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Caption: The RCRR (Red Coat Road & Rail) is contracted to be operated by the Great Western Railway in Southern Saskatchewan. There are no locomotives lettered for the RCRR but rather the GWR at Assiniboia. I was rather doubfounded to see F9A and F9B from Keokuk Jct tucked out of sight on the property. The KJRY is one of my favourite shortlines, and I did hear they were talking of giving up the cab units for newer power. But to the GWR??? My only thought is they might be going to work on the Southern Prairie Railway, a tourist line out of Ogema, which operates over the tracks of the RCRR.
I suppose a "welcome back to Canada" is in order. The 1750 and 1961 worked on the Algoma Central, and toward the end were on the Agawa Canyon Train..........and in VIA service as 6502 and 6613 after initially on CN.
Quite the surprise to see these units, and I have loved their brilliant paint scheme. It will be interesting to see what becomes of them.
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They were moved to Shaunavon two days after this photo. Not owned by Great Western. Someone wants to start some sort of tourist line based out of Shaunavon.
Garry Southgate of North Battleford SK purchased both units for his “future” museum.
Thanks, guys.
I would assume the units are in decent running order. Saw them last in Sept 2019.
Now that’s a neat catch. Always wanted to catch them when still operating in the States.
Albert, you still roaming the prairies or you heading back east ? Very nice, and interesting info and history. Keep well, travel safely, John
Back home, John. We were on the road for 35 days. That is a good haul and now I am tired.
Thanks. Everything went okay.
wow, quite the capture…
And which prior owner designed the livery? ACR? Then a subsequent owner changed the colours (retaining the design )?
sdfourty
Not sure, SD: I know I had seen another former AC “B” unit still in AC paint on the KJRY property at LaHarpe, Illinois a few years ago.
Someone on KJRY must have come up with this livery as it is not symbolic of the owner Pioneer Railcorp.
It is my favourite paint of all the US shortlines I have seen in the past few years, and it was a mixed reaction to see these units in Assiniboia; first, I was pleasantly surprised and secondly disappointed KJRY had disposed of them…so I would not longer see them in my US travels. And I understand the new owner is going to paint them back into Canadian National green/gold as they started out as.
KJRY had two A-units stored outside their shop, they were Algoma Central 1751 and 1754.
https://railpictures.net/photo/711827/
AC/WC bought four B-units from VIA but used two as parts sources and eventually scrapped them, the two B’s they operated have both survived, the other one (AC 1762) was donated by CN to the Alberta Railway Museum along with an A-unit, AC 1753. Both have been restored to their original green/black/yellow paint and numbers as CN 6514 and 6614.
Mr. Southgate also owns two other F-units, the former VIA 6304 and 6311 (formerly CN/VIA 6509 and 6529), both are currently stored at the Alberta Railway Museum but will likely join 1750 and 1761 in southern Saskatchwan in the near future. They have been rebuilt to FP9RM specifications (internally they are very similar to a CN 7000/7200 series GP9RM) and also had their steam generators replaced with turbocharged Detroit Diesel 6v92 HEP gensets in the mid/late 1990s. They have also been repainted into the 1950s CN scheme.
http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=34316
Part of a nice collection of VIA power and coaches at East End, SK now.