Canadian Railroads > MLW Monday: The end

At the end of 1984, BCR retired the remainder of it's 244 powered MLW and Alco locomotives (RS-3's and RS-10's).
​Many of the RS-3's were cut down and converted into slugs for yard work. The rest were not fortunate enough to get this second chance at life.
​The rest of the units were pushed into the back tracks at the Squamish Shops to await their fate.

5/1990.

​Brian E



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/17/17 09:02 by m420.

---

Sometime in that time frame, a cut of loaded cars ran away from a sawmill at Norlake (North Williams Lake) during a switching move. The switch crew were able to alert Williams Leke staff that there was a runaway cut of cars coming at them down grade, and everybody in the yard at Williams Lake headed for the hills and there were no injuries.

​I think there were a number of RS-3's stored on the shop track at Wiliams Lake at the time, and they took the brunt of the impact and were written off on site.  After the twisted carbodies were removed, they likely went to Squamish to be scrapped. I'm wondering if some of those three or four locomotives are in the picture.

Phil, perhaps you are thinking of the collision that the yard crew had at Williams Lake April 13, 1984.  The 1600 yard crew was bringing loads south from Norlake, someone tampered and lined a switch near Green Acres trailer park, the yard job collided with some cars stored in the track. The yard foreman was seriously injured and the rest of the crew had minor injuries. 559 & 568 were badly damaged. 559 was converted to slug 405 and returned to service. 568 was retired account of the damage.  Doug