CN 436x-series Passenger Geeps

Canadian National bought 434 General Motors GP9's, with 85 going to its US lines: GTW, GT and CV. Among its lightweight GP9's (235,000 pounds, 10 tons lighter than the heavyweights) were 1957-built class GR-17p CN GP9’s 4100-4133. Equipped with 58:19 gear ratio for 89-mph high-speed operation on passenger/express freight trains and Flexicoil trucks. CN replaced the Flexicoils with Blomberg trucks by 1974. 

Through steam lines were added to the 'passenger Geeps' by CN by 1961, not at the time of manufacturing. The through steam lines allowed those units to be marshalled behind steam generator-equipped units in a locomotive consist. Reportedly, CN president Norman MacMillan had complained about seeing GP9's leading sleek F-units on the Super Continental!  Most of the 4100's were re-geared with a standard GP9 62:15 gear ratio, maximum 65 mph, also by 1974. The through steam-lines were not maintained or used on CN 4107 and above. CN kept 4100-4106 equipped for passenger service;  4107 was wrecked in 1974.

Between 1981 and 1994, CN remanufactured 310 of their GP9's into GP9RM's at Pointe St. Charles shops with modernized electrical and mechanical components. CN’s modernization program also included completely new cabs, chopped short hoods, new carbody air filters where the dynamic brake sections once were and much more. The 4000/4100-series were rebuilt as road units, the 7000-series as switchers and the 7200/200-series as mother-slug pairs. As a result of the new 4000/4100-series rebuilds, the passenger Geeps were renumbered from 4100-4106 to 4360-4366 in 1984 and leased by VIA Rail Canada until 1986.

CN's passenger Geeps 4360-4366 were fodder for the rebuild program, being rebuilt respectively to 7254 (1990), 4137 ('91), slug 223 ('87), 4104:2 ('84), slug 240 ('88), 7033 ('91) and 7262 ('90).

The only Corridor consists with 436x-series passenger Geeps that I noted in 1984-85-86; note one or more F9B in each of the following photographs: 

• Apr 8/84 1926 WB: CN 4362-CN 4105-15459-616-3217-5576-5569-3215-752-Hunter Manor-Kokanee Park.
• Aug 17/84 1958 WB: 6777-CN 4360-617-5650-5467-755-5482-107-3210-Bell Manor-Chateau Argenson.
• Aug 26/84 1216 WB: CN 4361-6632-602-5458-3217-5594-5487-5595-3202-Union Club (below and top photo):

• Dec 21/84 1203 EB: CN 4362-6624-Tweedsmuir Park reversed-612-Boulevard Club-3210-5495-5541-759-117-3200-Chateau Laval-CN 95:

• Dec 21/84 1205 WB: CN 4360-6623-6616-9653-3226-4886-5455-5627-3241 Club Laurier:

• April 27/85 EB: 4366-6624-9653-5452-5618-750-Club Richelieu-3226-5617:

• May 10/85 1925 WB No 1/55: CN 4364-6631-9670-5581-5441-750-116-3248-Elgin-Elcott.*
• May 20/85 1915 EB No 56: CN 4362-6870-5618-3206-5647-3221-9636.*
• June 2/85 1931 WB: CN 4361-5646-3220-5519-3222-600.
• Feb 2/86 1955 EB No 56: CN 3122-CN 4365-15429-9668-3253-101-102-103-CN 96.*
• Feb 16/86 1935 WB No 55: CN 4365-15460-5468-5467-3230-5448-601.*

*consists recorded by L.C. Gagnon

None of my photos show the 436x GP9's in rescue service! Rescues involving these CN Geeps, both as rescuing unit and and as rescued unit:

• Jan 10/85: CN 4401 rescued No 37 CN 4361, between Coteau and Ottawa.
• Apr 22/85: CN 3119 rescued No 37 and its failed CN 4362.
• Dec 19/85: CN 4365 from Ottawa’s Walkley Yard rescued No 43.

Retired CN engineer Steve Lucas commented on my recently-published rescue post, to say that he was personally involved in two Geep rescues while working on VIA Rail trains in the Corridor. I'll include them in this post, as they form the inspiration for this post:

"I was a trainman at VIA Toronto South from May 1988 to January 1990. During that time I was involved in two rescues using CN power. In the summer of 1988 I was working VIA No 73 at Brantford. We stopped on the north track at the station for our work and could not get moving again. I recall the loco being ex-CP 6557. We "borrowed" (with permission) a CN GP9 in the yard, came onto the north track at the crossover at the west end of the yard. I had to get permission to break the seal on the electric lock from the train dispatcher so we could come out and couple to our train. At 65 mph maximum, it was a longer trip to Windsor. Same for the way back to Toronto. At Eastwood (now called Blain) we had trouble with the GP9. After a few minutes, wed were able to depart. We arrived Toronto over an hour late, with No 58 waiting for us at Union Station across the platform.

