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.

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, 18 Years Ago

Another blast from the past! This slide shows CP 5661 and CP 474x rolling through London, Ontario and was taken by David T Stowe. CP 5661 definitely looks like it could have used a new paint job.

This Day, 19 Years Ago

This was quite a lashup. Shiny CP 5405 was on the point, with worn SOO 6616 in the middle and MLW M-636 CP 4701 trailing. Note the lack of a multimark on 5405, compared to the "Pacman" on 4701. I always liked the white SOO paint scheme. The slide was taken in London, Ontario by David T Stowe.

CP 5405 was an SD40 built as QNSL 209 for the Quebec, North Shore & Labrador railway in 1971. She was leased to CP in 1983 and purchased in 1985. This photo shows her in September 1987 with a multimark, so sometime between then and November 1990 she was repainted and lost the multimark. CP Roster.

SOO 6616 was built in March 1981 as an SD40-2. Sometime between 1986 and 1991, she was repainted into a different scheme, the red SOO scheme with white stripes (see here). As of 2003 she was still operating.

CP 4701 was built in 1969 by the Montreal Locomotive Works (MLW) and was an M-636.