SFEX 4204 Update

SFEX 4204 in Miramichi, NB 2006/07/18

Ed Weisensel reported that SFEX 4204 was spotted on Norfolk Southern's train M4NB22 in Ohio. He confirms it is heading to the Morristown and Erie Railway in New Jersey.

You may remember that SFEX 4204 worked on the New Brunswick East Coast Railway for a time before its retirement. When CN purchased the NBEC it became CN property and made its way to the boneyard in CN's Woodcrest facility in Illinois. At that time I figured it was destined for the scrapper.

Apparently 4204 left CN's Woodcrest shops over 4 months ago and has been rattling around the system in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and so forth before returning to Woodcrest before heading to its "final" destination.

The Morristown and Erie Railway is a short line railway in New Jersey and Maine. They also operate the Maine Eastern railway. They operate a number of Alco units including other C-424 engines. See their all-time roster.

It's nice to see the old lady is still around!

By the way, check out Ed's photos on Flickr. He has quite a few nice Canadian Pacific shots.

This Day, 27 Years Ago

This slide was taken in Fredericton, NB 27 years ago today (January 17, 1984) by Greg Brewer. CP 4221 is in front of the Devon station just north of the train bridge linking the south and north sides of Fredericton.

There are a few things to note. CP 4221 is flying white flags indicating that it is an extra. Based on Greg's slides it seems that the C424s were around Fredericton during this time, prior to the arrival of the RS18s and later the RS23s.

Also note the block signals behind the unit, which appear to be turned parallel to the tracks. I wonder what they were protecting, pointing that way?

CP 4221 was built by the Montreal Locomotive Works as a C-424 in 1965 and was owned by Canadian Pacific for its entire career. It was retired in March 1997 and scrapped.

There is a really interesting photo of it on Railpictures.net showing it leading a picnic train on my birthday in 1991 in New York state, with some passenger cars and RDCs trailing.

West Chester 4230 Slide

One of my eBay searches turned up this interesting slide. It depicts West Chester #4230 in fresh paint. This was NBEC 4230, originally CP 4230 built in 1965. The old girl looks brand new in this paint, even though she's 45 years old.

I shot 4230 in Miramichi in 2002:
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NBEC 4230 was commonly seen in Miramichi in the early 2000s.

West Chester apparently also painted ex-CP 1803, by this slide.

NOTE: I wrote over the slide image to "ruin" it. I hate when people "borrow" my images and use them without attribution. If you want the image, go buy the slide.

This Day, 16 Years Ago

This slide (by David T Stowe, taken in London, Ontario) shows an interesting combination. CP 5671 leads two MLW warhorses, CP 4730 and CP 4234.

This Day, 23 Years Ago

This is a lovely shot of CP 4219 leading a train near Newport, Vermont. This slide was shot by W.A. Gleason on September 15, 1987.

After CP 4219's career with CP was over, it had a second life of sorts with the New Brunswick East Coast Railway as NBEC 4219. It served as a parts source, eventually ending up in Miramichi where it spent its last days before being scrapped.

This Day, 16 Years Ago

That slide was shot 16 years ago, on June 11, 1994 in Hamilton, Ontario by Glenn Cunningham.

4223 and 4224 are both MLW C424 units. Clearly HATX 509 used to be a Guilford unit, and in fact it was #314 when it was leased to them. It is a GP40-2.

This Day, 14 Years Ago

Here's another slide from Glenn Cunningham, this one in an unknown location (maybe London Ontario?) taken on October 12, 1995. CP 4231 and I think 4203 are at the head of a coal train.

CP 4241 in McAdam

One more eBay photo for you, this time from a black and white negative. It shows CP 4241 in front of the roundhouse in McAdam on June 25, 1978. I am not sure when the roundhouse came down in McAdam but it must not have been long after this photo, given the apparent lack of a roof.

4241 is ahead of another C-424 unit, followed by two other units that might be RS-18s. RS-18 CP 8731 is the unit on the right track.

Update on Former NBEC Units

Canadian Railway Observations noted the following units at or en route to Woodcrest, Illinois in its January 2009 issue:

1814, 1815, 1816, 1828, 1834, 1838, 1840, 1842, 1846, 1854, 1854, 1859, 1866, 4202, 4203, 4204, 4210, and 4214.

1842 and 1859 are reported to be going to the St. Thomas & Eastern Railroad, and CFQC 3000 is to be leased to the Chemin de fer Lanaudière near Joliette, Quebec.

Rumoured to still be at Campbellton, NB are 1813, 1819, 1821, 1845, 1849, 1851, 1856, 1857, 1867, 1868, and 4235.

MLWs in Ontario

Dan D caught the five ex-NBEC C424 units and NBEC 1840 on CN 149 through Brampton, Ontario on December 17.

See the video

The consist of the head end was CN 5769, 2273, and 2401 with NBEC 4214, SFEX 4204, SFEX 4203, NBEC 4210, SFEX 4202 and NBEC 1840. As I reported, they left Campbellton on December 10.

The C-424s Are Gone

Nicolas Kiss reported the five functional MLW C-424s left Campbellton last night on CFMG train 403, for CN's Woodcrest shops in Illinois. Those were CFQC 4202, SFEX 4203, SFEX 4204, NBEC 4210, and NBEC 4214.

The dead units are still in place and are to be scrapped where they are. That includes NBEC 4219 and NBEC 4243 in Miramichi, and NBEC 4235 in Campbellton.

The end of an era... sigh. I remember that there was often one C424 in Miramichi paired with an RS18, working the yard. 4210 and 4230 in particular were regular workers there, and I saw them many times.

NBEC 4214

NBEC 4214 has been on the Ottawa Central Railway (OCR), and is coming home to New Brunswick. She was spotted on OCR train 440 on June 6. I understand an RS18 from NBEC will be going to OCR on a permanent basis, probably NBEC 1851.

NBEC 4214 On Ottawa Central

What was once NBEC 4214 appears to be OCRR 4214 (Ottawa Central) in this video from Maxime Larouche.


Compare that to this video from 2004 where 4214 was labelled "NBEC".


I last saw 4214 on December 29, 2006 in NBEC train 403 at Dalhousie Junction. Obviously it has moved on since then!