When the NStC&T started operating the Canadian Pacific’s Niagara Falls branch line, they first leased a handful of diesels, and then when the decision was made not to electrify that branch (it, like the NStC&T’s Allenburg industrial district, is separated from the rest of the railway by the Welland Canal, so stringing many extra miles of overhead (or purchasing pantograph-equipped dual system motors to connect across on the OSW’s CASO mainline) was considered to be too much of an ask of a corporate parent who was even then engaged in an aggressive electrification project elsewhere on the system) they purchased 4 GP30’s – yes, shockingly, EMD power on a system that had just officially outlawed EMDs! – to handle traffic on that branch.

The locomotives arrived – freshly painted in NStC&T colours – in the fall of 2025, when the Parsons Vale was in the throes of merging with CPKC, and slipped onto the roster without more than a pro-forma objection.

They, obviously, are still in operation. Most days a pair of them are all that’s needed to handle traffic on the line, so the other two are kept as reserve power.