WCR puts restored locomotive into service

last weekend celebrated a successful inaugural run of a restored GMD-1 locomotive.

The train was donated to the St. Jacobs-based organization by CN Railway last year after the national company took their remaining GMD-1 models out of service.

While that model was extensively used, only 100 were made, said WCR general manager Peter McGough.

“It was a workhorse. It’s been in service on CN for 60 years. So it’s not that it was rarely used, but as a locomotive, it was a rare model,” he explained.

While it took nearly a year to restore before the first run on March 5 there was never any doubt about being able to bring the engine up to Transport Canada standard, McCough noted.

“There was nothing that raised its hand to say ‘OK, this isn’t going to work or it’s going to be too expensive.’ CN gave it to us in very good mechanical working order. So just making sure that it operated mechanically was something we normally do anyway with our other engines. There was nothing overwhelming that we faced.”

McGough praised the volunteer work crew for

Bill Atwood Grant Scheifele was the lead painter in Waterloo Central Railway’s restoration of a GMD-1 locomotive donated by CN to the St. Jacobs-based organization.