by Keith MacCauley
British Columbia Railway SD40-2 BCOL 753 was constructed by GMDD London in September of 1980. Further to service in Canada’s western most province the six axle unit would be retired in 2003 and sold to General Electric; renumbered GECX 753. Resold to Iowa, Chicago and Eastern Railway as ICE 6451, the veteran unit would subsequently be acquired by the Rapid City, Pierre and Eastern Railroad as RCPE 3643.
Long a devoted MLW customer, BC Rail was forced to work with another supplier when the Montreal based builder ended locomotive production. The railway would roster a total of thirty-two SD40-2’s made up of fifteen EMD built (previously owned) and seventeen newly built GMDD’s. All were off the roster by 2010.
The ‘Z’ separated green/dark green BC Rail paint arrangement is among my all time favourite schemes. Not a fan of the follow up red/white/blue scheme. While no doubt intended to honour British Ensign colour ancestry, to me it screams ‘USA’.
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