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Winter
2005
Canadian
Pacific Railway Employee Communications
Room 500 401-9th Ave S.W. Calgary AB T2P
4Z4
CPR Pioneered
AC-Traction in North America
By Jonathan Hanna Corporate
Historian
Pioneer AC-traction
locomotive No. 4744 rolls out of Angus Shops, 7 Nov
1984.
Canadian Pacific Railway was the first North
American railway to use alternating current traction motor (AC-traction)
technology in locomotives. And it now leads the Class 1s with the largest percentage
of AC-traction locomotives.
CPR introduced AC-traction technology more than 20 years ago, to a
motive power industry ripe for renewal. By the 1980s AC-traction was
already a big deal in Europe. To bring this new concept to the North American rail
industry, CPR anted-up a locomotive, space in its shops, and a host of
experts.
Al Bethune in the research department hooked up with the mechanical department's
Steve Cavanaugh, Angus Shops' Bob Pedicelli, and others. The four-way
partnership of Asea Brown Boveri, Bombardier, the Canada Development Corporation,
and CPR produced AC-traction locomotive No. 4744. The retrofitted 1971
Montreal Locomotive Works (MLW) M-640, 4,000-h.p.
prototype rolled out of CPR's Angus Shops on the 99th anniversary of the driving of
The Last Spike - 7 Nov 1984.
This locomotive was an oddball prototype when it first came to CPR. It was delivered
at the tail end of an 82-locomotive order from Montreal Locomotive
Works, the last locomotive CPR ever ordered from that manufacturer. It had two more
cylinders than the other high-horsepower, 16-cylinder MLW
locomotives. It was supposed to deliver 4,000 h.p., but it didn't. At least not
until 1984 when the CPR master mechanics retooled it, upgraded it and converted it
to AC-traction in Angus Shops.
The six-axle locomotive, now with only four axles powered, tested
successfully in and around Montreal. That is until crankshaft, connecting rod, and
engine block woes grounded the pilot runs in April 1992. But CPR was a firm
believer in the benefits of AC-traction technology. The railway placed
its first order for AC-traction production locomotives with General
Electric in 1995, and never looked back.
Today, 42 percent of CPR's road locomotives have these
higher-efficiency, AC-traction motors. Five hundred and
eighty-two of CPR's 1,392 road freight locomotives are
AC-traction.
AC-traction locomotives deliver more tractive effort to the railhead
than conventional direct current (DC-traction) locomotives.
AC-traction motors also draw less of a parasitic load and require less
maintenance than DC-traction motors. Three 4,400-h.p.
AC4400CW AC-traction locomotives do the work of five
3,000-h.p., SD40-2 DC-traction locomotives.
CPR saved AC-traction locomotive 4744. It is now proudly displayed in
Exporail's Canadian Railway Museum in the south shore community of Saint Constant,
Quebec, near Montreal.
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Vital
Statistics
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Number
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4744
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Class
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DRF-36d
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Builder
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MLW
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Outshopped
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Feb 1971
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Builder's Model
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M-640
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Horsepower
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4,000
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Cylinders
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18
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Axles
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6
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Maximum speed
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75 mph (120 kph)
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Length
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69 ft. 10.5 in. (21.3 m)
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Weight
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396,000 lbs. (179,625 kg)
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Purchase price
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$385,195.00
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This CP Rail News article is copyright 2005 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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