My second experience was while braking on VIA No 58 at Brockville, probably early-1989. The fuel filter on our VIA FPA-4 blew up. We took another GP9 from Brockville Yard. Neither engineer had a reverser handle, so one was fashioned from a cotter pin. It was a cold ride on the footboards out to our train. Fortunately the steam jenny still worked on the FPA-4. At 65 mph maximum with the GP9 again, we arrived into Montreal Central Station an hour late."

Additional consists with CN 436x-series passenger Geeps, from Southwest Ontario and elsewhere, in the same time period as my observations: 

• Mar 10/85 No 72: 6506‐CN 4366‐15424.
• Mar 24/85 No 73: 6764‐CN 4364‐15455.
• May 5/85 No 75: CN 4364‐6861‐6631.
• May 19/85 No 75: CN 4364‐6867‐6861.
• Aug 10/85 Moncton NB No 15: CN 4360-6787-6622-6628-9632-5532-3222-5576-5709-5744-1358-Fitzwilliam-Greenshields-Green Hill-Chateau Closse-Hudson Bay. (from V3)
• Aug 25/85 No 75: 6786‐6630‐CN 4364-14 cars.

Lots o' links:

• Glenn Courtney photo of CN 4366 in freight service in September, 1985.

Running extra...

Faithful Trackside Treasure reader, loyal correspondent, bird-dog extraordinaire and fine example of American citizenry Bill Staiger kindly sent me this amazing link to the Ira Silverman Railroad Menu Collection, hosted by Northwestern University Digital Collections. Yes, waiter, I'd like to order the 'scan of every dining car menu' (245 total!) with a side order of VIA.

Looking horribly out of place*, I photographed this trackside building near the U-P Weston station during my Union-Pearson Express 'Avioner' trip from Toronto Union Station to Pearson Airport on October 29, 2015. Turns out it was Kodak Building Nine, a recreation building built in 1939 as part of the company's large industrial campus in the Weston area northwest of downtown. 

The entire 5,000,000-pound structure was moved 180 feet and back in 2016-17 to make way for, then become, the new Eglinton Light Rail Transit line's Mount Dennis intermodal terminal. Western Mechanical pushed the derelict Kodak building 180 feet out of the way, before it could be reused as a new subway stop, adjacent to the Eglinton Maintenance & Storage Facility. Here's the Youtube link showing the slow and steady move.

*after I typed that, I realized that I was the one was horribly out of place. I was riding a train-plane link but had no intention of flying anywhere (except flying back to Kingston that evening aboard VIA No 48). I got off the U-P, walked about 500 feet looking like an 'Avioner' in the Air Canada TV commercial, turned around and boarded the next U-P back to Union!

JD Winkler - Track Gang Photos

JD Winkler spent 40 years in maintenance-of-way service, with CP Rail/Canadian Pacific Railway and private contractors. Among the CP gangs and crews he worked on: tie crews, Pacific #2 Steel Crew, Alberta surfacing crews, thermite welding crews, Alberta Ballast crew and various construction crews. JD has recently been sharing a plethora of his four decades of photos on social media, spanning not only his career but Canada's West from prairies, foothills and mountains. I got in touch with JD and he kindly allowed me to share these favourites, found among his hundreds of posted photos, in this post.  

JD posted many photos from more modern eras, but I find these 1980's views to be the most interesting. Today, the gangs are bigger, more mechanized, and there are no longer solid trains of boarding cars except in the most remote areas. Gangs that still have boarding cars employ construction-type pre-fab cabins on flat cars. Definitely not the tired, clapped-out and fully-depreciated former boxcars, other house cars and passenger cars that CP repurposed for human occupation! 

