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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.
Copyright Notice: This image ©Marcus W Stevens all rights reserved.



Caption: 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 hulks 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.

Photographer:
Marcus W Stevens [1065] (more) (contact)
Date: 09/16/2024 (search)
Railway: Canadian National (search)
Reporting Marks: BNSF 2968 (search)
Train Symbol: Not Provided
Subdivision/SNS: Guelph Subdivision (search)
City/Town: Kitchener (search)
Province: Ontario (search)
Share Link: http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=55091
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Photo ID: 53769

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6 Comments
  1. That actually is CN L568

  2. 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.

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

  4. 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.

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

  6. Looks great. Nice fancy shot there, Marcus.

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