Canadian Railroads > Two Too Blue

I'm really not sure what to file these ones under.

In 1994 CN and Conrail entered into a 17-year lease arrangement for a batch of C40-8Ws.  They would spend 6 months of the year on CN and 6 on Conrail.  The locomotives were leased from LMS (Locomotive Management Services), which I think was a subsidiary of Conrail.  At the time there was plenty of speculation about how good a deal this was, since GE locomotives were typically at the end of their life in 15 years, let alone 17.

With the Conrail breakup in 1999, a dozen were eventually assigned to CN, and renumbered IC 2455 to 2466, right after the CN Dash-8 cowls.  In 2012, the lease expired, and CN bought the remaining 11 (2464 was wrecked) outright.  They seem to be a transition model, with Dash-9 radiators (split cooling?), but conventional trucks and only 4000 HP.  Even with non Hi-Ad trucks the tractive effort is still the same as most of CN's Dash-9s, at 101,000 lbs.

On April 23, 2001 Dash-9 2545, LMSX 724 and LMSX 729 were hauling train 137 through the farmland of Shubencadie, Nova Scotia.  About an hour later I caught the trio on the East Mines Trestle, near mile 15 of the Springhill Sub.  The 11 are still on the CN roster, and one or two have been repainted in CN's contemporary scheme, but most still wear the faded and rust spotted Conrail dress blue from 1994. 729 became IC 2456, and 724 must have wound up on CSX or Norfolk Southern.

GTD

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cn6218 Wrote:
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> 729 became IC 2456, and 724 must
> have wound up on CSX or NS.

LMSX 724 was renumbered NS 8464. It was retired & sold for scrap to Progress Rail in December 2019.

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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/20/20 02:14 by Habu.