Basking in the afternoon sun at the helm of local transfert job L527 into track MW01 was CN's last cowl unit in active service. Still proudly sporting the notorious BC Rail colours introduced back in 1983 by the British Columbia government on everything associated with them including of course the BC Rail, the 26-unit fleet had gradually being stored (and some scrapped) by CN.
The 4609 was the last of them.
Some local agreement were made with the company officials at Southwark Yard on this cold and cloudy morning and after a few locomotives rearrangement, the 4609 was finally put in leading position for the 16 miles round-trip to Taschereau Yard.
Some PCS valve issues with the old lady almost ruins the day for many of us. An almost 30 minutes-long call to the "diesel doc" was made and at the fourth attempt, she finally stop playing with us and recovered the emergency application like she always did before.
Sure she didn't look that good with that brand new black cow-catcher who didn't match well the silver paint GE workers applied on the unit back in 1990. Some rust spot started to show up too at many location and the "rock lights", specially ordered by BC Rail regarding the kind of mainline they operates, are no longer connected to the "corner light" switch in the cab. The cab was quite dirty too, kind of normal after more than 32 years hosting crew for 8, 10, 12 or even more hours shifts.
But the magical was still there.
Cab-mounted air bell, class lights, four windows cab, disconnected Locotrol equipment stil mounted on and above the control desk, side doors like an old passenger unit, real air gauges with needles and of course, the Draper Taper design, dating from CN's days into locomotive improvement business.
When I stepped off from CN C40-8M 2420 back in October 2020, my thought were I will never run or even ride one of CN's cowl fleet again . Never.
I was quite thrilled when the stars aligned again on this winter morning, catching the very last unit of the fleet, on my consist.
Many thanks to the Rolling Museum, you made my day again !
CN L52721-08
BCOL 4608 8021
Montreal Taschereau Yard
January 8, 2023
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