Throwback Thursday - INCO Shop

Several INCO electric motors are getting some attention inside the Copper Cliff shop on August 19, 1991.  The railway also used a few internal combustion units.  Lurking in the background is ALCO S-2 locomotive 203, which had originally operated as Western Maryland number 144.

By Peter Mumby

Vale Railway (reporting mark VAEX) is a good-sized private mining and industrial railway operating in the vicinity of Greater Sudbury, Ontario.  Prior to an ownership change, the company was known as the International Nickel Company, and the railway was named INCO Railway with reporting mark INCX.  Between 1926 and 2000  the railway was electrified, and a couple of the company's electric locomotives were present in the Copper Cliff shop on the day when today's photo was exposed in August of 1991.  Units 113 and 116 were both 100 ton locomotives produced by GE in 1938 and 1948, respectively.  Two of INCO's electric motors, specifically 101 and 116, have been preserved at the Northern Ontario Railway Museum in Capreol.