Stranger than Fiction
This Burlington Northern locomotive looks right at home as it meanders through the rolling farmland except this ain’t Montana, Idaho, or South Dakota! Still wearing her original Cascade Green paint applied in 1974, EMD GP38-2 2098 — reportedly a BNSF expat repaying “horsepower hours” to CN — is seen at the helm of Canadian National’s Brantford to Hagersville local no. 580 as it rolls through the countryside at Middleport, Ontario.
If there were any remaining doubts as to the legitimacy of this absurd pairing of locomotives on a CN local, the sign at Onondaga proves that sometimes the truth is indeed stranger than fiction.
In a scene reminiscent of Burlington Northern in Washington state, BNSF 2098 guides CN 580’s short train of lumber and grain by Blastech in Cainsville, Ont., on the final stretch to the yard at Brantford.
Back at Brantford, and with work for the day complete, it wasn’t long before this eclectic pair of locomotives was pressed back into service. Within minutes of yarding 580’s traffic from Hagersville, a fresh crew arrived for the next assignment; train no. 581, the evening local to Hamilton. Highball!