The Waterloo Central Railway (WCR) 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 its efforts in restoring the locomotive.
“Some of them are retired. Some of them come in on a weekend from their jobs. But they did it all by hand, every little bit of it. We were able to get the original CN colours to match. And we had decals made up. It doesn’t say CN, but that colour scheme is exactly the way it was delivered except where it says Waterloo Central, it would have said Canadian National.”
Grant Scheifele, lead painter on the project, said finishing the restoration and the reaction it has generated have been rewarding.
“That’s what we do: we get old stuff and restore it and bring it back to the original. The comments we get on it are super. It’s a beautiful piece of equipment that runs well – 1,200 horsepower, which is powerful. We’re proud of it, very proud of it. A credit to the guys that worked on it,” said Scheifele.
