Post by tjmfishing on May 19, 2014 12:03:31 GMT -5
There is an interesting history behind these locomotives. This engine started off life as CP 8768 way back in 1958 and was rebuilt as CP 1819 during the late 1980's in Montreal. Right around the time CP began to sell off its C424's and RS-18u's CN began to abandon or sell much of their branchlines in Eastern Canada, as did CP. In 1998, CN sold off its second mainline (the original Intercolonial Railway) between Pacific Jct (Moncton, NB) and Charny (Quebec), as well as some lines in Ontario. Several shortlines were created out of this, namely the Ottawa Central Railway, New Brunswick East Coast Railway and the Chemin de fer des Matapedia et Golfe, all of which under the same ownership. Due to the timing, they purchased a mix of RS-18u's and C424's from CP and straight SD40's from CN. The line in the Gaspé however, which was sold in 1996, was owned by the municipalities under the crown-ish corporation Société de chemin de fer de la Gaspésie, which translates to Gaspe Railway Company, who leased running rights to the NBEC/CFMG.
Fast forward to 2008, when CN bought back the OCR, NBEC and CFMG and most of their power was scrapped. In this time however, freight traffic had dwindled to next to nothing on the Gaspé coast. Since the NBEC/CFMG were no more, Gaspé Rail decided to purchase their own power and run work trains and the occasional freight on the line. They bought four RS-18u's, three from NBEC (1819, 1846, 1856) and one from OCR (1865) They are currently trying to bring the line back up to specs but with no freight and 95 bridges (over half of which pushing 100 years old and being massive steel trestles) it isn't looking good.
I decided to build a model of 1819 as I photographed it last summer from parts I had on hand.
Since the majority of the train crews (all four of them) are ex CN guys who worked with my grandfather, I usually get invited up into the cab, yard office, etc when I'm up for a visit so everything it taken with permission. The same goes for the yard/ VIA trains.
I decided to try the Tamiya flat clear as opposed to Testors Dullcote since the LHS was out, however I am less than pleased with it. It doesn't seem to dry dead flat and I won't be using it again. Also, these photos are taken with my cell phone and the paint looks really thick for some reason.
Fast forward to 2008, when CN bought back the OCR, NBEC and CFMG and most of their power was scrapped. In this time however, freight traffic had dwindled to next to nothing on the Gaspé coast. Since the NBEC/CFMG were no more, Gaspé Rail decided to purchase their own power and run work trains and the occasional freight on the line. They bought four RS-18u's, three from NBEC (1819, 1846, 1856) and one from OCR (1865) They are currently trying to bring the line back up to specs but with no freight and 95 bridges (over half of which pushing 100 years old and being massive steel trestles) it isn't looking good.
I decided to build a model of 1819 as I photographed it last summer from parts I had on hand.
Since the majority of the train crews (all four of them) are ex CN guys who worked with my grandfather, I usually get invited up into the cab, yard office, etc when I'm up for a visit so everything it taken with permission. The same goes for the yard/ VIA trains.
I decided to try the Tamiya flat clear as opposed to Testors Dullcote since the LHS was out, however I am less than pleased with it. It doesn't seem to dry dead flat and I won't be using it again. Also, these photos are taken with my cell phone and the paint looks really thick for some reason.
