Favourite Locomotives

CP - SD40-2, SD90MAC-H
CN - GP9RM
VIA - P42DC, LRC (when they had them. There's one in montreal at the museum)

Nice choices! I like the FP-7's,as far as historic loco's go...I think GP-9's suck....out here, (vancouver), they mostly use them for Belt-Pack's(remote control..the switchman is also the engineer, and can run it while out of the loco, they are used in larger yards in Larger cities, and have the red blinky strobes on them.) But hands down....the comfortable ride on the pneumatic seats, and LCD meters of CP's AC-4400-CW is my personal favorite, they f-ing rule the rails!

What is the rm in GP9"rm" for? I have never seen that designation.

An honourable mention to BCOR 6001- an electo only motive power plant- 6000 hp from the old BCR tumbler ridge sub- I go to sneak into it while it was in a BNSF yard on it's way to SCRAP in tacoma.....F-u premier campbell! now the line is diesel powered....why?

I've always liked C44-9W's... CPR's chop nose GP9u's are nice too. I don't like any of EMD's newer locomotives (SD70AcE, SD90MAC)... they're butt ugly. Pretty much anything from GE is fine with me, really... though I hear other than looks, they perform like shit.

I love working next to a rail yard... unfortunately, it's an electric yard, so the only real awesome locomotive I get to see is the Acela set. But that kicks plenty of ass.

Personally, I think the new GE Evolution looks AWESOME.

I would love to see one of those suckers in the steel.

All-american SD40-2s are so cool sightings. CPR SD40-2F (aka red barns) are always valuable since they're using unusual freight engine body. Alco are nice too, but quite rare to see now (except if you know where to see them running).

F units are another of my favourite, except for that next to no railways use them. CP has three, which are kept in Calgary at the CPR Pavilion (I think). They are used on the Royal Canadian Pacific rail cruises in the mountains. VIA, until the coming of the new P42DC, used a dozen or so F-units for the trains up in Churchill.

The new P42DC's I like for the paint scheme. Apparently they have some problems in the cab. Air pressure gauges are only approximate, and vision is apparently quite bad. (I read that in some article in TRAINS)

Two F units (and LRCs) are stored in VIA Montreal Maintenance Centre and are waiting to be sold. TTCA (a new tourist line South of Quebec City) has bought some of the former CPR / AMT (Montreal Commuters trains) F7A and there's one of them being used on freight operations. I was invited on board of one of those. This is very cool and I like the engine room, but the F7a cabs have a unfinished design (a school bus interior). It is no comparaison with Genesis units or even, F40ph.

Posted by Alien Favourite Locomotives CP - SD40-2, SD90MAC-H CN - GP9RM VIA - P42DC, LRC (when they had them. There's one in montreal at the museum)

lrcs are hangin around by the dozen at the via rail center in montreal all covered with tarps, my favorite is the gp9 and i love the differences in mods done by cn and cp

Some LRCS have been sold to Industrial Rail Service (http://www.industrial-rail.com), a Moncton railcar refurbishing company. They have rebuilt Budd cars and got some VIA contracts. I heard they do a very good quality job, but a little bit too much expensive. Something strange with LRCs was the fact that VIA bought lots of them, but only one LRC-3. All the others units remained stored.

the 2 lrcs that were built to amtrak standards are now in cad diesel/century/esdc property in lachine quebec. one had its entire carbody removed except the rear area where the cooling grills were. it is a test bed for diesel engine, the other is used as a demo for completed engines. interesting note, the lrc was the last loco built in the old MLW plant, its an alco through and through bombardier built it but it has all alco engineering in it. trains magazine refferred to it as the last alco ever

Another one of my favourites is the RS and S lines of locomotives, made by MLW and ALCO. They look pretty cool. i don't know mechanically how good they are, but I haven't heard anything bad about them. (unlike Baldwins and Limas)

About the GP9RM...
They are mechanically identical (or nearly), to the CPR units, designated GP9u. In my trackside guide, GP9u is written in brackets under GP9RM. The RM, I think is a CN house designation to distinguish them from normal chop nose GP9u.

The newer locomotives, I agree, lack the looks of the older F and E units, but i don't think we'll ever see the old ones in active road service much, unless you go out onto the shortlines. CPR is or has retired ~400 SD40-2 locos for the newer AC4400CW.

the gp9 in its short body endears itself to me like the gmc 73 87 pickups. i love the cn ones in montreal permanently mated to slugs made from gp9s. they are all remote control so they have 2 man crews on the locals

I personally enjoy CP Rail's GP9u chop nosed units... I'm not really that fond of CNR's GP9RM's. Theres usually about 3 geeps sitting in Kinnear yard here in Hamilton, for the Hamilton turn service. I've noticed lately though, that CPR is starting to use SD40-2's in the roles of GP9's... like shortline work and switching. The AC4400's are moving in.

well next to where i work cp does its work on the dock with 2 gp9s and an old caboose, they do the work with a 4 man crew, cn with its RC loco would have done it with 2 men

Yeah, RS-18, how can I forgotten to name that model. The less I see them, the most I miss them. Few years ago, a railroad has authorized me to have the former CP serie plates of one of their cannibalized RS-18. I am so proud to have them in my collection. Most of the others collectibles (road number signs, builder plate, etc...) was already taken by someone else (one of their engineers).

VIA Rail had an RS-10 from CP at one point. I saw a slide of it at a train club meeting. Sweet...

I work right next to a small yard owned by Tuscola & Saginaw Baw, and also another of their rails heading north/south. They're running their old GP35s through here all the time. Pretty cool, pre-dynamic brake units.

The really cool thing though, is that once or twice a year, they bring up the Pere Marquette 1225 from Owosso on it's way to Cadillac. It's the only remaining running steam engine from Pere Marquette and it's amazing. Easily my favorite engine. I have an HO version with the same road numbers on my desk here.

Here it is from the parking lot of the building I work in.

click to view

I am a big fan of the CP Rail SW1200RS. I remember watching this switcher alot as a kid in Belleville, switching the various industries including the now abandoned Bakelite Chemical plant.

For modern, probably the F59 PHI. It has the class of the old F series, and still looks modern.

For tranisition, probably the monster GN or MILW northerns.

I've also got some Athearn Dash Nines that I custom painted with Milwaukee Road and Great Northern livery. I like the "what it" paintschemes.

I'm quite partial to the Rohr TurboTrain.