This Day, 27 Years Ago

Greg Brewer took this slide of CN 2338 in Moncton, NB on June 17, 1984.

CN 2338 has had a bit of a charmed life. It is an MLW M-636 (class MF-36b) built in 1971. It was retired on June 4, 1996 but unbelievably was un-retired twice in 1996 before finally being retired on January 23, 1998.

It was configured in 1999 to be an emergency generator for the MacMillan Yard diesel shop in Toronto, Ontario as part of CN's Y2K preparations. It was not needed, but remained in the yard for years afterward. There was a lot of railfan discussion about what would be done with CN's last big MLW unit.

Amazingly, CN 2338 was sold in late 2010. It was sold to Railroad Power Leasing and became RRPX 2338. It arrived in Buffalo, New York on November 9, 2010. RRPX already had three other M636s among other Alco products. I believe RRPX 2338 is going to the Claremond Concord Railroad in New Hampshire but I could be mistaken.

The new CN 2338 is a GE ES44DC. I haven't had the pleasure of shooting it yet, as it is pretty much brand new. Here is the new CN 2338, photographed on July 31, 2012.