What to do when there is no power in winter? On the scale of individual households, everyone can try to prepare on their own, but when you need to power the entire city, cut off from the world, home methods are not enough. The authorities of the Canadian city came up with an ingenious solution to this problem.
25 years ago, in January 1998, the border of the United States and Canada was hit by a powerful, multi-day snowstorm. Snowfall not only cut off many towns from the world, but also destroyed the electrical infrastructure.
The situation of people deprived of help became dramatic in some cases. As the website describesRailway to railway“, z winter blackout had to face The city of Boucherville, Quebec, with a population of 40,000.
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In order to save the city and enable the rescue operation, mayor Francine Gadbois negotiated with the Canadian carrier Canadian National Railway to rent a locomotive.
The locomotive as a power plant
The M-420 3502 locomotive was available – one of the 88 units of this type built in the 1970s for Canadian railways. The 123-tonne locomotive was powered by a 4-stroke, 12-cylinder diesel engine, providing 2,000 horsepower. hp (1.49 MW).
Locomotive was moved by a crane from the tracks to a regular road. There, moving on her own wheels on the asphalt, she managed to drive 300 meters to the vicinity of the local town hall, where there was a crisis help point.
The passage caused damage to the surface, in which deep grooves were formed, and the locomotive’s wheels were damaged, but the vehicle managed to reach its destination.
Saving the city
Another locomotive, model M-420 3508, was shunted in a similar way, with the intention of supplying it to a help point organized at the school. However, there were concerns about the load-bearing capacity of the viaduct through which the locomotive had to pass, so eventually the second unit did not reach its destination and remained in reserve.
M-420 3502 managed to heat the building and provide electricitynecessary for the rescue operation. The city hall powered by it became not only a center for coordinating aid, but also a place where residents could warm up and eat something warm.
After power is restored transmission lines, the locomotive moved again to the vicinity of the tracks, on which it had been placed with a crane.
Łukasz Michalik, journalist of Gadgetomania
