The province of Newfoundland and Labrador does have trains, in Labrador at least.
Newfoundland Trains
The island of Newfoundland hosted the Newfoundland Railway, and later CN and finally Terra Transport, until the railway’s closure in late 1988.
The railway was built to the 42″ gauge (narrow gauge) and was never changed to standard gauge. A portion of the yard in Port-aux-Basques was standard gauge, used to receive standard gauge freight cars from the mainland for transloading. CN briefly tried exchanging trucks on freight cars to have them continue on Newfoundland rails, but this was not considered a success, due to the time and effort involved.
The Diesel Era
In the diesel era, CN operated four types of locomotives on the Island.
GE 47 Ton Locomotives
Three GE 47 ton locomotives were briefly operated by CN on Newfoundland – numbers 775 to 777. They were sold in 1968.
G8 Locomotives
Six of these unique GMD locomotives were built for Newfoundland operation in 1956, CN 800-805. These diminutive engines had only 875 HP “under the hood” and were intended for light branch line service.
CN also had five standard gauge locomotives (CN 850-854) that saw operation on prairie branch lines.
NF-110 Locomotives
CN 900-908 retired in 1986.
NF-210 Locomotives
CN had a total of 38 GMD NF-210 locomotives, numbered from CN 909 to 946, built between 1956 and 1960.
Newfoundland Train Museums
There are several train displays in Newfoundland:
- Avondale Railway Museum
- Bishops Falls
- Bonavista Train Display
- Clarenville Train Station and Display
- Corner Brook Railway Museum
- Lewisporte Train Park
- Port Aux Basques
- Railway Coastal Museum, St. John’s
- Whitbourne Museum
Newfoundland Train Books
Here is a list of Newfoundland train books.
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