No. 551 was the first Diesel locomotive delivered to the Pacific Great Eastern Railway. It
is a centre cab 65 ton unit built in 1948 by General Electric in Erie Pa. USA. It produces
550 horsepower from twin diesel engines. When the locomotive was received by the PGE
it was only the third Diesel to be delivered to a railway in B.C. Neither the CPR nor the
CNR had any diesels in the province in 1948.
In service with the Pacific Great Eastern, the unit was used for switching cars on and off
the barges at the former Squamish dock station and in the North Yards. This was the time
when Squamish was the southern terminal of the PGE. and all rail cars destined for
interchange to other North American railways were transported between Vancouver-
Seattle and Squamish by rail barges. Many old timers felt that No 551 was totally
unsuited for anything except shoving the odd car about as its power was limited when it
came to pulling cars off the barge.
In 1951 No. 551 was leased to Jamieson Construction who were building PGE's northern
extension from Quesnel to Prince George. The unit was returned to the PGE in 1954 and
appears to have worked again for a brief time before being sold to MacMillan Bloedel in
1956 for use at their Harmac pulp mill near Nanaimo.
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When restoration funds become available the locomotive will be restored to its original
PGE orange with the Cariboo herald on the cab side and she will once again look very
much as pictured here.
Bert Mills Photo
