Caption: The KPR was one of those railroads I wish I could have revisited. Unfortunately on this trip we arrived on the weekend with no train movements till the next week. If I recall correctly the Kewlona Pacific was a joint venture between Knight-hawk and Trillium, considering the start up date NYLE may have also been involved. It unfortunately was not a long partnership but was long enough that Trillium M420 3575 was relocated from it’s home in Tillsonburg, and never returned. The M420’s did last a number of years here but the two former UP SD40’s (rebuilt into SD38’s) were a sign of things to come, and not long after my visit most of the M420’s were sold to Lake State Railway and replaced here by leased GP38’s. A few years later the KPR shut down and CN took back operations on its former line. Today most of the line is still served by CN other then the southern most end, which was abandoned a couple of years ago. In this image almost the entire roster can be seen. Only one M 420 is missing as it was assigned to a lumber yard to the south of town. A HR412 used for parts is also missing from the group here.
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I’d never heard that Trillium was involved with the KPR. 2003 was around the time that Ettinger bought out Dingman out of Trillium which sent the NYLE owned assets back to the US.
Knight Hawk went bankrupt in 2003 and they had both rail and aviation interests and were publicly listed on the TSX venture exchange.
They did re-emerge only to go bankrupt again 10 years later. No doubt in 2003 they probably re-emerged as a completely different company as many investors would have been wiped out the first time.
Thanks for the clarity Steve. I always wondered how 3575 ended up there and was told shared interest but I guess not the case.
It could very well be the case. However google comes up absolutely blank. However, finding bankruptcy proceedings from 2003 is difficult….. online.
I can find stuff from a few years later in all it’s glory.. which would indicate the owners and creditors to a tea.