CN IPO25 Heritage Units

On a sunny, 4-degree Celsius Sunday in early February, I got word that BCOL 3115 was coming east down the Kingston Subdivision on CN train No 372. Not snowing, no wind, nothing on my agenda, nice morning sunlight - of course I headed out to Mi 180 Kingston Sub, along the Kingston Railfan Walking Trail to photograph my fifth and last CN Heritage unit. I wondered why it had taken me so long to finally have such an opportunity - a combination of luck, weather, timing, and where CN had stashed 3115 since it was painted in this retro scheme, way back in 2020!

Canadian National celebrated the 25th anniversary of its November 17, 1995 Initial Public Offering (IPO), a very visible way. Five locomotives were painted in heritage schemes, depicting the railways CN acquired since the IPO. These were:

• Grand Trunk Western 8952 light blue with red nose and GT 'wet-noodle'
• Wisconsin Central 3069 in 'Burkhardt' maroon with yellow stripe 
• Illinois Central 3008 in the black 'deathstar' scheme
• British Columbia Railway 3115 in the red, white and blue 'hockey stick' scheme
• Elgin, Joliet & Eastern 3023 orange with green-ball scheme
• CN 8898 in the CN website scheme - not considered a true heritage unit and will be sadly ignored by your humble blogger for the remainder of this post.

GTW 8952 and CN 8898 were SD70M-2's, all the others were ET44AC's. Each unit bore a small nose logo signifying CN's transition from a Crown corporation to a publicly-traded company. Small enough to be overlooked, and cryptic enough for those viewing it to wonder what IPO25 was - perhaps a speed restriction? Technically, these are CN units with numbers that match CN number series, albeit totally non-sequential! I colloquially refer to them by their identities i.e. GTW 8952. Some say that not using a CN prefix is like breaking a basic railway rule. I also came up with my own three rules for Heritage units. These are called Eric's Three Heritage Unit Rules. 

Heritage Rule #1: It's Only Heritage When It Leads.

Heritage Rule #2: CN 8898 is not a True Heritage Unit.*

Heritage Rule #3: Veterans Units CN 3015/3233, blue BC Rail units and crappy old GTW Geeps still in their original paint do not qualify as Heritage units. **

The six units were painted at non-CN shops, reportedly the former Illinois Central shop in Centralia, IL, Quality Rail Service in Madison, IL with GTW 8952 painted at AMP in Dansville NY on Oct. 11, 2020.

The papered-over WC, IC, EJ&E and BCOL units deadheaded east on train 396, arriving Battle Creek MI on Octoer 24, 2020 on their way to Montreal. Rumours had been circulating for weeks, and as they often do, railfans compiled a 'real' fantasy list of 25 paint schemes that CN just had had to do - ranging from Central Vermont to Gulf Mobile & Ohio! "I'm happy to see the GM&O is being made", typed one rabid-but-not-realistic railfan. Hey, what about Northern Alberta Railway? A sketchy sketch showing some imaginative images made the rounds on social media: 

The six units were arranged on adjacent tracks at Montreal on adjacent tracks for the media on November 10, 2020. CN's CEO J.J. Ruest - Railway Age's 2019 Railroader of the Year -  posed with the units (and fresh rock dust spread everywhere! - reformatted Pascale Simard/Alpha Press photo):

The six units deadheaded west on CN No 105 on November 14, 2020. A stoppage and recrewing at Shannonville instantly converted the sleepy village on the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory into a railfan mecca, with scads of camera-toting Ontario railfans going trackside, sometimes on CN property, to get photos while the units were stationary for most of the day. Like shooting fish in the proverbial pickle barrel. Then the CN Police showed up!

Minty BCOL 3115 led CN No 376 east down the Kingston Sub on November 15. The units entered service across the CN system, with WC 3069 reported in Vancouver on November 27, EJ&E 3023 in Kamloops on December 23, and BCOL 3115 in New Westminster on December 29.

