Comments on: A diamond in the rough. Pristine looking BNSF GP39V 2968 certainly doesn’t show its age with a nice coat of BNSF paint. Original built as a GP35 for the GM&O back in the 1960, complete with second hand Alco trucks. When BN approached VMV years ago for an option for secondhand four axle units, rebuilding old GP30’s and GP35’s became the reality, especially considering the number of hulk VMV could get its hands on. The GP35 was well known for maxing out its prime mover and often damaging its electrical system in the process, often sidling the model with electrical fires, which made them candidates for early retirement. Thankfully EMD later came out with the dash-2 electrical system, which helped eliminated a lot of headaches. Today CN is still short of four axle power and has been turning to BNSF to fill the void. I was shocked to see this nice clean unit working Kitchener yard Monday. Unfortunately the stalled 533 Sunday and derailed 540 Monday killed any chance of getting a 568 this day.

By: awmooney

awmooney — Sat, 05 Oct 2024 01:07:02 +0000

Looks great. Nice fancy shot there, Marcus.

Kevin Flood — Sat, 21 Sep 2024 02:56:04 +0000

That is really clean…I’ll try for a leader shot if it sticks around long enough.

Noe — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 21:13:52 +0000

Also the Sunday afternoon L533 didn’t lift any cars. They just departed back to Toronto light power.

As of Tuesday, 4791, which was the unit that had derailed was still in Stratford yard.

Marcus, you have a neat photo as 2968 didn’t work solo for very long.

Jacob Patterson — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 04:43:47 +0000

Also ran the regular Sunday evening 533 a few hours later.

Stephen C. Host — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 01:17:40 +0000

And 568 did run later, after 540 returned they donated 2 blue 4900′s to what you see here and they ran west.

They ran a 533 Sunday afternoon to Kitchener from Toronto.

RLK2211 — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 00:38:23 +0000

That actually is CN L568