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Caption: Ahh.. the start of my serious photography. Serious? Not really - but serious enough that I had purchased a Digital SLR a week or so prior - a Nikon D70 - at the time $3,000. I had shot film for about a year with my crappy 2 megapixel digital - the film was for my 'good' shots - but the price of developing - and the pain in the butt of scanning and editing (which I had done this early in the game) made me quickly realize that a digital is cost effective by comparison.
Even better, I lived just behind the house at right at 3 Glasgow St North, so I didn't have to go far to get this shot, This scene showing GEXR in its classic geep days - three, four, five, six... even as many as eight (!) four axle units could be found on 432/1 depending on tonnage and available engines. The four axle era ended approx 2006 when the purple/blue HLCX leasers arrived.
The nickname for this engine, by local railfans at the time, was "John Deere". There were others.. who remembers "Barney" and "Tar Baby"??
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Third engine is CEFX 6537, now in blue, with a new cab, air conditioning, still at Salford for ZTR work.
I miss ol’ Barney. That was the NC/VA unit, was it not? I couldn’t stand that purple dinosaur, however.:o)
Yep, I think the Barney was the 3843 that had “NVCA” grayed on the side. Those were the days. What was “tar baby”? 4019? It looked blacked out quite often.
This brings back memories. Unfortunately, during 2004 I wasn’t taking many photographs, and even if I was, I definitely didn’t have a DSLR. I got record of the CSX SD70ACe units test running as the sole power on 432/431 in the way of one digital shot and some video.
And in April 2004, I saw 432 coming into Kitchener with 8 locomotives and over a 100 cars!
Yes, Kevin, I remember the CSX running in August that year a couple of times. Hard to imagine 2004 being “the good old days” but in some ways, it was.
Try 50 years of film before making the full time switch to digital and even though it’s an obvious better choice, the switch to digital was not an easy choice, even with a high tech professional job. But it’s so much easier. I’m happy that digital has revived and instilled new life in a new generation of railfan photographers. There’s a lot of talent out there.
Kevin Flood, the Tar Baby was 3835 (ex 9543) when it ran around in patched IC, before it got the RailTex red scheme.
Honestly for me I don’t miss the days or 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8 unit consists!
I remember these lashups. Back when I just watched the trains, never owned a camera. The 4046 was always my favourite unit. Love the paint scheme. Too bad it was scrapped in 2011.
Did the 4046 have flashing ditch-lights, or is the left ditch-light burnt out?