Canadian Railroads > MLW Monday - The Cowls

Although they are strictly speaking Bombardier products, most of us count them with the MLWs. The HR-616 was the Montreal company's last gasp at making a freight locomotive contender in 1982. I remember a short article and photo in the business section of the local Halifax newspaper about it. Even then, the gist of the article was that it would make or break the company. I guess we all know how that worked out. Although some HR-616s were scrapped in Moncton in the late '90s, a number were sold to NRE Silvis, where they apparently still languish. I was told that the 251 prime movers were popular for generating electricity on offshore drilling platforms, which may have hastened their demise as locomotives.

In the spring of 1997, a number of 2100s had congregated in the Halifax area. They were quite common on the gypsum trains, but I do remember seeing a pair of them on the Halifax intermodal train (131?) at least once or twice. 2117 is shown sitting on one of the radial tracks of the Fairview roundhouse turntable, probably ready to go out on a train that night. For some reason the radial tracks were known locally as the "Boulevard", and were a popular spot for railfans to get roster shots. Although the turntable is still there, there is rarely any extra power around, and trying for a shot like this today might incur a $225 fine!

In the other image, gypsum train 701 is nearing Wrights Cove in Dartmouth. 2103 appears to be leading one of those 2nd hand US SD40-2s and a GP40-2L, along with probably 60-70 loads of gypsum. When the SD75Is took over this job, CN was able to reduce the power to just two 6-axle units for the same size train.

GTD

---

---

Love the Draper tayper cowl units, thanks for posting
Ed
Detroit,MI

Love the lines of these; heavy-duty road grime, and a nice exhaust shimmer against a classic building. Nice post.
Fred

Thanks for sharing! Shots like those make me wish I had started taking pictures just a couple years earlier.

Andrew C