Thunder Rail

Hard to believe I drove 200km to see this piece of junk. Im being sarcastic/common-sense of-course as I love it! This has to be one of the strangest units in Saskatchewan: M420R(W) ex-Maine Coast originally P&W via NREX, always #2004. The story I hear with these units is that MLW sold them to P&W at a deep discount so that it could get a foothold in the US marketplace against the more popular GP38-2. Needless to say this did not go well as MLW is no longer in business. 110 M420Ws & clones (HR412 etc.) were operated by CN at one point, all have since gone to shortlines including CTRW & GSW here in Saskatchewan. Since Thunder Rail is a former CTRW/nee CN operation, I always found it odd they couldnt get one from them, having to bring this one in all the way from Maine

Sadly this unit doesnt run much, only during the grain rush this is the main reason CTRW (and CN before it) wanted to get rid of this rail line. Note that the headlight is off center, non-CN style under-frame ditch lights and a primer spot on the nose.