BC Rail engines starting to appear in deadlines

On my last few trips to Homewood, I have noticed BC Rail engines mixing in with the WC SD45s in the deadline. There have been slugs, Alcos, C40-8Ms, and C36-7s at Homewood. There have been more and more each trip.

C40-8M's! Really? They're pretty young in the grand scheme of things.

Me too, C40-8Ms! The oldest are about 13 years old. Maybe British Columbia Rail and Canadian National Railway ran them too hard. The C36-7s are a rare bird.
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=149918
This one has a groovy Yellow stripe.
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=151626

The C40-8Ms were upgraded to 4400 HP as was alluded to in U-Hauls second picture. In fact they were upgraded to Dash 9 specifications. I dont think CN would scrap such a unit without catastrophic damage. The others probably wont survive, however. The Alco based units were phased out of CN operations long ago; and Cat powered RS-18s are an unfortunate orphan there. The older GEs have been going through Progress Rail to a railway in Brasil.

I thought I saw that the Cat powered RS-18's were already going to be parted out.

Dave Becker

The first batch are. Houston Locomotive Group is parting those and will likely get more. I'm not sure how many 'CRS-20's are left since many never made it to a CN internet sale. Oddly, there isnt much interest in saving any of these units locally since they arent very original (pure Alco powered) despite having worked up to nearly 50 years in BC. These are BCRails last Alcos, I dont get it. For those of you unfamiliar with these units I'll leave a link from CNs photo gallery; note that a couple pics were shot at Symington (Winnipeg, MB) on their way to Homewood: http://www.cnrphotos.com/gallery/v/powe ... r/album11/

EJ&ESDM809 wrote:On my last few trips to Homewood, I have noticed BC Rail engines mixing in with the WC SD45s in the deadline. There have been slugs, Alcos, C40-8Ms, and C36-7s at Homewood. There have been more and more each trip.

Don't worry, power such as the BC Rail C40-8M's isn't going anywhere, its merely there for repairs. These units are going into systemwide service on CN so you can catch them anywhere. Power like the GE DASH 7's and the CAT repowered RS18's are being retired though.

Bryan Jones
Brooks,KY

I went to Williams Lake, BC recently and watched two of the Cat repowered RS-18s switch the yard there in remote control. They seemed to be doing a pretty good job of it. Actually they seem like sweet little units, its a shame CN has decided to can them, really.

I highly doubt the BCR C40's are dead...

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=153715

I took that other pic too :D

Christian, good to see you on here. For those of you who dont know him, Two Tone Green is a BCRail fan like few others. (Hopefully he'll share some pics and/or video). The Dash 8 40CM at Homewood hasnt been identified to my knowledge, but is likely facing a repair. Theyre good but not infallable. Certainly too soon to scrap such a unit.

I a BCR fan... how did you tell

Ok Ok ill make up my signature.....

Made it and yeah, you can dinf C40-8M's in my vids :D

TTG, at least one of your pics is here: http://www.cnrphotos.com/gallery/v/powe ... er/album07 so dont be all shy and modest. You're a good photo & videographer. You must know some people that you could ask - which C40 is at Woodcrest?

I want to see a B40-8 repainted CN

*clears throat*

what did you just say?