SVGX 8625 Update

On Tuesday I received a very nice email from Mark McDowell, the Operation Manager for Savage Transportation Management in El Segundo, California. He sent me the above photo showing SVGX 8625, the former SOO 4203, in its new paint.

Here's what it looked like in late 2009, here in Winnipeg.


SVGX 8625 has received a LOT more than new paint. It is now a Tier 2 N-ViroMotive locomotive. The Tier 2 designation means it meets the US Environmental Protection Agency's Tier 2 standard for engine emissions. The N-ViroMotive designation means it is now a genset unit with multiple diesel engines.

You can see from the two photos that the whole rear hood has changed. There are now two (or three?) exhaust stacks for the genset units. Even the horn has moved.

The unit is on its way to a refinery in El Segundo. Hopefully I will be able to share a few more photos after it arrives. Thanks, Mark, for sharing this photo!

SVGX 4203 Finally Moved

Ex-SOO unit SVGX 8625 was stored in Fort Garry for many months. It was SOO 4203, set to be scrapped in the big scrap-a-thon held there in the summer of 2009, but it was saved and relettered to SVGX 8625. I mentioned it back in December 2009. I just noticed that it disappeared sometime between August 26 and August 30. It may be in CN's Symington Yard or it may already have left Winnipeg.

EX-CP SW1200 8131 is still there on the spur next to Manitoba Hydro on Chevrier Street.

Another SOO 4203 Update

I mentioned back in early October that SOO 4203 was saved from the scrapper, to be renumbered to SVGX 8625 and sold to the Savage Rail Services Group. Well, it was renumbered but it is still in Winnipeg, two months later.

Note the painted-over 4203.

A few weeks after I talked about 4203's new life, I saw SW1200RS CP 8131 in CN's Symington Yard in Winnipeg. In late October it was moved over to Chevrier Boulevard and coupled up to SVGX 8625.

Since then, they have been moved a few times along the former Manitoba Sugar spur but they are still there today. I wonder why they haven't been shipped out?

On a related note, I found a few photos of the same units I was watching the scrappers dismantle all summer, here.