EDMONTON TRANSIT SYSTEM
LRT Service Support

LRT Specialized | Track Maintenance | Signals & Power | Inspectors | Facilities/ Operations | Projects | Security

 2000 Series Freight Equipment | 3000 Series MOW Equipment
(largely dead pages now but I'm keeping the links for my own purposes)

Welcome to the ETS LRT Service Support Section of Barp. This section is continuing to evolve although I might have it in it's final iteration.

Edmonton's LRT system is maintained in good condition with a fleet of equipment which includes specialized equipment, as well as the expected typical vehicles like pick up trucks and cars.
Edmonton's fleet has evolved over the years as the LRT has expanded and aged. Initially, there were a few pieces of equipment which could full fill a lot of roles, like the Kal Trac and the Ford #3589, while in more recent years ETS has been purchasing equipment for specific tasks as maintenance has increased on the NE line, and the overall system length has increased.
There are a few key points to help understand this fleet of equipment.

Fleet Numbering:
There were three fleets involved in the maintenance of the LRT. Most City of Edmonton departments vehicles are maintained by the Fleet Services department and are numbered within a single City wide fleet number scheme using a fleet number consisting of a letter indicating the year of the vehicle and then a 4 digit number. This includes the bus fleet, which on paper are all "N" letter codes regardless of the year they were purchased. There are more details here. LRV's and most of the specialized maintenance equipment for the LRT are not a part of this fleet and numbered separately. This covers the first two fleet number schemes. The third fleet was EPCOR. EPCOR previously maintained the LRT's OCS and signals, however, that function was taken back in house. Those vehicles followed the City of Edmonton numbering scheme as they were maintained by Fleet Services.

Paint Schemes:
ETS in general has usually had their own paint schemes on their vehicles. The number one feature that previously separated bus support from LRT was a decal on the vehicle of a bus or LRV. Lately, vehicles used by the LRT Division has been showing up in standard City of Edmonton stripes, sometimes with lettering indicating their use, such as "Inspector" or "Track Maintenance". This in particular applies to vehicles used for OCS and signals maintenance. All EPCOR vehicles were repainted into COE stripes with no extra lettering, and new additions have followed this practice.

Facilities Maintenance: Bus and LRT Facilities Maintenance both fall under LRT Operations & Maintenance within the organization structure of ETS. I am not sure how long this has been the case, but quite likely some time. Presently, the majority of the bus side of Fleet Maintenance is based out of the ETS Davies Shop located within the City of Edmonton's Davies complex. LRT related equipment is based out of DLM. Vehicles often display either a bus or LRT logo which is how we will separate them, however, it's certainly not uncommon for
Historically there seemed to be 1 van dedicated to basic maintenance activities at the stations and other LRT properties. Transit has a facilities maintenance team based out of the City of Edmonton Davies complex which deal with an assortment of work including bus shelter construction and maintenance. That equipment certainly does show up around the LRT, as well as regular City of Edmonton trades people. Consequently, you can see an assortment of Transit and City of Edmonton vehicles at LRT stations and other locations. And while snow removal at Transit Centres is contracted out now, LRT platform snow removal is done by City crews. This seems to usually be from Transit maintenance. I am keeping bus separate from LRT.

Warning Lights: While not a 100% certain way to determine who operates a piece of equipment, generally speaking City of Edmonton equipment uses a pair of amber strobe lights. Equipment operated by the LRT Division usually gets light bars. Certain equipment used for the bus fleet will have light bars as well, like inspector/ supervisor vehicles and tow trucks

TransEd: Valley Line/ TransEd equipment has their own page as they are a separate entity from ETS. Having said that, fare equipment maintenance on the Valley Line Southeast is a maintained by the City of Edmonton so from time to time ETS vehicles do show up at Valley Line Southeast stops.

Photos have been separated into sections as follows:

LRT Specialized- This covers the majority of specialized equipment used to maintain the entire LRT system, such as locomotives, rail cars, material handling equipment, catenary equipment etc. Most of this equipment falls outside of the usual City of Edmonton numbering scheme. While the majority of this equipment is used for track maintenance, some is multipurpose.

