Caption: Canadian National 2209, one of CN's handfull of CLC H16-44 units, leads a GP9 on a northbound freight on the Bala Sub rolling through Sparrow Lake in Ontario's "Cottage Country" during July 1962. Sparrow Lake proper was located at mile 93.9 of CN's Bala Sub (north of Washago, near the southwest point of its namesake lake), although this photo was likely taken to the south at the crossing by Port Stanton Parkway and South Port Sparrow Lake Road.

During the early rush to dieselization, the Canadian Locomotive Company of Kingston, Ontario was licensed to manufacture and sell Fairbanks-Morse locomotive designs in Canada. CN and CP were their main Canadian customers, taking multiple orders in the 1950's to build up their new diesel fleets and banish steam. CN purchased 4- and 5-axle C-Liners, H16-44's, a lone H24-66 "Train Master" unit, and some smaller offerings including H10-44, H12-44 and oddball H12-64 models. They differentiated from the competition by using Fairbanks-Morse's opposed-piston diesel engines, a well-regarded design popular in marine use.

2209 was one of 18 H16-44 units CN purchased from CLC in 1955, first numbered 1841-1858 and later renumbered 2200-2217. Unlike most of CP's fleet of FM-CLC units that were based out of the west, CN's C-Liners and H16-44's were based in the east, and ran mixed with other equivalent models from competitor GMD and MLW pulling mainline freight and passenger trains in Ontario, Quebec, Eastern Canada and (early on) Vermont. CN's H16-44 units were also set up to run long hood forward, like most of their hood units at the time.

As the 1960's rolled around, FM-CLC had exited the locomotive market, and oddball first generation locomotives fell out of favour on most Canadian and US railroads. Most mainline FM-CLC units ended up retired and traded in or scrapped during this period (some were bought by marine supply outfits for their opposed-piston engines). CN's FM-CLC fleet was retired during the mid-late 1960's, and many of the stripped carbodies ended up in the scrap lines at London and Montreal awaiting the final indignity from the torch. CP's lasted a few years more until the bulk of their fleet were retired during 1975.

Original photographer unknown, Dan Dell'Unto collection negative (large-format scanned with a DSLR).