VIA Rail Locomotive catches fire en route to Ottawa

For what it is worth, there was a P42 leading a Montreal Toronto train that I was on (I was up in VIA 1 class in the LRC car) and could see the smoke belching from the P42 every time we accelerated. Being on Amtrak's P42's I found it odd that this VIA P42 unit was making so much noise and belching out so much smoke from its exhaust.

How old are VIA's P42 engines and how old are Amtrak's P42 engines. Seems to me both were built around the same time. Granted Amtrak first had P40's, but then got its lion share of P42's!

There are three major models of GE Genesis locomotives in operation today: the P32AC-DM, P40DC, and P42DC.
(1) The P40DC, or Dash 8-40BP (originally known as the AMD-103 orAMtrak Diesel - 103MPH) was the first model in the Genesis series. Amtrak bought all 38 P40 locomotives in 1993.

(2) Amtrak bought 207 P42DC locomotives starting in 1996. The last one ordered was in 2001.

(3) The P32AC-DM locomotive was developed for both Amtrak and Metro-North so it can run off power either generated by the on-board diesel prime mover or collected from a third rail electrification system at 750 volts direct current. Amtrak bought 18 P32AC-DM locomotives in 1995 and 1998.

P40 Roster:
Stored by Amtrak: 800-807, 809, 811, 813-818, 821-832, 837
Note: 15 P40s have been selected for rebuilding in 2009/2010 using ARRA funds.
4 Sold to NJT: 808, 810, 812, 820 for ACE service
8 Sold to CTDOT: 833, 834, 836, 838, 840, 841 for Metro-North, 842, 843 for Shore Line East

P42 Roster:
199 in active service. Out of service P42s as of 12/31/08: 3, 7, 8, 143, 149, 167, 173 and 200.

P38 Roster:
All 18 in active service.

Via bought 21 P42DC locomotives in late 2001.
Roster: 900-920.

Riding Metro North in CT a few times a week I am on a train hulled by a P32AC-DM. At least twice in the last year and a half my train has been canceled/delayed due to a broken down engine, I have heard of other incidents too when I am not on the train that they have had issues including with the fall leaves and not being able to make it up hills. I see a lot of those used P40DCs that were sold to CTDOT by Amtrak and they are smokey not to mention how bad looking the paint is on them.
The new Metro North rebuilds are having problems "loading" and are slow to start up from stations.

The engine #902 is now back in service! I saw it today at MMC!

Thanks RailfanQC! Good to see it fixed up nicely. Looks like it got the same paint job as 917 (the slightly more green colour), although I wonder why there is no Canada logo on the side. Did they just not get to that yet? And why the yellow stripe does not continue over the side maintenance door, I'm not sure. And of course, the extra blue/green stripe over top of the yellow one that used to make it a more unique locomotive, is not there anymore. Kind of a shame. Oh well, it's nice to see it back in service at any rate!

timberley wrote:And why the yellow stripe does not continue over the side maintenance door, I'm not sure. And of course, the extra blue/green stripe over top of the yellow one that used to make it a more unique locomotive, is not there anymore. Kind of a shame. Oh well, it's nice to see it back in service at any rate!

I had this engine the other night going to London on #89. Just as I thought Via forgot to remove the tape covering the yellow stripe after repainting the engine. I think you will find the next time
you get a shot of 902 those maintenance doors will have the proper yellow stripe across them

viahogger wrote: I had this engine the other night going to London on #89. Just as I thought Via forgot to remove the tape covering the yellow stripe after repainting the engine. I think you will find the next time
you get a shot of 902 those maintenance doors will have the proper yellow stripe across them

Thanks Terry! It wouldn't really make sense otherwise. Do you know though, of any reason for the lack of Canada logo?

timberley wrote:Thanks Terry! It wouldn't really make sense otherwise. Do you know though, of any reason for the lack of Canada logo?

When Via Rail repainted the 917 they included a new "Canada" logo on the sides of the loco, I'm not sure why they did not do the same for the 902. Maybe they are no longer
doing it, or it is coming at a later date? If I get a chance to talk to anyone in the know I will ask.

There was another locomotive fire today, this time on VIA train #79 from Toronto to Windsor. The fire was discovered at around 10:00 pm on February 14 near Glencoe. All passengers and crew were evacuated and there were no injuries reported. At this time I have no information on the unit involved or whether it was a F40 or P42.

It seems there is an American Doppel fire every time a Via P42 experiences a fire. Recently a NJT P42 had an exhaust fire, strong enough to damage catenary on the NEC.

Here's a shot of 902 the other day, from RailPictures

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 954&nseq=5

The fresh paint is still looking fresh, but there is still no Canada logo on the side of the loco. Starting to wonder now if the paintshop didn't have them on hand when they did the repaint, or if they just decided not to put it on. The side does look rather naked, so to speak, without that logo.

The TSB report from the incident of the 902.

http://bst.gc.ca/eng/rapports-reports/r ... 9h0010.asp

Well, many months later 902 is still void of Canada logos on it's sides.

Here, from September 11, 2010:

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 60&nseq=10

Also neat in that photo, you can see that the frame around the headlight is still the original blue colour, which stands out from the new green paint!

Tadman wrote:It seems there is an American Doppel fire every time a Via P42 experiences a fire. Recently a NJT P42 had an exhaust fire, strong enough to damage catenary on the NEC.

Another one caught fire this weekend in the US http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopi ... 67&t=75989, I wonder if one of Via's will follow?

Wow, only in Canada would you have a rescue worker explain the distance to walk out of there in both miles an kilometers (as per gov regulation of course!).
For the record, it was 1 mile or 1.6KM.
We've had GE's catch on fire on AMTK, too-- a real bad one out of Denver on the Front Range years ago.