Here we go again – proposals received for ACR passenger service

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The deadline for new proposals for operating the Sault Ste. Marie to Hearst passenger service has arrived and the local Sault Star newspaper is reporting on their web site that three proposals have been submitted, with a possible fourth to come from a late arrival to the process:

RFP results in proposals to run train service

After the first attempt at finding an operator which led to the selection of RailMark Inc., which for several complicated reasons did not end well, it appears that this time the working group will have all proposals reviewed by a third party consultant to compare the submitted proposals to the information contained in the RFP (Request for Proposals) and also do additional background checking of each company.

Once the proposals have been compared, they will then be reviewed by the stakeholder group and CN. Obviously CN, as the owner of the tracks, will have to provide their approval of the operator, and the group hopes to have the city’s nod as well, as the administrator of the federal funding, before a selected proposal is submitted to Transport Canada for approval. With a federal election and possible changes in the government just weeks away, it’s expected that such a submission will occur after the October election.

The article notes that some of the pre-conditions for approval (which RailMark notably failed to meet) will be the same this time around.

It’s also noted that the proposals at this time are strictly for the regular passenger service, not the Agawa Canyon Tour Train, which CN has continued to operate this season, but is entertaining offers/proposals for that service as well. The article mentions that it is unknown whether CN has received any interest for the tour train, but the benefits of the same operator running both the regular train and tour train are obvious, as the two services can share equipment and connect the services in other ways as well. (Until last year CN offered a combo package with the Tour of the Line where you could ride the Agawa Canyon Tour Train to Canyon park, enjoy the park for a while and get picked up by the northbound regular train to continue the Tour of the Line experience. When I rode the train to Hearst in 2013, I just rode the regular train as the Canyon train was sold out, but my friend that I travelled with, having booked earlier, was able to take advantage of this deal.)

Anyway, we’ll see what develops out of the proposals. Hopefully for all concerned it works out this time. While communities, private cottage and camp owners and tourist outfitters and resort/lodge owners have certainly hurt from the cessation of service, it’s worth remembering that whatever issues there were, RailMark also lost huge when they got forced out due to the lack of financing after operating for several months at a total loss. I think it’s in everyone’s best interest to have *all* the ducks in a row on this.

Work Car Wednesday #6

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ac10652

Here’s another pair of water tank cars photographed in the mid 1990s at Steelton Yard (Sault Ste. Marie) by Blair Smith.

The age and origin of these cars is unknown, but these exhibit the typical silver paint on the AC’s water tanks. Note the interesting lack of ladders and running boards to actually access the dome on AC 10652 above, and the additional piping on the end of the car frame for supplying water to coupled accommodation cars.

Unlike the ex-Canadian National cars featured last week however, these cars show no obvious signs of any sort of insulation or heating. Not sure how that works in January in northern Ontario.

AC 10654 below has clearly reached the end of its service life and has been retired as it’s seen here off its trucks at Steelton shops.

ACR from Blair 030

Other confirmed car numbers of similar silver water tanks include AC 10648 and 10655 (the latter also lacks ladders and running boards, like 10652).

Work Car Wednesday #5

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ACR from Blair 019

This pair (actually a trio, with AC 10656) of interesting little tank cars were acquired secondhand from Canadian National, likely somewhere around 1990(?). These cars store potable water to supply accommodation cars in work trains.

Lending to the unique appearance of these cars is the coating of spray-foam insulation on the body of the tank and small heater to prevent the tanks from freezing in the winter and that huge vent(?) fashioned from an old caboose smokejack.

ACR from Blair 021 (2)

Both photos courtesy of Blair Smith.

Work Car Wednesday #4

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scan0036

AC 10668 is another bunk car painted an unusual bright yellow colour. (This and hoistman’s bunk 10607 are the only cars I’ve seen photos of repainted all in yellow.)

10668 is a service bunk car rebuilt from one of the Algoma Central’s 9501-9520 series wooden cabooses. Several such conversions were performed in the late 1970s after new steel cabooses were purchased in 1976 to replace several of the older wooden cabooses, although a few older wooden cabooses remained on stand by service for when extra cabooses were required.

At Steelton Yard, March 1981. Photographer unknown, slide in my collection.

AC 2915

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Here’s another AC 40′ box I finished some weathering on last night.

IMG_4140

Like the others earlier this week, this was a TrueLine Trains Ontario Northland boxcar with some custom painting (the large patches over the logo were done by hand to try to simulate how the logos were painted over with a paint roller, and smaller patches over the reporting mark and number masked and airbrushed) and then weathered with a combination of pan pastels and a bit of grime airbrushed along the lower edge of the car and on the car ends.

Interestingly, Ted Ellis has an early 1990s photo of this car on his site where it looks like the number on the car end actually reads 2907. So it appears that this car has changed identities along the way. It looks like it may have been acquired from the Ontario Northland as AC 2907, possibly renumbered into a 10000 series work number and then reassigned back to the general pool and renumbered 2915, possibly replacing a different car that was the original AC 2915. (Dale Wilson sent me an older photo of 2915 that shows a completely different pattern of paint patching, and it’s the same side as Ted’s photo, so it’s clearly not the same car.) I reproduced this confusion on my model as well. Like Ted Ellis’s photo, the numbers on the ends of my car read 2907, but on the sides on a prominent black patch it’s no. 2915.