CNR 4200 - 50 years old and still running!

Canadian National Railways 4200, Prince Rupert August 17, 1959. Following a disastrous experiment using SW1200RS units to haul varnish on the Prince Rupert Extension, management finally listened to the complaining road crews, and assigned Geeps to trains 195 and 196.

195 and 196 ran between Red Pass Junction and Prince Rupert. Steam was finally removed from passenger service at the end of 1957, with Pacific 5149 leaving Prince Rupert, and a duo of SW1200RS’s arriving from the east that same evening.

Even with being fitted with Flexicoil trucks, fancy number boards and multiple unit controls, the short wheel base of these glorified yards goats gave the crew a rough ride, despite the fact that top speed on the 715.3 mile Prince Rupert Extension was a incredible 40 miles per hour!

Anther factor that became evident after one or two encounters with rock slides was that running long hood forward for crew protection resulted in the unexpected proximity of the jackknifed second cab.

After about five or six months of trials, the SW1200RS units were replaced with GP9’s, as shown in this photo of CNR 4200. In this shot, the hostlers are running the power pack and her accompanying Steam Generator Car down to the wye, in preparation for the evening run up the Skeena River into the Canadian Wilderness.

The Canadian National Railways had just instituted a renumbering scheme, with the new 42-hundred series being renumber from the 44-hundred series. It was not hard to read the old unit number on the cab under the new coating of green paint and new road number!

It is important to note, that not "just any" locomotive could be used in conjunction with a Steam Genarator Car. Indeed, the cab needed a control panel installed, complete with wiring and connector plug, to mate with the gen car.

In all, 28 units, 4496 to 4609 were grouped together and renumbered 4200 to 4227. New orders from GMD began with number 4228 through 4244.

Railroad Stuff: Canadian National Railways 4200 nee 4496, built by General Motors Division as a GP9, 1,750 hp in London Ontario, November 1956, serial number A-1014. Renumbered 4200 in 1957. Flexicoil trucks replaced with Bloomberg’s and renumbered back to 4496 in 1963.

Rebuilt as GP9RM (re-manufactured) up rated to 1,800 hp with a 16-645c motor, re-geared to 62:15 and renumbered 7258 in 1990, road class GY-418e. Typically mated with a daughter” unit. Still running!

See also "Steam Generator Car."