The strange contraption we’ll be looking at under threatening skies, a GREX “Slot Machine” (officially “SlotMachine”), is for railway track and right of way maintenance. Seen parked between jobs in small town Alberta, on the CPR’s busy Calgary to Edmonton line, the firm that owns the equipment does contract work for various rail carriers, travelling from job to job all over the country and North America as the need dictates.
It’s made of up a power unit, a highly modified locomotive, plus a string of interconnected gondola or “mobile platform” cars as the company calls them. Sitting inside and able to move their entire length are a couple tracked excavators. These can be outfitted any number of attachments for digging, grasping and cutting. The cars can be used to deliver materials a job, or to take away old stuff like discarded rails, line-side junk or whatever.
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The cars are the SlotMachine, and the power unit, the Self Powered Slot or SPS. Some photos found online show the SlotMachine pulled by a modified road/rail truck or railway owned locomotives. The two pieces I guess can be hired out separately. It looks like CPR here was using it to collecting up old ties.
This is how the company that owns the SlotMachine and hires it out, Georgetown Rail Equipment of Georgetown Texas, describes its various uses (summarized)…
“With the SlotMachine and SPS mobile work platforms, you can tackle a wide range of jobs faster and more efficiently than ever before…Material gets loaded the full length of the platform, so there’s no lost time switching out cars. Plus, setup and lockdown take only minutes, allowing you to make the most of limited work windows.”
“SlotMachine’s versatility means it’s ideally suited for streamlining your most common track maintenance jobs: Heavy ditching, Tie pickup, Rail pickup, Tie distribution, Riprap placement” (etc)…
The power unit on this set is a former switching locomotive, built way back in 1950 (model GM Electromotive Division SW7). The engine worked for various coal companies in the US, before being modified to its current configuration in the mid-2000s and and going to work for Georgetown. Only the running gear was reused with the rest of the machine being pretty much new in every way, shape and form. It bears little resemblance to the original locomotive. Brant Equipment of Saskatchewan did the work.
While it can travel about as it works, for jobs a long distance from a current one, they’ll simply tack it on to the end of a freight going that direction.
The cars are not regular gondolas, but a string of articulated ones, connected in such a way that their are no breaks between them. Sliding plates between sections, or something similar, allow the cars to bend for corners and maintain an unbroken floor surface. Presumably it was all custom built.
Georgetown Equipment has several other SlotMachines or SPS combos. Each power unit is made from an old locomotive. The firm also contracts out other equipment used for ballast placement work and the like. The company was founded in the early 1990s and is one of many that provided similar equipment. In days past, the railways themselves would do the work using company owned equipment and their own employees. I guess it’s easier and cheaper to just contract it all out now.
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This SlotMachine gets around and looking online one can see photos of it at work all over the continent.
The track seen is the CPR’s north/south mainline that connects Calgary to Edmonton, with a good number of branches, at various point up and down the line, heading off of it, mostly in an easterly direction. It was built in the early 1890s and sees a good number of trains per day. The section through Carstairs, where were found the SlotMachine, is known as the Red Deer Subdivision.
With all that talk of slots, it’s time to hit up the casino!
If you wish more information on what you’ve seen here, by all means contact us!
Date: May, 2015. Location: Didsbury, AB. Article references: GREX Rail Equipment. We did not trespass on railway property to get our photo – we shot from a public road.
I watched another set of SlotMachine cars being loaded with rip rap at CP’s Walhachin ballast quarry yesterday. The set I saw was being handled by a CP GP 38-2.
This central Alberta racetrack was never a commercial operation but instead just a fun place for car enthusiasts in the area to get together. Early '70s or thereabouts and it only lasted a few years. Even thought it's been abandoned for that long, there is no doubt what was here.
You know we like the the obscure stuff and this one fits the bill perfectly. Found by accident while backroad cruising and the history comes thanks to local car guy Mike.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2022. Posted by Connie.
On top of little Myrtle Mountain in the Kimberley (BC) Nature Park.
There's some good wilderness fun to be had here and nice views as you can see, but the real reason we came is mining history. The whole area near the ski hill was extensively worked over a century ago and we were looking for evidence of this. We didn't find much in the area searched, but it's a big chunk of property and we hope to return to cover more ground again soon. Of all the subjects we cover, mining related is a favourite.
Still, it was a good hike and that can't be bad. Look to the comments for more info 👇.
Exploring nature and history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2022. Posted by Connie.
It's a strange curiosity in south Kananaskis, there on a hillside and we have no idea who created it. We asked around and no one's completely sure about its history. In the past it showed the Canada 100 logo from 1967 but in 2017 someone changed it to reflect the country's 150th.
That's our friend Emily from DanOCan.com having a look.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2017. Posted by Connie.
April 13th 2024, the Beer Parlour Project visited the Viking Hotel, Viking Alberta and it too was an awesome time. There's Rob Pohl with his curious view camera and in the other photo Chris is seen interviewing local character Doug.
The Viking dates back to the 1930s and replaced a hotel on this same lot, which had earlier burned down.
Incidentally April 13th is also Chris and my 28th anniversary. Chris said he forgot this when scheduling this but that's fine and it doesn't matter where we celebrate but that we celebrate.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2024. Posted by Connie.
April 12th 2024, the Beer Parlour Project visited the Warspite Hotel, Warspite Alberta and it was a great success. They put up our sticker and look for it if you ever drop by. This will be another chapter in what will be a multi-year adventure documenting small town hotels all over the west. We chat with owners, patrons, old timers, local characters and we learn about the building too.
It's believed this one is 100 years old in 2024 and we'll confirm details during the research phase done later.
When we're done we'll have a huge collection of digital and film photos, plus voice recorded interviews for an art exhibit and a book is likely.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2024. Posted by Connie.
This little stone house was built in the 1910s and while it's not exactly clear when last occupied, research suggests it was empty only a couple decades later. This is a dry area of the Alberta and most settlers moved out by the '30s. Trees in back were planted by the folks that lived here and there's no others around as far as the eye can see. In fact, there's nothing but natural prairie in every direction. When the word "remote" comes up, this is the place they're speaking of.
Look to the comments for more info and to see a stone smokehouse also on the property 👇
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2017. Posted by Connie.
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I watched another set of SlotMachine cars being loaded with rip rap at CP’s Walhachin ballast quarry yesterday. The set I saw was being handled by a CP GP 38-2.
That’s one big quarry! Just looked at it from Google Earth. Thanks for posting!