Track Maintenance- This equipment falls within the City of Edmonton numbering scheme and is used for track maintenance activities. This equipment has usually had lettering indicating it's use for track maintenance. While this equipment consists of a variety of vehicles, most of them are trucks, with a good numbering being hi-rail equipped and/ or custom bodies.

Facility, Operations/ Everything else- This basically amounts to everything else. This will mostly end up being lighter equipment. This will include such equipment such as engineering and maintenance, fare maintainers, vehicle maintenance. Facility Maintainance can be tough to determine at times, so it's possible some vehicles used by LRT are listed with Bus and vice versa.

Inspectors- Covers the various vehicles used by the LRT inspectors over the years.

Signals and Power- EPCOR had a fleet of equipment dedicated to maintaining the LRT's signals, OCS, and substation maintenance. The City of Edmonton brought this in house as of January 1, 2023 at which after that point the vehicles were repainted into standard City of Edmonton stripes. Given the past history with EPCOR, and equipment overlap, it makes sense to keep them all together.

Projects- This covers some of the activities on the LRT with ETS equipment as well as contractor equipment. Some of this is regular work, like snow removal, other features will be one off major capital projects.

In lieu of a roster at this point in time, the CPTDB Wiki has a roster at: https://cptdb.ca/wiki/index.php/Edmonton_Transit_System_Support_Vehicles

Finally, this link will explain the numbering scheme used on the vehicle fleet.
Details on City of Edmonton numbering scheme and this link has the breakdown of the letter codes and associated years.

Photo roster showing vehicles from each section mixed by letter code/ fleet number. Note: Does not include Security or Peace Officers.

LRT Specialized Equipment Roster
This roster covers all of the known equipment that falls into the LRT numbering scheme, so all of the really interesting stuff.

