Beaugrand garage: a workshop for minor maintenance on métro cars

This moment marks the end of an important chapter in the history of the Montréal métro and the STM. For 52 years, 333 MR-63 cars have moved hundreds of thousands of people everyday, chalking up more than four million kilometres each. To pay tribute to this first generation of trains, you are invited to visit the Beaugrand garage-workshop where minor repairs to the cars were carried out for over 35 years.

The Beaugrand garage-workshop was built as part of the eastern extension of the Green line in 1976. Installed under a park to the north of Honoré-Beaugrand station, the new workshop was initially intended for minor maintenance of the second generation of cars, the MR-73. At the time, minor maintenance of the MR-63 cars was carried out at the Youville workshop, near Crémazie métro station.

With the extensions to the system and the expansion of the Youville workshop in the early 1980s, the two generations of cars were switched around and minor maintenance of the MR-63s was transferred to the Beaugrand workshop. Since 1966, major maintenance on all cars has been carried out at the Youville workshop.

Minor maintenance of métro cars includes a visual inspection every 10,000 km travelled, preventative replacement of certain parts according to mileage, inspection and changing of tires, removal of dust from bogies, as well as cleaning of the inside and outside of the cars.

With the progressive arrival of the AZUR cars, whose minor maintenance is carried out at the newly renovated Youville workshop, minor maintenance of the MR-73 cars has been gradually transferred to the Beaugrand workshop, which heralds a sort of home-coming for this rolling stock.

There is no major difference in the minor maintenance of the MR-63 and MR-73 cars, with only a decade separating these two generations of rolling stock. Most markedly, the technology of the MR-63 cars is entirely electromechanical, whereas the MR-73 cars include some electronic components.

You are invited to join Martin Lemieux, Beaugrand workshop superintendent, and Carl Arseneault, rolling stock maintenance director, for a tour of the workshop.

This huge space can accommodate eight nine-car trains, fitting two 152-metre-long trains (500 feet) on each of its four tracks. It is the only site in the system where a workshop and a garage sit side-by-side.

The five workshop inspection pits enable maintenance employees to verify the underneath of the métro cars, in particular their traction system. This is where you can get a close-up of the MR-63’s main defining component: the cam-operated switch, or the RX starting switch.

The RX starting switch is an electromechanical cam device that allows the current supplied to the motors to be regulated so that the train can start smoothly and reach its maximum speed. It consists of a 26-position rotary camshaft, driven by a small electric motor. In each position, mechanical switches are activated to add or withdraw resistors from the circuit supplying the motors. Basically, when the train starts the resistors are withdrawn one by one, which gradually increases the speed of the motors, hence the speed of the train. This tried and tested device (we are talking about pre-Second World War technology here!) does have the disadvantage of releasing a lot of heat when the train starts up.

That is why during the design of the second generation of rolling stock, the MR-73, the chopper was chosen. It works on the same principle as the RX starting switch but instead relies on electronic switches called thyristors. As a bonus, the MR-73’s choppers emit a little melody (doo-doo-doo) that corresponds to their various switching frequencies. In comparison, the RX starting switches just make knocking sounds (tock, tock, tock…). The AZUR trains, however, use a more recent technology composed of variable-frequency drives. This technology does not play a little tune (but the “doo-doo-doo” sound was kept as the door closing signal).

The minor maintenance of the cars requires a significant inventory of replacement parts: motors, tires, brake shoes, door opening devices, etc. Given that maintenance is performed on two types of rolling stock, it was often necessary to reserve extra space for the different parts.

After the trains have undergone maintenance in the workshop, a 575-metre-long test track allows their performance to be verified in real operating conditions.

As its name suggests, the washing track is where the trains are brought to be washed inside and out. The platform facilitates moving from one section of the train to another, including the driver’s cab at the front.

While the Montréal métro tunnels are very clean, there is still a significant amount of dust, which comes mainly from the friction of various parts of the métro cars, the tracks and guide bars (which supply electricity to the cars).

A special train (tunnel cleaning train) runs from time to time in the system, but it isn’t enough. The underneath of the cars must be blown regularly, otherwise various parts risk malfunctioning. Beaugrand is the only workshop to house an automated dust-blower designed especially for this job.