26 April 2004 GPS Ballast Train This year we have also acquired a Herzog Plus ballast train. This train will dump ballast by GPS coordinates and will dump at about 15 mph day or night without people having to open and close the doors on the cars. They are automatically opened and closed depending on the preprogrammed requirements. This train consisting of 60 cars will be dumping 250,000 tons of ballast in 6 months. Many of the people on the St Paul and Chicago Service Areas have seen the first generation automatic ballast train that we have. This train during the 8 or 9 months of the work season, under the direction of Dan Swartz, will dump about 275,000 tons. So between the two ballast trains we will dump over half of the CPR requirements of ballast in 2004.   This train is currently sitting in Schreiber yard. On the 24th it was trying to dump ballast At Middleton, Ont around mile 83 on the Heron Bay sub but the doors and ballast were frozen, I guess Mother Nature still beats the new technology - John Rose.   Saw the train rolling east thru Thunder Bay Friday night. Assigned power is CP 5591, 5942, 5975 (all 3 in the dual-flags scheme) using the maroon-coloured Herzog cars, mainly in the HZGX 77xx-series. According to the shop foreman, the train will be shuttling between Kenora and White River for a while with the power getting serviced (fuelled, cab cleaned-up, etc..) at T.Bay - Craig Konopski.