The MLW RSC-14 was a

diesel-electric locomotive A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover (locomotive), prime mover is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conv ...

rebuilt by

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN i ...

from locomotives originally supplied by Montreal Locomotive Works. These locomotives began life as

MLW RS-18 The MLW RS-18 was an diesel-electric locomotive built by Montreal Locomotive Works between December 1956 and August 1968. It replaced the RS-10 in MLW's catalogue, and production totalled 351 locomotives, to eight customers. It was the Canadia ...

s for the Canadian National Railway (CN). The base RS-18 model was derived by MLW from the ALCO-produced RS-11 model, and was equipped with a 12-cylinder four-cycle model 251B diesel engine rated at . This engine turned a General Electric (of Peterborough, Ontario) DC generator feeding four traction motors - one per axle on two bogies. Many RS-18s were equipped with so-called "light" trucks (made by Dofasco and others) in deference to light rail on Canadian branchlines. RS-18s were owned by Canadian Pacific as well as Canadian National and many other Canadian railways, and continued in service on major railroads into the 1990s. They continue in branchline and secondary service throughout North America today (April 2009). Using the RS-18 as a starting point, the RSC-14 was created in the mid-1970s to meet CN's requirement for A1A-A1A trucked locomotives for light rural branchline service, particularly in the

Maritimes The Maritimes, also called the Maritime provinces, is a region of Eastern Canada consisting of three provinces: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. The Maritimes had a population of 1,899,324 in 2021, which makes up 5.1% of Ca ...

. CN retired its older A1A-A1A configured

MLW RSC-13 The MLW RSC-13 was a type of diesel-electric locomotive built by Montreal Locomotive Works for use on Canadian National Railway (CN). Only thirty five RSC-13's were built — between 1955 and 1957 — and were numbered 1700–1734 by CN. The loc ...

and MLW RSC-24 models in the mid-1970s and rebuilt several dozen RS-18s using the A1A trucks from the

scrap Scrap consists of Recycling, recyclable materials, usually metals, left over from product manufacturing and consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap Waste valorization, has monetary ...

ped RSC-13 and RSC-24 units. The horsepower rating for the locomotives was lowered from on the RS-18 to , thus the new designation "RSC-14". The locomotives saw extensive use on

Prince Edward Island Prince Edward Island (PEI; ) is one of the thirteen Provinces and territories of Canada, provinces and territories of Canada. It is the smallest province in terms of land area and population, but the most densely populated. The island has seve ...

(see

Prince Edward Island Railway The Prince Edward Island Railway (PEIR) was a historic Canadian railway in Prince Edward Island (PEI). The railway ran tip-to-tip on the island, from Tignish in the west to Elmira in the east, with major spurs serving Borden-Carleton's train fer ...

), and on branch lines in

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

and

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

. Most were retired or sold by the mid-1990s. There are only two of these

locomotives A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, motor coach, railcar or power car; the u ...

left in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

: * CN 1754 at the Salem & Hillsborough Railroad * CN 1762 at the former

train station A train station, railway station, railroad station or depot is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track and a station building providing suc ...

Kensington, Prince Edward Island Kensington is a Canadian town located in Prince County, Prince Edward Island, Prince County, Prince Edward Island. It is northeast of the city of Summerside, Prince Edward Island, Summerside. In 2021, its population was 1,812. History Th ...

See also