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1992-1996


 


Vol. 26   NO. 3


April 1996


Iron Highway to Make Long Awaited Debut on CSX


A single SD40-2 handles the Expressway to Detroit shown here at Killean, Ontario. Normal power is three SD40's - 2001 David Brook.

Iron Highway, a highly touted new intermodal technology designed for short-haul railway markets, is expected to begin six months of test runs on CSX Intermodal tracks in June, according to a Journal of Commerce report 15 Mar 1996.
 
CSXI and CP Rail System are joint-venture partners in the new intermodal innovation, a self-contained rail unit with continuous trailer platform, motive power, and loading ramp.
 
If tests support the initiative, CSXI plans to operate Iron Highway in the busy Detroit-Chicago corridor, while CPRS is planning to market the technology in the Montreal-Toronto corridor.
 
Ronald Sorrow, president and chief executive of CSX Intermodal, said CSX has scheduled revenue tests through the end of 1996 to determine (Iron Highway's) financial, commercial, and operational viability.
 
Introduction of the Iron Highway has been delayed several times while operational problems with wheels and bearing adapters have been addressed during testing at the Transportation Test Center in Pueblo, Colorado, USA.
 
CP Rail System has been a joint-venture partner in the project. That company plans to offer service between Toronto and Montreal.
 
The economics of short-haul service are different because services and facilities have to be geared to fast turnaround of equipment.


Mrs. Winter's Washbasin:  CPR played midwife to C.P.R. 60 Years Ago
John Timmins G&PA Calgary


The station at Provost, Alberta - 1976 Phil Mason.

Sixty years ago, on 13 Apr 1936, around 5 a.m., a young prairie farmer flagged down eastbound CPR train No. 52 near Cairns, Alberta, on the east end of the Hardisty subdivision.
 
His wife was in labor and the nearest doctor was 21 km (13 miles) down the line in Provost.
 
As it turned out, Dennis and Phylis Manning arrived in Provost on schedule, but not everything moved according to the CPR timetable.
 
A CPR conductor carried Phylis through the crowded station and into stationmaster Winter's living room.
 
Within minutes the baby was born in Mrs. Winter's washbasin.
 
Within days, a proud father choose the initials of his daughter's name in honor of the railway that delivered her into this world.
 
Catherine Patricia Rose, turned 60 on 13 Apr 1996.
 
Mrs. C.P.R. Goddard lives in Wainwright, Alberta.
 
"My grandpa was very pro-CPR," says Teresa Blosser of Boyle, Alberta, who organized her mother's 60th birthday. "That train was their lifeline."



This CP Rail System News article is copyright 1996 by Canadian Pacific Railway and is reprinted here with their permission. All photographs, logos, and trademarks are the property of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company.

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