The top photo is one of the most modern in this post, but the spike maul and lining bar definitely still have their place today as they did two centuries ago! A word about these photos...I have not reformatted them in any way. JD notes that the photos span the 110-format (Instamatic) and 135 (35 mm SLR) eras of camera development. A progression very similar to mine through railfan photography from the Kodak Hawkeye to my first Yashica 35 mm camera. JD did not include captioning information or location with many of the photos. I suppose I could ask him. I could somehow refer to each photo and ask him for date, location and description. Um, no. I have no indication that he wanted to go through that exercise. So, this is not intended to be the usual Trackside Treasure fully-documented post. Consider it a pop-up post. 

The 1980s had a minimum of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE): blue, yellow or white hard hats, work boots and gloves. No safety vests in sight!

Occupied boarding outfit cars in the siding (above) and occupied during movement (below):

The white-fleet pre-fab units make their first appearance, backdrop for an impromptu football game:

Service sartorial splendour. Ever careful with company assets, if you forget your raincoat, you can use a CP garbage bag to keep dry, but you'll never forget your company provided that garbage bag!

Ballast sled, hauled under the track, attached to a flat car by a cable:

It's an all-weather, all-hours job.

Field Hill derailment upper tunnel

Hi-rail vehicles brought additional equipment closer to the worksite, by road and by rail. As such, they were not reliant upon flat cars to load, couple into a freight train or special movement, haul to the next worksite and unload.

Gull Lake, SK 

Alberta Steel gang at Tompkins, SK.

Back in the day of full auxiliary wreck trains (this one with a wreck dozer), prior to the advent of contractors with excavators and their hi-rail heavy equipment.

Making room on the Vancouver waterfront for additional tracks for commuter service.

Various methods for getting the track gang's machines off the flat cars.

Dumping ballast the pre-Herzog way, from former Government of Canada Branch Line Rehabilitation program cars:

Tie replacement in Calgary Alyth yard - notice the business cars, Dayliner, Service ex-passenger cars and other goodies:

Former portable stations in Saskatchewan, repurposed as Service car speeder sheds.

Motor car at Burstall (with worker)

I hope you enjoyed this trip back to a largely bygone era. Sure, steel rails are still laid on wood ties, though much else in the technology, human resources and corporate culture has changed since JD Winkler took these on-the-job photos over the past four decades. There are many more that I didn't include, showing the hard work, humour bordering on goofiness, and the sacrifice those working on the track make all across our great lone land, keeping the trains we love to see rolling safely through our magnificent Canadian landscape. Thank you, JD for giving us a window on your worthwhile work!

Running extra...

I'm dedicating this post to JD's daughter, Jennifer. I was saddened to read that in 2021, a high-school classmate with psychosis ended her life at their high school. Father and daughter shared a love of trains. As a father and grandfather, I was reminded that in the Trackside Treasure space, we usually see each other through our love of trains, too. Behind that shared interest is a person, each of us with "hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer", to quote the bard in The Merchant of Venice. 

We are more than train enthusiasts. We are enthusiastic about life, with friends and families, jobs and hobbies, views on politics, religion, current events, with things that trouble us as well as please us. By all accounts, Jennifer had an imagination and a creative side that she was going to use to enliven this world of ours in her own unique way. Talk is cheap, and calls to end violence and facilitate better mental health supports are a dime-a-dozen. But here's a case of the impact on a real-life family, not just a statistic. This was someone's life, not pictures posted to impress on social media depicting an ideal world. 

At times, this world can be far from ideal. 

Jennifer, may you live on in your Dad's memory 

and in the lives of all those you touched during your time among us.

Jenny at the Union Pacific museum in Ogden, UT. 

Immortalized by her brother's tattoo - CBC photo (above).

The VIA Rail Book Awards!

The VIA Rail bookshelf is a very short one. Notwithstanding books featuring photos of VIA Rail by McDonnell, Wilson, Coo's guides and many others, or books on aspects of VIA Rail like Canadian Sunset (above), until I began work on the first of my four books on VIA Rail in October, 2010 there were only four! Four!! In this post, my initial goal was to highlight a new book and try to fit it into the existing bookshelf based on its content.

But wait...as I tried to do so, I once again realized that no two of the published books on my personal VIA Rail bookshelf shared exactly the same focus. Each one was in some way different, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. So instead, consider this a meeting of the VIA book club - this club pertains solely to this one micro-niche topic. Everyone gets an award. I feel a bit like a nepo-baby giving myself an award, but I will stay humble. (I have wondered for a long time whether a political candidate votes for himself or herself.) I should actually feel more like Oprah, "You get one, and you get one!" And the awards go to - in order of publication - with author surname, title, year of publication, initial selling price, AWARD! and notes.

