FarmRail RDC 6130 sits on a service track in Victoria. Being serviced after returning from Courtenay. Interesting story behind this RDC. In 1999, VIA RDC 6133 slammed into a tree near milepost 15, bending the pilot on the A end, and derailing the lead truck. 6133 was repaired by BC Rail and used while their BC14 was out of service. 6148 in the meantime had blownout both transmissions, leaving 6135 as the only operational RDC on the island. With the 2000 tourist season approaching VIA needed another RDC. In 1999 they had sold a few to FarmRail. FarmRail agreed to lease the 6130 back to VIA. VIA sent 6130 to Alstom in Montreal for an overhaul, to get it in operational condition again, before sending it out west to the E&N. It arrived on the E&N in the spring of 2000 shortly after the Pacific Wilderness Railway arrived in Victoria. Where it sat for two months while it was fitted with the required equipment to run on the E&N, such as pilot mounted plows(from the wrecked RDC 6134)and 5-chime horns(from wrecked BC Rail SD40-2's). The 6130 went into service and ran from June of 2000 to December of 2001, when the lease expired. 6133 returned and ran until mid 2002 when the rebuilt 6148 showed up. 6130 had been sitting in Vancouver since late 2001, and was even in a movie. Just recently, when 6148 hit a gravel truck, several concerned railfans contacted FarmRail to see if the 6130 was still available, FarmRail said no, the 6130 was no longer available, but a few days later it showed up at Wellcox in Nanaimo.

Photographed by Tyler Welsford.
Added to the photo archive by Tyler Welsford, September 1, 2004.
Railroad: Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway (E&N).

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