Thursday, June 04, 2009

A New Life For CN 7059

An old friend, CN GP9RM 7059, has found a new home on the other side of Canada. The Sandhouse reports that VIRX 7059, owned by Vancouver Island Rail Tours Ltd., arrived on the Island on April 6 2009. It had spent a year and a half at the Southern Railway of British Columbia's Trapp Shops in New Westminster, B.C. The intent is for VIRX 7059 to provide backup power for the Southern Railway of Vancouver Island, and in the future it could power excursion trains on the island.

I first saw CN 7059 in Saint John on December 15, 2000 doing some shunting. I saw it again four times in December 2001, twice in January 2002, and for the last time on February 7, 2002. It was one of the usual three GP9s that stay in Saint John. See sightings.

If you don't subscribe to the Sandhouse, you really should. It is published by the Pacific Coast Division of the Canadian Railroad Historical Association and is a very high quality publication. If you have any interest in British Columbia rail history, past and present, you need to read this.

I found CN 7059 on YouTube leading a freight train. Skip ahead to 5:20 in the video to see it.

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