher” in the HO to lower the operating ratio. Now just imagine on your next air line flight if they ran out of fuel 65 miles into the flight !
And who was the “brilliant thinker” who miscalculated the length of 244 (by 2 cars) so it wouldn’t fit into the Tilbury siding ? Some one needs to take a math course. Railroad dispatching these days is such a joke – crews timing out all the time, trains constantly underpowered, hours wasted by some crew member trudging back a mile to find/check out a wheel bearing that set off a trackside detector. Well at least this fiasco provided you a good phot op. Thanks for posting John