Caption: Canadian National RSC-13 1709 pauses at the Forest Station (Mile 47.5 CN Forest Sub), enroute from Stratford to Sarnia. A short train of box and tank cars from various railways is in tow, along with the standard orange wooden caboose on the tail end. The CN station is behind the lead unit, and the green water tower in the background bearing "Forest" in large letters places the photo well - the name of the town was actually given by the Grand Trunk Railway who built the line and station through the future town site, due to the dense forest in the area.

The unique A-1-A trucked MLW RSC-13 units were common on CN's light rail branch line operations out of the Stratford Division, but were eventually replaced or retired by more powerful units such as GP9's. A number were also later used as switcher and transfer units out of MacMillan Yard in Concord (Vaughan), with their trucks converted to B-B use with an extra long drop equalizer modification. The RSC-13 fleet was transferred from Stratford to Moncton in the mid-to-late 60's (with some to Montreal), and ran out their last days working CN's Maritime operations in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, retiring in the mid-70's. The units donating their A-1-A trucks to an RS18 upgrading program, making RSC-14's for branchline use, and were then sent out for scrapping. CN 1709 eventually ended its days at the London reclaimation yard in the early 80's, sent back west from NB on standard dummy B-B trucks to be cut up.

The CN Forest Sub ran from St. Mary's Junction (junction with the Thorndale Sub, 10 miles away from CN's nearby divisional operations base of Stratford) southwest 70.6 miles to Sarnia Junction, joining the Strathroy Sub at Mile 57.9. Most of the line was originally part of the GTR's mainline between Toronto and Sarnia. The portion west from Forest to Sarnia Jct was abandoned in 1982, and the rest of the line was gradually abandoned in portions throughout the mid-to-late 80's.

More CN RSC-13's in branchline service, at Harriston ON: http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=13990
For a photo of a CN local heading toward the Forest Sub in the steam era: http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=14281