January 26, 2016

2247 CANADA (British Columbia) - Canadian National's eastbound freight departs Red Pass Jct. with Nos. 9104 and 5002


The Canadian National (CN) is a Class I railway company headquartered in Montreal, that serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States, and has 24,000 employees. It is the largest railway in Canada, in terms of both revenue and the physical size of its rail network, and is currently country's only transcontinental railway company. CN was government-owned from its founding to its privatization in 1995.  Bill Gates was, in 2011, the largest single shareholder of CN stock.

Among the Diesel-electric locomotives used by CN was 76 units of EMD F7 - 58 A units, nos. 9028-9142 (even), and 18 B units, nos 9029-9063 (odd) - built by GMD. The EMD F7 was a 1,500 horsepower locomotive produced between February 1949 and December 1953 by the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors (EMD) and General Motors Diesel (GMD),  in 3,849 units (2,366 A units, 1,483 B units), which means more than all other F units combined.

No. 9104 was an A units, i.e. a locomotive equipped with a driving cab and a control system to control other locomotives in a multiple unit. Built in October 1952, it was reclassified Class GFA-15d in September 1954 and rebuilt in May 1973 as 9165, Class GFA-17a.  It was retired on December 4, 1989, and sold to Century Locomotive Parts in October 1990, and resold in November 1990 to National Railway Equipment Co. The nose section was used to make a replica of California Zephyr Western Pacific 804-A at Disneyland.

Another locomotive used by CN was EMD SD40 (241 units), a 6-axle diesel-electric locomotive with 3000hp built by EMD between January 1966 and August 1972 in 1,268 units. No. 5002 was part of a set of 8 units (5000-5007), built for CN in September 1967. In postcard are these two locomotive, pulling a freight cars lining on June 27, 1969, on Red Pass Junction, where the Grand Trunk mainline divides into separate routes to the ports of Prince Rupert and Vancouver.

About the stamps
The first stamp is part of the series Vintage Circus Posters, about which I wrote here. The second stamp is part of a series issued on November 6, 2014 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the television special, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.", about which I wrote here. The last stamp is part of series that feature 10 still frames from the 1965 TV special A Charlie Brown Christmas, about which I wrote here.

References
Canadian National Railway - Wikipedia
EMD F7 - Wikipedia
EMD SD40- Wikipedia
General Motors F Unit Diesels - on Ross Group

Sender: Denise
Sent from Greenvale (New York / United States), on 30.11.2015
Photo: Mark Horne

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