LRC locos on the loose again

from an email list i am on

Ex VIA 6903, 6905 LRC locomotives lettered for DESX to travel on CPR
Toronto to Sudbury. Diesel Electric Services Co. has purchased them.
Could be for sale to foreign interests (or scrap?) Here are a couple of photos shot of the LRC's on Thursday 09-Mar at
Mimico while they were awaiting pick-up by the CPR.

http://tinyurl.com/zahut
http://tinyurl.com/kxkfh

another email from the guy who was moving the locos

In case anyone is interested...I lifted the former VIA6903 & 6905
into Lambton - West Toronto during my Friday shift of T52. Don't
think that my train didn't look pretty funny with CP8224 leading a
pair of LRCs, boxcars, pipe etc. These units are dead and cut out,
and pretty much stripped inside of anything of value (ie radios,
first aid kits, fire extinguishers, etc) although they appear to be
mechanically intact. Look for these units to go to Sudbury on 435 in
the near future. Please note that although the units are hand-
lettered DESX they still have their AEI tags and UMLER information
showing VIA.

These units were lifted at 0155 at CNR Mimico Stn 3211 and ON JCT at
CPR Canpa at 0215.

I heard an unconfirmed story that these were to be renovated to
replace the RDCs on the White River run.

so there are the rumours, so maybe the LRC locos ride again
stuart

Industrial Rail Services in Moncton have purchased several LRC Locomotives for rebuilding.

See page 7 of their brochure:

http://industrial-rail.com/pdf/General_ ... ochure.pdf

Don't those have a 251? Pure conjecture here, but with the 251 and the hi-ad trucks, those units are probably very valuable as a parts source and very useless as a running locomotive. I can't imagine these being useful replacing RDCs, there's a versatilty the RDC's have that LRC's can never hope to achieve in regards to not having to turn the trains ever, etc...

I'm glad to see these survived, but I'm vague on where they're supposed to end up after rebuilding.

It's sad to separate these units from their matching coaches.

Dieter/

Are there any updates on the VIA LRCs?

Industrial Rail Services still has them listed (including at least one photograph) on their site.

I don't think they would do the rebuilding; the buyer, if any, would be responsible for that.

I can't think of any possible buyer in the U.S. or Canada. The various commuter rail start-ups seem to be unlikely candidates.

Any possibilities overseas?

There was a message posted on Yahoo Group (Alcodiesel) some time ago that the LRCs that sold to DESX were going to be repowered with EMD Primemovers and shipped to the African Congo, Ziare IIRC.

And also on a Yahoo group, x5 LRC's are for sale by Marine Diesel Ltd. in New Brunswick, who is also selling x4 16-251's out of others.

Marine Diesel Engines Ltd. of Caraquet, NB has five locomotives for sale.

http://www.mdeltd.com/product.php?product=Locomotives

And yet VIA hasnt amended their surplus assets page to show their last five LRC locomotives have sold. http://www.viarail.ca/doing_business/en ... _asse.html It does show which units they were though.