Caption: 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.
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