Gone, but Still Around

The locomotive on the front of this post card is CP 8218 as pictured at

Revelstoke in British Columbia sometime between 1988 and 2015. This locomotive was built by General Motors Diesel (GMD) in 1957 as CP 8678. It was a class DRS-17 locomotive and the original paint scheme was that of the CPR Beaver. Here is some of its history as told by this website: http://www.cprdieselroster.com/Roster%20Archive/CP%208200B/CP%208218.htm It was built by GMD as GP9 #8678 in 1957. Then, it was rebuilt by CPR as a chop-nosed GP9u and renumbered to #8218 in 1988. On April 28, 2015 it was declared to be surplus. But, rather than scrap the locomotive, it was sold to Pennsylvania Northeastern Railroad four months later on August 18, 2015 (my 63rd birthday!) where it became PN #8218. Then it was sold to the New Hope & Ivyland Railroad and it became NHRR #8218. It emerged from the shop in New Hope & Ivyland Railroad paint on September 27, 2017. It was after this date that 8218 officially began operating in revenue service for the Railroad. If you would like to see this locomotive today, contact the owner at this website to make arrangements for a sighting: www.newhoperailroad.com Special thanks to Paul Koprowski for some of the above information.

Revelstoke, British Columbia is a divisional point on the Canadian Pacific Railway. If one continues to head east out of the city one will enter the infamous Rogers Pass area. This is where the Connaught Tunnel was opened in 1916 to prevent loss of life from avalanches in the winter. The post card was published by Galena Publishing Company out of Nelson, B.C. Iknow that it was printed after 1974, because it has a bar code on it.

As I read the summary description on the back of the card I noticed a printing error: it says that Revelstoke is a CP Rainway divisional point; it should say CP Railway divisional point. I hope this makes it a collectors' valuable!!! Galena Publishing is out of Nelson, B.C. on this post card but, I have another post card that says that they operate out of Burnaby, B. C. Neither post card has a date on it to know which came first.