Canadian Railroads > SD40 Saturday

Back in 1998 CN sold 40 old SD40s to Alstom (then the owner of the former PSC shops in Montreal), who rebuilt them as SD40-3s and then leased them back to CN and KCS, 6 months of the year for each.  The units were painted in KCS grey and numbered 6600-6639, but apparently were only leased (not sold) to each railway.

Shortly after the first units were completed some showed up in Halifax.  On January 17, 1999 KCS 6621 was in the company of SD60F 5550 and had taken a transfer to Halifax Ocean Terminals from Rockingham.  On February 24 of the same year, KCS 6631 was the middle unit between SD40u 6004 and an SD40-2W on 701, the empty gypsum train, at Wellington, NS.  6621 is the former CN 5171 and 6631 is ex-CN 5209.

The joint lease only seems to have lasted a few years because in 2002, 19 of the group were leased full time to the GTW and renumbered 5938 to 5956, before most were retired in 2011, including the two above.

Then 16 of them were "un-retired", and put back in service, with at least one repainted into the current CN scheme.  6621 is now GTW 5938 and 6631 is GTW 5948.  All 16 are currently active according to the 2024 TSG.

GTD



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/30/25 16:05 by cn6218.

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Pic 1 is a keeper......