• Nelligan - VIA Rail: The First Five Years, 1982. $15. THE TRACKSIDE TREASURE VERY FIRST BOOK ON VIA RAIL AWARD. It was not common, in the early 1980s, to have as much colour as Tom Nelligan had in this book. Cross-Canada coverage of a time when, like an invading army coming ashore, VIA was in its most vulnerable position.

• Lewis - Rail Canada, Volume 4, 1983. $35? THE TRACKSIDE TREASURE FIRST BOOK ON VIA RAIL'S FLEET AWARD. Consists, cars, specs and even some colour, though listing measurements in millimetres was often a source of controversy.

• Greenlaw - MBI/Voyageur Press railroad color history of VIA Rail, 2007. $45. THE TRACKSIDE TREASURE BEST CORPORATE HISTORY BOOK ON VIA RAIL AWARD. In this post, I profiled my meeting with Chris to have my copy of his book signed, and we met again when he picked up one of my books! The political and business elements of VIA's history have been captured nowhere else in this level of detail.

• Shron - Turbotrain: A Journey, 2007. $25. THE TRACKSIDE TREASURE BEST SINGLE-TRAIN  BOOK ON VIA RAIL AWARD. We didn't get a Tempo book until much later, though the prolific Kevin J. Holland's treatment Hawker-Siddeley unique technology followed a similar path, moving from CN to VIA ownership.

• Gagnon - Trackside with VIA - The First 35 Years, 2011. $25 (*initial price, without shipping). THE TRACKSIDE TREASURE FIRST BOOK ON VIA RAIL CONSISTS AWARD. No other book has 2,700 consists, and probably never will. Born from a 78-page spreadsheet!

• Gagnon - Trackside with VIA: Cross-Canada Compendium and Cross-Canada Compendium Consist Companion, 2012. $30* and $8*, respectively. THE TRACKSIDE TREASURE FIRST BOOK THAT GOT TOO BIG TO BE JUST ONE BOOK AWARD. Now I know what it's like to expect one baby and find out it's twins!

• Holland - VIA in Color - The First 25 Years, 2013. $59.95. Here's a post. THE TRACKSIDE TREASURE BEST ALL-COLOUR TOUR OF VIA BOOK AWARD. As appraised by Jakob Mueller: "If you have any of Eric Gagnon's books, get this book. Conversely, if you get this book and want to learn more about the equipment you are seeing, get Eric's books." Colour printing and Morning Sun Books' stable of subjects resulted in a full-colour finish.
  

• Gagnon - Trackside with VIA: Research and Recollections, 2017. $30. THE TRACKSIDE TREASURE FIRST BOOK ON VIA RAIL TO HAVE THE WORD RESEARCH IN ITS TITLE AWARD. None of my books were the work of just one creator. I was fortunate to have valued contributors contributing for all four: Schuff, Perry, Bohi, Boyko, Sampson, Hayman, Box, McQueen, Mueller and Shron. Each contributor had contributed his own time spent on research, photography and time trackside as I did.

• Holland - People Moving People: The History of VIA Rail Canada, 2022. $79.95. Here's a publicizing post.  THE TRACKSIDE TREASURE BEST COFFEE TABLE BOOK ON VIA RAIL AWARD. Forty years after Nelligan. State-of-the-art book! The Rapido Trains live video on this book included the phrase, "Eric Gagnon has printed a few things". I've always chuckled at that one - not just for the somewhat-awkward mention, but also for the closed captioning mis-handling of my name! Now 31% off MSRP! 

and now...

Longpre' - The Cars of VIA Volume 1, 2024. $124.95. 

Just advertised in the past week for pre-order. In the author's own words, "I'm a part time railway consultant, buying and selling railway passenger cars & parts, "TheSleeper Line" reporting marks SLCX. In the 1990s, I have purchased and sold over 70 passenger cars, mostly retired VIA Rail passenger equipment, and some ex-CN auxiliary cars." Rapido says he’s owned 84 different real passenger cars at various times in the last 20 years, the first car in 1990. Jason Shron posted on Dec 16/01, "Has anyone thought to preserve a Tempo coach or a passenger RS18?", to which the author replied, "I had to scrap many ex CN/VIA "E" and "Green" sleepers back six years ago, because I had no takers back then. Now, I receive calls on occasions from folks looking for these cars. My answer is this: if you think it should be preserved, buy them while they're available. Don't count on anyone else but you." Things have really changed in the ensuing 23 years since that question and answer. Jason Shron has progressed from a student of art to a manufacturer of model trains. He has also successfully parlayed his admiration for all things VIA into a VIA Historical Association (VHA). 