Legend for mode column:
RB= Rail bourne equipment
HI= Hi rail wheel equipped for operation on road or rail
RO= Road/ Rubber Tired, can't operate on rail.
TR= Trailer
LO= Load to be carried on another vehicle
Fleet # Year/ Make/ Model Use Mode Status/ Notes
LRT Fleet Numbering Scheme
2001 1912 GE/ Alco Electric Locomotive Work train RB Ex BC Hydro, donated to ERRS, then to FVHR, then to OERM
2010 GE 45 Ton Diesel Locomotive Work train/ LRV rescue. Ballasted to 50 tons RB ex Great Nothern Paper 391
2011 2010 Geismar VMB 1608C Catenary inspection and maintenance RB  
20121 2 Balco battery mine locomotive Moving equipment in yard? RB  
2012 (II)1 Geismar KGT tronic Multi purpose vehicle with boom HI  
2029 Pettibone Speed Swing MoW HI ex Calgary 3209, rebuilt 2018/19
2093 2021 Knox Kershaw 940 KSF 940 ballast regulator/ snow fighter track grooming, snow removal RB  
2097 2018 Harsco Mark IV HD Tamper MoW RB Renumbered from 3862
2101 32' Flat car, rebuilt Work train RB  
2102 40' flat car Work train RB  
2103 40' flat car Work train RB  
2110 Flat car w/ sides for speeder MoW RB  
2111 Flat car for speeder MoW RB  
2112 Flat car for speeder w/ crane MoW RB  
2113 Flat car for speeder, longer MoW RB  
2201 Depressed center flat car Heavy equipment moves, like the TBM for tunneling RB Suspected rebuilt as 2401
2201 (II) Side dump car, rebuilt Ballast RB  
2202 Side dump car, rebuilt Ballast RB  
2206 2018 Hudson ROI Ballast Car Ballast RB  
2207 2018 Hudson ROI Ballast Car Ballast RB  
2301 Side dump car Spoil from tunneling/ ballast RB Damaged, 2304 body mounted, kept 2304 number.
2302 Side dump car Spoil from tunneling/ ballast RB  
2303 Side dump car Spoil from tunneling/ ballast RB  
2304 Side dump car Spoil from tunneling/ ballast RB Frame scrapped, body mounted to 2301. 1/2 last unrebuilt cars.
2305 Side dump car Spoil from tunneling/ ballast RB Became 2201 or 2202
2306 Side dump car Spoil from tunneling/ ballast RB  
2307 Side dump car Spoil from tunneling/ ballast RB  
2308 Side dump car Spoil from tunneling/ ballast RB 1/2 last unrebuilt cars
2309 Side dump car Spoil from tunneling/ ballast RB No end platforms
2310 Side dump car Spoil from tunneling/ ballast RB Became 2201 or 2202
2401 Ballast car Spot ballast car RB Suspected rebuilt from original 2201
3264 John Deere Gator "Track Utility Vehicle" HI  
3589 Ford L8000 Flatbed truck Originally quite the workhorse being a jack of all trades on LRT. HI  
3590 Ford/ RPM Tech HR-700 Snow blower HI  
3591 GMC/ RPM Tech AF1 Air Forced One Snow blower HI  
3592 RPM Tech Cameleon Rail Cleaner Rail and flange way clearer HI  
3593 Bobcat T110 HI  
3594? RPM Tech Cameleon Rail Cleaner Rail and flange way clearer HI  
3679 1976 Fairmont Speeder MoW, new body in 1992 by Edmonton Truck Body RB Still in blue/ yellow w/ "Flying E"
3680 John Deere Gator      
3850 1977 Canron Kal Track Fitted as "Derailment Response Unit" HI Often used to haul the lo-railer
3853 Curtis Hoover Scissor Lift Car OCS work RB Retired
3854 Curtis Hoover Cable Reel Car OCS/ MoW work RB Retired
3855 Curtis Hoover Tool Car MoW RB Retired?, off rails at DLM
3855 (II) 1986 NSC "Lo-Railer" General purpose flat car, often loaded with wheeled equipment RB No number on unit
3856 1980 C.S.S Bogie Trailer MoW RB Outside chance it is one of 2110-2113
3857 Fairmont Tamper Mk I Tamper MoW RB Acquired by Calgary Transit October 2019
3858 Fairmont Tamper Mk II Tamper MoW RB  
No #, maybe 3858 1973 Kershaw Ballast Regulator Ballast grooming. RB  
3859 1973 Kershaw Ballast Regulator Ballast grooming RB  
3860 Portec Typhoon Snow blower RB  
3861 Portec Typhoon Snow blower RB ex UP 173273
3862 1986 Whiting Rail Grinder MoW RB Stored at DLM. Not is use?
3862 (II) 2018 Harsco Mark IV HD Tamper MoW RB Renumbered to 2097
3863 1987 Simon Aerial Lift OCS work, was often on the Lo-Railer with a pantograph rig RO  
3869 CAT 416C w/ Tie Inserter MoW/ General purpose HI  
3870 Hudson ROI Re-Railing Trailer, r/b as dump trailer Hi-rail trailer, equipped with rerailing equipment originally, now rebuilt as a dump trailer. HI/TR Rebuilt onto 3850. Rare piece of equipment in full blue and silver
3871 CAT Diesel Generator/ Light Tower MoW/ General purpose TR  
3874 Oxford Industrial Products Hydraulic Ramps Usually fitted to flat car 2101. LO  
3886 Geismar Wire Spool Car OCS work, used with 2011. RB  
7692 International Cargostar/ Edmonton Truck and Body Platform Lift Truck OCS Work HI Stored Cromdale Yard
Fleet # Make/ Model Use Mode Status/ Notes
City of Edmonton Fleet Numbering Scheme
         
Fleet # Make/ Model Use Mode Status/ Notes
EPCOR Fleet- follows City of Edmonton numbering scheme, but, lettered for EPCOR. Includes trolleybus line trucks.
         
