Railfanning CFQ SW1200RS

The new Rapido's announcement about the SW1200RS got us digging our photo albums from the late 1990s to find what pictures we had of these emblematic locomotives when they served the ex-CN Murray Bay Subdivision under Chemin de fer Charlevoix tenure. In fact, we found out very little pictures of that era can be found online.

While it appears our teenager budget didn't allow us to take a lot of pictures, we managed to snap all three locomotives in different locations. While we didn't care about write the date, these pictures were shot between Summer 1998 and Spring 2000. They aren't very crisp, but at least we get the gist of the paint scheme and weathering.

Let's start with locomotive 1303 parked at Clermont's Wieland shops circa 1998. I took this one while visiting a my grandfather's friend back then.

The other one is locomotive 1323. It was also shot by myself on Fall 1999 or Spring 2000 in Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré. The field at the right of the locomotive used to be the old QRL&PCo roundhouse and turntable. Not a great shot I must concede, but it gives a good idea how CFQ operated their SW1200RS cab forward.

Finally, the last one - locomotive 1330 - was shot by Jérôme in Maizerets. You can recognize the large oil reservoir in the background and his bicycle in the foreground. He certainly had a better camera and skill than I back then! This picture is particularly interesting to understand the weathering pattern on these otherwise rather pristine and clean locomotives.

These pictures, while not great, will provide a good starting point to detail, paint and weather models on our layout.