It truly takes more than one person to create books of this scope. Assembling photos from various sources (see below on that one!) such as railway archives and trackside photographers sometimes has a prohibitive cost attached. It's an up-front cost that has to be recouped once the book goes on sale. It's also a cost that scares many away from 'doing that book I've been working on'. So having Rapido Trains Inc. and the VHA as part of these two most recent books' production and marketing has to be a big help. In the author's own words, "a Morning Sun book costs .55 cents per page, while The Cars of VIA costs .42 cents per page. I could have sold it on my own for $100.00, but instead I chose to sell it for $125.00 allowing retailers to buy and sell them in-store, which reduces the profit margin considerably. Finally, I've invested 16 years of my life so far and over $20,000 in photographic material, research and various road trips."

Sample photos of the book from the Rapido Trains Inc. website:

Skyline detail, though date of reversal is listed as "early-1980s".

Volume one of eight - time-line for others TBD. Set aside $1,000!

Car-by-car granular detail:

This volume covers about 85 cars out of VIA's 900+ car fleet. Eight volumes are planned, though I'm not sure why anyone would shroud mystery with misinformation....?

And...an early mockup?

The search for photos for this new book became mired in mists of a mystifying miasma five years ago, one that reached your humble blogger. An unsettling one that I first found out about from Pinterest, a social media set-up that bills itself as a "visual discovery engine for finding ideas like recipes, home and style inspiration, and more" and in my case, a place to warehouse photos I find online, for personal, modelling purposes. Places like ebay, where a copy/save puts a sale item image (not a slide!) into my Pinterest page.

In September, 2019 an email landed in my inbox, including the excerpt (RL) and my reply (EG) thereto (below, ending with the final word from Pinterest which accurately adjudicated the intended claim of ownership of photos for this book was indeed not a valid one made as by the author). In spite of the action taken against me to try to land three strikes against me using my Pinterest account, I'm still using Pinterest!

RL: I noticed that you are continuously taking Ebay Kodachrome slide previews to post them on Pinterest. It happens that I purchased some of these for my book. Once sold, these become the property of the buyer for their personal use or for future work such as the book I'm presently writing. I have placed a removal request with Pinterest for some of them. If this continues, I shall take further actions to stop this. There will be at least four volumes with over 2500 pictures. First volume should be completed by the beginning of next year [2020]. I respect your blog, please respect my book and its contents by removing any photographic material that you don't own on Pinterest or any other web site. Please act accordingly.

EG: Your email is unclear as to how I, or anyone else, can possibly know who 'owns' a photo before it's posted and then sold on ebay, especially since ebay sellers routinely sell slide duplicates which are then bought by multiple buyers. I'm glad that you respect my blog but others routinely copy and paste photos from Trackside Treasure to Pinterest. I am both flattered and frustrated by this, but I have decided not to waste time pursuing and threatening them as you have done. Why are you choosing to do this?

EG to Pinterest: Please let me know if I'm interpreting Pinterest and Ebay copyright policies incorrectly. I have read both and am participating in good faith. I can foresee Richard submitting similar complaints in future and I believe I should enjoy Pinterest without threats from Richard such as these.

Pinterest to EG: Eric [another Eric!](Pinterest Support): We have received your counter-notice. After review, we have removed the strike against your account.

The end - Fin.

Of course, I want to support all book creators and their projects. Especially when it comes to books on VIA Rail, of which there were arguably only ten. And though I am neither a shill nor shelter for other creators, I am an ardent aficionado that claims this corner of cyberspace as my own, free to praise, pillory and put up with my fellow enthusiasts as I see fit on a daily basis. 

Running extra...

Tim's still travellin'! Check out Tim Hayman's third instalment of his trip aboard VIA's Canadian this summer. Tim is so right when he praises the river canyons of British Columbia, in some ways more scenic than the even the Rockies on the CN line through Jasper.

Sharp-eyed readers. You are wanted here at Trackside Treasure! Nearly a month ago, I inconspicuously inserted an 'Easter Egg' into what I call the boilerplate language at the top of this blog's right sidebar. It was August 15, and my thinking was...does anyone actually read this stuff?

On September 9, I got my answer. It was a yes. Not a resounding yes, nor an instantaneous yes, but a yes nonetheless:

Congratulations! Your prize awaits!