The Parsons Vale and Termite Railroad – class K3

Amtrak #954 -- a PV&T class K3 leased to Amtrak for service on the Alouette -- in Phase IV paint

It didn’t take more than about 20 years after passenger service was nationalized in Canada & the USA for the Parsons Vale to start to regret not joining Amtrak and losing the dispatching regularity imposed by scheduled trains (plus, to be honest, as the memories of the deficits faded there was nostalgia for the old days of passenger trains), so – after a short negotiation with VIA, Amtrak & the governments of Massachusetts, Vermont, and Québec – the agreement was reached to resurrect the old Alouette as a jointly funded (PV&T plus the various provincial governments) day train between Montréal and Boston.

Part of the PV&T’s funding was to provide motors to power the train, so the Portland shops designed a variant of the class K suitable for passenger operation.

The class K3 is differentiated from the base class K by being a single-ended motor with a HEP power module in the space that would have ben occupied by the rear cab. The modestly increases the tractive effort of the machine, but otherwise does not impact its performance.

Three were built (numbered in the old E60CP slots of 954-956) and are in service (two pulling the trains, one as a reserve locomotive that occasionally pulls a section of the Adriondack between Albany & Montréal.)

CSS&SB #1405 -- formerly Amtrak K3 #954 -- in traction orange

In the late 2010s, Amtrak & the MBTA wanted to replace the DC-only K3s with multisystem units so they wouldn’t need to maintain a voltage switchover circuit on their interlocking by South Station. So the K3s were rotated out of Amtrak service and replaced by a pair of new K5s (with HEP takeoffs from the multisystem circuitry), while the PV&T switched their (shared with the MBTA) South Station to Newton Corner overhead to 25kvac to match the SLR & Northeast Corridor electrifications, moving the voltage cutover to west of the Newton Corner junction.

The three now-disused units went up to Portland, were rewired for 1500vdc, and had the old HEP compartments chopped off to make room for rear platforms, then sent west to the CSS&SB for operation on the CSS&SB and (when paired with a class K7 or K8 motor) new CSS&SB/I&M Niles to Ypsilanti electrification.