History on the line: Cat 3512 diesels are breathing new life into some aging locomotives on Canfor's historic forestry railroad on northern Vancouver Island. The upgrade has allowed Canfor to replace four older locomotives with three rebuilt ones

Canadian Forest Industries, Oct 1999 by Nourse, Mike

One of the last forestry railroads still operating in North America is the pride of Canfor's Englewood Logging Division on northern Vancouver Island. In service for more than 70 years, the Englewood railroad plays a vital role in the Division's daily forestry operations.

Originally built by the Nimpkish Timber Company in 1917, the six-mile line started at Beaver Cove, on the east coast of the Island north of Campbell River. With the establishment of the Beaver Cove Pulp Company in 1918, the line was extended to service a small pulp plant and sawmill. Canfor purchased the two companies in 1944 and the Englewood Logging Division was formed.

Now totaling 76 miles of track including spurs and sidings, the railroad links logging operations in the Nimpkish and Woss areas to the Beaver Cove dryland sort. The system has more than 500 pieces of rolling stock, including four locomotives and 350 log cars. Logs are trucked to the rail line at various points and transferred to the railcars for transport to the sort yard. Each day, between 110 and 115 carloads of logs containing approximately 6 000 cubic metres of wood move on the line.

Rebuilding history

The line remains a highly cost-effective alternative to an all-truck log transport system, observes John Holmes, Englewood general superintendent. "The railroad has a long life ahead of it yet."

To ensure that, the Division three years ago began looking at upgrading its four aging General Electric diesel locomotives, all built between 1952 and 1955. Holmes says it was clearly time to bring the locomotive fleet into the '90s. Options in doing so included buying four new locomotives, purchasing used units, or rebuilding and repowering the old ones.

For many in the Division, the sentimental choice was to rebuild the old General Electrics and run them for another 40 years. Happily, says Holmes, that proved to be the most economically attractive option. It was decided to initially rebuild just one locomotive and review the project before proceeding.

The job as tendered entailed a complete rebuild of the unit, including replacing the original 1 200-hp engine with a modern, fuel efficient, computer-controlled power plant with slightly more power. A significant stipulation was that the work had to be done at the company's Nimpkish shop, located about 20 minutes south of Port McNeil.

"There were cost reasons for doing it that way, and we also wanted our own mechanics intimately involved in the project from start to finish. It made sense as they would be doing the maintenance and repairs on the engine later."

Awarded the contract, Finning Power Systems (FPS) undertook the project on a co-management basis with Canfor in late 1996. The engine chosen as most suitable was a 1 500-hp Cat 3512, which has built a successful track record in locomotive repowers across North America. Installation of the high-tech engine required completely rewiring the old locomotive (by FPS diesel electricians) to accommodate the modern power plant.

The mechanical team assembled for the job included Finning mechanics Tony Van Bergen (charge hand) and Bruce Conner; Stewart Gibson, master mechanic for the Englewood Division; and Nimpkish mechanics Richard Daughterty and Phil Bratiuk. While they began stripping the unit to the frame, Finning electrical engineer Bob McNair and consultant Steve Newton began working on the electrical design, which included a maze of new control circuits, new panels, and new wheel slip sensors.

Modifications required to accommodate the new engine included a re-designed engine canopy, new engine mounts, and new plumbing. Other modifications included different configuration beams and cross members, blower fans, mufflers, air tanks, compressors -- and even the hood, which was sent to Finning in Campbell River for a new fan housing "The entire locomotive was rebuilt, literally from the ground up," notes Holmes.

Changing weight classes

As if adding space-age electronics to the old iron wasn't tricky enough, the rebuild team faced a couple of other major challenges: weight and balance. Canfor engineers wanted the rebuilt locomotive to top out at 250 000 pounds, some 24 000 lb heavier than its old operating weight. That meant adding some 31 000 lb of ballast, since the 3512 weighed about 7 000 lb lighter than the old power plant. Much of the weight added came from a single 18 000 lb steel plate, measuring four inches thick, six feet wide, and 18 feet long that was attached to the underside of the locomotive. The rest came by adding lead to the front and rear, carefully balanced to ensure optimum traction efficiency.

The first unit rebuilt returned to service in late 1997; a second locomotive was completed last fall. "Not only are these two locomotives more powerful than our old ones, about 300 hp each, but they are more fuel efficient as well," says Holmes. "Before the conversions, we needed two locomotives in tandem to pull 39 loaded cars. Now we use just one engine to pull 35 loaded cars. We are well along in planning for the third conversion. Given their added efficiency, we can now safely project that the railroad will require only three locomotives to haul what we were doing with four in the past. We will likely sell the fourth locomotive."