Caption: These locomotives seem to have had a love/hate relationship on the OSR. Some folks liked them. Some hated them. Crews, that is, but the railfans probably the same. (Did you love/hate them? comment below). Purchased for the Food Terminal that was supposed to go on the former Turfgrass/York District lands in Guelph in the early 2000's, it would not come to pass (surprise surprise). Billed as an agri-food hub, the terminal was supposed to get unit trains of reefers from western USA to be distributed to Canada's largest markets by truck. OSR was stuck with these and they retained their obvious BC Rail heritage all the way to the end. Sold off in May 2020 to the Sartigan Railway who would waste no time painting them. (Check out this Beautiful Michael Berry shot though!)
It's 5:20 and I left work, thank god with my camera in hand (I don't do that very often) and found them just down the road in beautiful evening fall light as they switched the former Sanimax spur. Sanimax built the spur around 2009 but left a few years later and the owner of the property leases the spur to GJR for car storage. The place (still today) is only switched about once a month or two to retrieve cars for the customer as needed.. and in the afternoon faces the sun perfectly.. at peak fall? I suddenly liked these things. I wasn't a big fan honestly, but the BC Rail heritage grows on me.
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I like ‘em, other than those tiny numbers in the boards here!
644 had original boards still. I suspect 647 had theirs stolen some years ago, checking rrpicturearchives they were stolen around 2010/2011 and replaced. There were white number on black boards before (also replacements, not original)