The 49 DL25s are second-hand engines from CN & BCRail deadlines after those two railroads started retiring their ALCO/MLW power. The first batch (778-781) was purchased as replacements for some of the more elderly diesels on the system (the remaining first-generation Alcos, plus many of the BAR’s GP38s, were getting fairly weary even for the secondary service most of them were in) and were half way through upgrading into 2800 HP units when the CV was purchased and were immediately assigned to service on that railroad, with the second batch (853-874) following along a couple of years later.

(Note that 853 has a pair of Hi-Ad trucks under it. The MLW ZWT trucks that these m-420’s originally came with have the soft ride of a brick, so several of the rebuilds had the ZWT’s replaced with either EMD, Hi-Ad or AAR class B trucks.)

All are in service.