In October 1973, British Columbia Railway M420 645 emerged from the Montreal Locomotive Works plant in Montreal, Québec, one of eight to be built for the western Canada railway. The M420s were among the first locomotives to be offered only with the then-new safety cabs. BCOL’s M420 differed from Canadian National’s M420s in a few ways, such as having dynamic brakes and a slightly different wheelbase (put simply, it was as if the frame had been reversed). Also, BCOL’s Squamish Shops extensively rebuilt the stepwells and, later, added rock lights to the anticlimber.
This locomotive carries the reporting marks for Mohawk Adirondack & Northern, one of the four railroads owned by Genesee Valley (which owns the Delaware-Lackawanna, Depew Lancaster & Western, Falls Road Railroad and Mohawk Adirondack & Northern). MHWA 2045 was photographed in Scranton, Pennsylvania, on September 29, 2013.