         
Fleet Number Make/ Model Use Mode Status
Unknown Number
2nd Balco2 Balco Mine Locomotive Parts supply for #2012 presumably RB Stored outside on track at DLM.
  Smoke Generator   LO  


1. Recent photos show both units have #2012. The number on the Balco mine locomotive might predate the Giesmar KGT tronic, plus it's older, so it is listed first.Return
 2. The two Balco's are suspected to have been purchased for tunnel construction for the Corona extension. Listed in the TSG as #1 and #2.Return

Sources:
Edmonton's Electric Transit
Canadian Trackside Guide 1986, 2016 Editions
Edmonton Transit's Light Rail Experience http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/sr/sr221/221-035.pdf

LRT MoW Fleet Numbering. Where to start? This is a bit.... uhhhhhh.... interesting.
3855- listed in various sources as a tool car. Suspected to still be on property but off the rails at DLM, no number visible. The other 3855 is the low deck flat car. As well, this car sports no fleet number. It does sport a 1986 build date, so, we know it was new to Edmonton Transit. The only source for its number is a 2003 25th Anniversary LRT guide.
3857-3861. First, what is 3856? Any chance the low deck car is 3856? 3857 is the Mark I tamper. Suspected to have been purchased used, it is listed in the 1986 Trackside Guide, so, that generally jives with 3855 arriving in 1986. In the same TSG, the ballast regulator is listed as having no number and built in 1973. We know of course that it became 3859. The fact this was purchased used helps support that 3857 was purchased used as well. 3858 would appear to be a gap left intentionally for a second tamper, which did indeed end up being acquired. I suspect there might have been an intentional gap as above 3859 is the Typhoon 3860, followed by the rail grinder 3862. 3861 was filled in in the 2010's by a second Typhoon. It's quite likely 3860 was a 1986 purchase as well as 3862 was a 1986 unit as well, and 3863 is a 1987.
After all of that, in 2018 the new Mark IV HD tamper was numbered 3862, despite that the rail grinder #3862 is still on property and even on rails!
Whew. If that wasn't enough, then there's the 2012's. The Geismar KGT tronic ran around without a fleet number for quite sometime before receiving 2012. Photos have since surfaced of a Balco "Tugger" battery powered mine locomotive with #2012 as well. I have yet to see this yet in person. The TSG lists 2 Balco "Tugger" locomotives and shows them as #1 and 2. Both are on property. One stored outside with 3862 (rail grinder!) presumably for parts, the other indoors fitted with large batteries. When I saw and photographed this unit in 2009 it had no fleet numbers or decals, but, since then has received LRT decals and the 2012 fleet number.
And yes, this might be more details than anyone might care to know, but, when trying to put together a roster you sometimes going down a rabbit hole and it seems this was the case when trying to piece together the ETS LRT MoW fleet!

*EET notes 2304 body mounted on 2301 frame, kept #2304. 2304 and 2308 scrapped 2011. CTG 2016 notes 2301, 2304, 2305, 2308, and 2310. Assuming 2301 = 2304, that means it was 2305 and 2310 rebuilt as 2201 and 2202.

** Available information for the numbers 3855, 3858, and 3859 is nothing short of a disaster, so, here goes.
1986 CTG: 3859 1979 Ford Fairmont- Likely a typo, should be 3589, 3855 tool car, no number for ballast regulator
2016 CTG: 3855 tool car, 3858 ballast regulator, 3859 Lo-Railer
Reality: 3855??, 3858 Tamper, 3859 ballast regulator, tool car exists, stored off track
Notes and theories: A lot of new equipment in 1986: Lo-Railer, and Rail Grinder generally without doubt. No number in the 1986 CTG for the ballast regulator could indicate new to Edmonton Transit at the time. I recall a 1986 newsletter that references a tunnel washer, which I assumed was the Lo-Railer plus the water tank. I suspect tamper 3858 was a more recent addition. The tool car still exists, but, is stored off the rails. Did ETS: strike 3855 from the vehicle roster, renumber the Lo-Railer to 3855, renumber the ballast regulator to 3859, to free up 3858 for the second tamper? My information on 3855 I believe came from the April 26, 2003 Open House at DLM where they had some pretty detailed information on the equipment on display.

This page last updated on January 28, 2026

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