All Aboard.. New Fuel Efficient Enviro Friendly Locomotive at Northwood

Tuesday, July 13, 2010 03:58 AM

New N-ViroMotive from National Railway Equipment Company already showing reduced fuel consumption at Northwood.

Prince George B.C. – Canfor Pulp’s Northwood site has a new locomotive in action and it is far more environmentally friendly.

The company is using a rental unit of the N-ViroMotive built by the National Railway Equipment Company out of Mt. Vernon Illinois.

The one Canfor has purchased is being built now and will be delivered to them later this year, but already Northwood's G.M. Robert Dufresne says they are noticing a 10% drop in fuel consumption and the unit was just put into service on Friday.

"We know it will reduce noise, and NOx so that is good for the environment and our neighbours” says Dufresne, but the actual amount of reductions won’t be known for a while yet “We will be collecting data over the next six months, so by the time our unit is delivered we will have some final figures.”

Dufresne would not say how much the new unit has cost Canfor, “I can tell you it is a large investment” and half of the bill is being picked up by a grant under Transport Canada’s Freight Technology fund. That fund is designed to help companies purchase newer, more fuel efficient and environmentally friendly equipment.

The new N-ViroMotive will take over the work that used to be done by a locomotive built in 1972, and a back up locomotive that had been built in 1943. The 1943 locomotive has been sold and the 1972 unit will be used as a spare.

The N-ViroMotive was designed to meet the more stringent environmental regulations of California. While initially made for switching yards, the manufacturing company says the N-ViroMotive was so successful in achieving lower emissions, and reduced noise and fuel consumption levels, it has expanded to include passenger, short haul and mainline freight duty. There are 300 such N-ViroMotives in use around the world today.

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Posted on Tuesday, July 13, 2010 03:58 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: coastb on July 13 2010 11:33 AM

This environmentally friendly locomotive is only 700hp.Which means it can only move less than half the rail cars as the old locomotive(when maximizing tonnage)in the same period of time.So now the crews will have to do the large pulls two or three times instead of just once.That should just about eat up the 10% savings in fuel.Nice paint job though!

Posted by: Palopu on July 13 2010 10:02 PM

This locomotive is a rental and is 700HP, however I heard somewhere that the locomotive being built for Northwood is a 1400HP, so shouldnt be any problem doing a pull just once.

Have a nice day.

Posted by: keystone on July 14 2010 9:03 AM

The new locomotive will cost approximatley 1 million, at least,half of which is being paid for by a government grant which is tax payers money. Another example of large corporations who make large profits getting free dollars from those that help them make the profits. When you are comparing fuel consumption savings between a locomotive built in 1972 to one which is new, 10% is nothing to write home about. Who is going to provide maintanence for this new machine? Another added cost. I think one has to be careful not only of what is said but what is not said also. Like the American flag on the new locomotive for the Canadian, forest company?!

Posted by: inthepines on July 14 2010 7:09 PM

10% fuel efficiency? With locomotives from 1943 and 1972 being used as "backups"? Is that some kind of joke? This is greenwashing at its best. It's an absolute shame that taxpayer's money has been wasted on this complete farce of an "environmental initiative". Canfor is using public money for cheap marketing ploys that will show very little environmental benefit.

People are ready for electric technology. Renault is launching 100% electric vehicles worldwide in 2011, Canfor needs to get with the present times and stop living in 1943/1972! They should stop being so cheap and invest in a 100% electric locomotive and make a REAL effort to cutting their emissions. The public isn't so easily fooled, and environmentally-conscious consumers don't take too kindly to greenwashing.