Optimizing the fleet

Railway Age, Dec, 2004

In an odd way, the CPR's mechanical policy today was set two years before the railway was even born. In 1879, Sir Sandford Fleming--father of standard time and chief engineer on the doomed government attempt to build "the Pacific Railway"--recommended standardization: motive power and rolling stock easily adaptable to local conditions, but derived from flexible, solid designs.

Standardization is still the byword of the CPR's mechanical department. On the motive power front, that means 582 a.c.-traction units. Although the fleet includes GE and GM power, today's standard is overwhelmingly the GE AC4400CW. The first 83 units arrived in 1995 and six more orders have followed at regular intervals. With more than half of its frontline roster composed of a.c. power, the CPR lays claim to the world's highest a.c. proportion of any main line fleet.

"The original motivation was the need for new power, primarily for coal and other bulk trains," says General Manager Engineering/Mechanical Technical Services Dave Meyler. "We issued our first functional specifications as part of the RFQ. We asked the builders to provide a product that could handle the required tonnage with a certain length over our grades and through our climatic conditions. Both GE and GM advised a.c. traction, which we had already tested."

The focus now is on distributed power (DP). The CPR began testing Locotrol I equipment in 1967. It and all subsequent generations of the equipment have been used by the CPR ever since in bulk service. In the last year, it has been applied to intermodal and select merchandise trains along the Toronto-Vancouver main line. Says Meyler, "In bulk service, whether you put the power in the middle or the tail end is a relatively easy technical challenge because the cars are either all empty or all loaded. DP locomotive placement for intermodal or mixed freight gets into some very complex in-train dynamics because of the mixture of loads and empties, cushioned and non-cushioned cars. We contracted with Rail Sciences Inc., which did an extensive study and modeling for us. We also looked at what UP was doing."

The result is the CPR's computerized Train Area Marshalling (TrAM) program. It divides the Canadian transcontinental system into areas, ranging from one to five, according to grades and curvature. A proposed DP consist is automatically measured against these area marshalling specifications by weight (load or empty) and car specifications (cushioned or non-cushioned drawbars). TrAM specifies what tonnage must be on cars ahead of the mid-train DP locomotive and where it must be placed. DP operation also attacks wintertime air problems and their effect on train lengths.

This standardized approach has also occurred on the rolling stock front. Says Meyler, "There's been a progressive revision of the car fleet under way since 1995, starting with 286,000-pound covered hoppers and moving on to new aluminum coal hoppers, coil cars, gondolas, centerbeam cars, higher-cube boxcars, and intermodal . It's just a matter of optimizing the fleet for maximum utilization and yield as we go forward."

The intermodal fleet revisions are part of the previously mentioned MaxStax program. The MaxStax program originally involved bringing in 5,500 doublestack stand-alone well cars. Two additional orders, split between Greenbrier Trenton Works and National Steel Car, have brought in an additional 1,000 cars designed for both 53- and 40-fbot containers. Another 700 cars will be added in 2005. These are being used in domestic and import/export service and will eliminate the previous, diverse fleet.

"It's all about getting more tonnage and more containers per train," says Neal Foot. "The more we can replace the spine cars and triple-packs with the standalone doublestacks, the better. It also allows for more efficient slot utilization, especially to lower-volume destinations. You no longer have the problem of empty slots due to the fact that you're using a five-pack with only four containers going to a destination. Our objective is 98% utilization in the transcontinental market with this new equipment."

With 12 online automotive assembly plants and its position as the leading carrier of import vehicles through the Port of Vancouver, the CPR's ongoing rolling stock renewal program also embraces its multilevel fleet. Currently being received are 375 Aluminum Vehicle Carriers from Johnston America, which will keep a lid on maintenance costs with their corrosion-free superstructures that will never need AAR recertification and offer a 50-year interchange life.