Our CP #7020 comes to life!

After 28 years parked and cold the first diesel switcher the CPR brought to Toronto has been brought back to life a week before the 70th anniversary of its arrival in Toronto.

For the past few months, Chris Fox, a specialist in diesel-electric locomotives, assisted by Michael Guy have spent many, many hours working on CP #7020 with its Alco 539T engine

At our last Town Hall meeting for our volunteers and staff, we celebrated its running on two of its 6 cylinders. On October 15th, working into the night in anticipation of success, Chris and Michael finally had it running on all 6 cylinders. The 7 minute video above captures attempts to start it earlier that day and in the last 2 minutes of the video, you can hear the engine running on all 6 cylinders.

In the image below, we find #702 clattering through the diamond heading towards Lambton with a string of a half dozen freight cars in January of 1980, over 34 years ago.  For more information on #7020, click here and scroll down.

Congratulations to volunteers Chris Fox and Michael Guy for the time and effort in bringing one of our historic Toronto-based locomotives back to life! 

Video by Michael Guy; Photograph below by David More (Helmut Osterman Collection)

Click on the image for a closer look!