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18 April 1989 I rode down to Montreal this morning in the cab of the LRC on VIA 30. It was unit number 6917 which worked pretty well except that the dynamic brake had been cut out over a week ago. We left on time with Ottawa engineman Irwin McFarland in charge. It was getting light and was quite bright even though the temperature was very low. We saw many flights of geese in the Carlsbad Springs area and there were many on the pond at Casselman. At Alexandria the other engineman, Norm Roussell took over for the rest of the trip into Montreal. There were three coffees and cold breakfasts brought in from the train for us at Alexandria. All went well until Glen Robertson when we were given a 264 order and had to run at restricted speed all the way to De Beaujeu. The problem was a track circuit failure. We were a little late into Coteau and VIA 31 was waiting to take the single line. We managed to get up to 95 mph on the Kingston subdivision and regained much of the lost time. A final 10 mph slow order brought us into Montreal Central station about 5 minutres late. The LRC rides well and accelerates well. It is quieter than the F40-PHs that are being brought into service. I saw 6430 at Montreal. It is the first of the new series of F40s. They will see out the 6700s and many of the 6500s which were very much in evidence. 6518 brought us back on VIA 37 arriving at Ottawa on time and running into a beautiful sunset. I came back in the club car. |
