Canadian Railroads > MLW Monday - Embarrassment of Riches at Moncton

Sorry it's just a string of units sitting around the shops, but this one is in response to Rick's (rschonfelder) reply to Neil Compton's post last Monday at
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?15,4340073
bemoaning how people out west in SD country got screwed. Indeed we did. I was based in Calgary for five years, but on a two-week business trip to the Maritimes, I got a weekend in Moncton and haunted Gordon Yard. This is June 13, 1982, and we have a string of RSC-14, RS-18, and HR412(W)s. The numbers on the right-side string are 3685, 1767, 3623, 3708, 3629, 3643, 3836, 3628, 3626, 1769. To the left, there's 2580, and at least four more 2500s, built late 1981 but looking like they never had been on the road yet, they were so clean. Plus whatever else in these lines of power I didn't record, all RS-18 and RSC-14s. I don't have the tally now, but after the trip (one week in Fredericton, weekend in Moncton, one week in Halifax), I saw or shot almost 190 diesels, and of those, over 160 were MLW/BBD. Of the remainder, about a dozen were RDCs, throw in a few F's, and it was like being a kid in a candy store. Mind you, I'd love to be able to shoot some SD40-2 in 5" stripe on CP, now.
Fred



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/24/17 17:48 by feclark.

---

Today's young fans in Montreal get all excited when an SD40-2 shows up in town. They can't understand why I show no enthusiasm. They don't know what we were accustomed to seeing. An SD is deadly dull when one grew up seeing an endless parade of MLW units.

Ken

kgmontreal Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Today's young fans in Montreal get all excited
> when an SD40-2 shows up in town. They can't
> understand why I show no enthusiasm. They don't
> know what we were accustomed to seeing. An SD is
> deadly dull when one grew up seeing an endless
> parade of MLW units.
>
> Ken

Same with every generation.... An SD is a breath of fresh air compared to the current parade of GE widecabs.

Michael

Mberry Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Same with every generation.... An SD is a breath
> of fresh air compared to the current parade of GE
> widecabs.
>
> Michael

And for this kid back in the ‘70s....who only saw MLWs on the Hopewell and Sydney Subdivisions in Nova Scotia.....this SD that showed up one day was certainly a breath of fresh air too!!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/25/17 09:54 by ghCBNS.

---

ghCBNS Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Mberry Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Same with every generation.... An SD is a
> breath
> > of fresh air compared to the current parade of
> GE
> > widecabs.
> >
> > Michael
>
> And for this kid back in the ‘70s....ho only saw
> MLWs on the Hopewell and Sydney Subdivisions in
> Nova Scotia.....this SD that showed up one day was
> certainly a breath of fresh air too!!

Wow, that is CLEAN! Love it. I identify with you, too, as I started shooting in Ottawa, 1975 (Kodak Brownie 127 film), then slides on the Pentax in 1976. All CN road freights seemed to be behind widenose GP40-2(W) and GP38-2(W), so when a spartan cab SD40 or GP-38-2 showed up, I was all excited. In the early 80s I was at Alyth shooting SD40-2 all over the place, and a fellow wandered out from the shops to meet me. He was curious who would be wasting film on these things. I told him that's what they used to say when Fs were brand new and replacing steam, and now they wish they'd shot them when they had the chance. What did I do with all those roster shots of boring CP SDs? I turned some of them into MLW slides by trading, and I turned a bunch of them into a book. Worth every frame of K64. Some day the GEs will be gone; shoot them now.
Fred

Well Fred, at least we did have the BCR. A classy operation if ever there was one. It was, however, a poke at our balloon when they bought those first 6 SD40-2's. At least for a while, they were trailing units. Then all hell broke lose and they painted all of the locos into the British Flag colours.

Now, all we have are memories of Dogwoods and five inch stripes.

{I just realised, here I am complaining about CPR SD40-2's to the guy who literally wrote the book on CPR SD40-2's. It is an excellent book by the way. I am certain that it was a major contribution to the GMD models which Bowser has delivered to us. Thumbs up to you.]

Rick

Just a few units at Gordon-wow good stuff fred!

Mike Bannon
St Catharines, ON

rschonfelder Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Well Fred, at least we did have the BCR. A classy
> operation if ever there was one. It was, however,
> a poke at our balloon when they bought those first
> 6 SD40-2's. At least for a while, they were
> trailing units. Then all hell broke lose and they
> painted all of the locos into the British Flag
> colours.
>
> Now, all we have are memories of Dogwoods and five
> inch stripes.
>
> {I just realised, here I am complaining about CPR
> SD40-2's to the guy who literally wrote the book
> on CPR SD40-2's. It is an excellent book by the
> way. I am certain that it was a major
> contribution to the GMD models which Bowser has
> delivered to us. Thumbs up to you.]
>
> Rick

BCR's first SD40-2 order was for 12.