Ticket To Ride

GE 44-Ton Switcher

I recently had the chance to visit Champion Park located near Okotoks AB. This private collection of railroad memorabilia is worth the visit if you have the chance to visit.

CPR #19, is a small switching engine built by the Canadian Locomotive Company in Kingston Ontario in 1960,
Instead of the typical diesel engine driving a generator or alternator which then powers motors connected to the wheels, this one uses a hydraulic torque converter drive, almost like a car’s automatic transmission.

The CPR owned fourteen of these locomotives built in the years 1957-1960.
This locomotive has two small diesel engines each driving one truck. Power is sent to one axle and then transmitted to the other via a side rod arrangement.

In the late 1960s it was retired from CPR service and between that date and 1987, when it arrived at Champion Park, it worked for a number of industrial firms.

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