I made a semi-serious quest to pursue and photograph these five units locally. Success would depend on several factors: time of day, weather, direction of travel, leading or trailing, my very relaxed schedule and just plain luck. With this past Sunday's snagging of BCOL 3115, my set of five is complete! So it took awhile...and while you've seen my results in Trackside Treasure header photos, this is the first time they've been featured in their own post. On an overcast, flurry-filled April 21, 2021 it was EJ&E 3023 leading CN No 376 at Mi. 180 Kingston Sub:

The green cab numerals don't contrast well with the orange body, especially under snowy, overcast skies:

An earlier photo of this or the BCOL unit would have shown their minty, silver trucks and underframe. Long-begrimed.

May 2, 2021 at 1610 - GTW 8952 led CN No 376 at Mi 180 in sunny weather just a few days later. 

More recently, GTW 8952 languished in the shops at Dansville, NY from April, 2022 to January 31, 2023 when it was sprung loose to grace the Kingston Sub, before taking up residency as the 'yard-switcher' in Truro, NS.

CN 2606 and Geep 7204 in the CN 'website' scheme completed the locomotive consist:

Hey, 7204! Your heritage is showing!

January 26, 2022 at a bright, snowy 0941, IC 3008 trailed on CN No 377 at Mi 179

I was actually out to catch GTW 2264 leading CN No 518 west, so this was a complete surprise! Behind leader CN 2955, and then a bush:

April 2, 2022  at 0909, WC 3069 led CN intermodal No 149 at Mi. 179 with fleetmate 3067:

Yes to a yen or a yearning for yellow?

February 12, 2023 at 1112, BCOL 3115 trailed on CN No 372 at Mi 180 (hey, better late than never).

I was so lackadaisically late to the fifth-unit party that I willingly broke my own Heritage Rule #1!

March 22, 2023 - I adhered to the rule. With CN No 122 reported led by BCOL 3115-CN 2888, I headed out to Collins Bay. Without quite enough time to get to my desired spot on the north side of Bath Road, I was lon the south side again, left with these shrubby, grubby grab shots of the go-go 122 going 65 mph!

It's easy to find a raft of stunning, colourful photos of these Heritage units on photo-sharing sites. Like the Norfolk Southern, Union Pacific and Canadian Pacific Heritage units, they just call out to be photographed! Even the crews notice a difference when they're leading a train with any special-scheme units - it brings out the overpass-and-shoulder-of-the-road crowd to get photographs! 

*I had a weak moment. Here's CN 8898 on CN No 377 on March 29 (image courtesy Railstream, LLC):

**I have made efforts to photograph CN's military units as well, however! CN 3233 on CN No 306 - March 18, 2021:

MAY 2023 UPDATE: By early May, CN had removed the IPO25 decals from the cab sides.

Lots o' links:

• Amazing photography of the Heritage units in the U.S. including drone photography
• Video of the WC, IC, EJ&E and WC units eastbound under wraps on October 24, 2020
• Veterans unit CN 3015 on CN No 376 - February 4, 2021
• Norfolk Southern heritage locomotive fleet
  
• Union Pacific commemorative locomotive fleet
  
• Canadian Pacific military locomotives
  
• Track 'em all over North America on the Heritage Units website!

Running extra...

CANDO's Steve Bradley kindly shared a couple of photos of a recent trip up the former CN Millhaven Spur, now switched by CANDO. At the mainline, there is a storage yard and a connection to the CN Kingston Sub, regularly switched by the now-nocturnal CN No 519 Belleville-Kingston turn.

Looking east (above) and west (below). The CN mainline is at right:

Speaking of shortlines, Lesley Bernard emailed to say she had read my post about her Dad, Julian Bernard. She was inspired to start a blog of her own. I continue to believe this is the best way to share great stories, information and history, so I'm wishing Lesley well on this new venture!

I don't often watch Lance Mindheim CSX Downtown Spur operations videos, but when I do, it's this one.