Comments on: CP 5001, one of 2 GP30′s sold in Canada, is just starting the afternoon freight moving at Trois-Rivieres, returning to Montreal with quite a number of newsprint boxcars loaded at the local paper mills and other freight. The trailing unit on this occasion is an FA-2. In 1970 I saw predominantly 4-axle MLW units on the afternoon freight returning to Montreal from Trois-Rivieres. Three units was typical, otherwise 2 or 4; they would include mixtures of RS11, RS10, RS3, FA, FB, and C424. Other than the occasional freight FP7A, the first GM unit I encountered was the GP35 – I heard its turbo-supercharger whine as I bicycled along the road beside the roundhouse, and wondered what I was about to see. This GP30 was obviously related but styled differently from the GP35, while its CP class id plate DRF-22a showed lower horsepower than GP35′s DRF-25a (or b,c,d). At the time I valued direct side views of locomotives far above any other angle. The only place that worked well for that in T-R was the station side of the tracks. Unfortunately that put me on the east side, not so good when the sun is going down to the west – most of my best afternoon shots from this era were taken when overcast. This image of CP 5001, taken toward the setting sun, was very difficult to make a satisfactory black and white print from – only because of its rarity did I save the negative. Fortunately photoshop is easier than darkroom burning, dodging and developing with chemicals. 48 years separate my first GP30 and latest (BNSF GP39M) images; I hope to catch some more.

Comments on: CP 5001, one of 2 GP30′s sold in Canada, is just starting the afternoon freight moving at Trois-Rivieres, returning to Montreal with quite a number of newsprint boxcars loaded at the local paper mills and other freight. The trailing unit on this occasion is an FA-2. In 1970 I saw predominantly 4-axle MLW units on the afternoon freight returning to Montreal from Trois-Rivieres. Three units was typical, otherwise 2 or 4; they would include mixtures of RS11, RS10, RS3, FA, FB, and C424. Other than the occasional freight FP7A, the first GM unit I encountered was the GP35 – I heard its turbo-supercharger whine as I bicycled along the road beside the roundhouse, and wondered what I was about to see. This GP30 was obviously related but styled differently from the GP35, while its CP class id plate DRF-22a showed lower horsepower than GP35′s DRF-25a (or b,c,d). At the time I valued direct side views of locomotives far above any other angle. The only place that worked well for that in T-R was the station side of the tracks. Unfortunately that put me on the east side, not so good when the sun is going down to the west – most of my best afternoon shots from this era were taken when overcast. This image of CP 5001, taken toward the setting sun, was very difficult to make a satisfactory black and white print from – only because of its rarity did I save the negative. Fortunately photoshop is easier than darkroom burning, dodging and developing with chemicals. 48 years separate my first GP30 and latest (BNSF GP39M) images; I hope to catch some more. http://www.railpictures.ca The BEST Canadian photos on the Internet, eh? Thu, 07 May 2026 18:15:44 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1