Throwback Thursday - A Face Only a Modeller Could Love (Part Two).

StL&H 5448 is leading its train westward across William St in downtown London, Ontario on March 18, 1999.

By Peter Mumby.

Back on August 27 of this year I referred to the small 5447-5449 group of SD40-2 locomotives that CP leased from NRE and later purchased outright.  Like the 5449 featured in that post, 5448 arrived on the property wearing an unadorned coat of primer grey paint.  The cab side had the unit number and, at various times, either a hand-lettered "CP" or a stencilled "CP Rail."  When applied later, the StL&H logos actually added a little character to this pair of locomotives.

5448 and 5449 differed in a number of small details, but the major identifying feature of the 5448 was its lack of a dynamic brake.  This may have made the unit unique as far as CP's large roster of SD40-2 locomotives was concerned.  5448 had been owned by MP as its 3130 before being acquired by NRE.

StL&H 5447 had previously been identified as CNW 6910.  It entered service on CP in an uninspired coat of primer red paint with only its new road number and a stencilled "CP Rail" on the cab side.  Somewhat later a crudely drawn "CP" was painted on its flank.  Mercifully this was eventually covered with the StL&H logo that appears in the accompanying photo.

StL&H 5447 East is approaching the west siding switch of Nissouri on the CP Galt Subdivision on November 22, 1998.