By Justin Franz 

NORTH CONWAY, N.H. — Two former Maine Central GP38 locomotives will be reunited on New Hampshire’s Conway Scenic Railroad. This week, CSRR announced it had purchased Clarendon & Pittsford 203, formerly MEC 255, from Vermont Rail System. 

In North Conway, the GP38 will be reunited with sister-locomotive 252, which is currently painted harvest gold and green but lettered CSRR. This week, the 203/255 was interchanged by VRS to Pan Am Railways and is expected to make its way to CSRR, via Whitefield, N.H., in the coming weeks. The locomotive is expected to be put into service before the end of the year.

“It’s the perfect locomotive for us,” said Brian Solomon, manager of marketing and events for the railroad, noting that the locomotive will soon be back on home rails at CSRR, which operates on the MEC Crawford Notch line. 

CSRR had been looking for additional motive power for some time and the GP38 will fit in well with the tourist road’s all-EMD fleet.

Solomon said the long-term plan for the locomotive is to repaint it into MEC colors to match 252, although it may run in VRS red and white paint initially. Locomotive 252 has been at CSRR for more than a decade but has been out-of-service since August 2020. Solomon said the railroad currently working on putting the locomotive back in service.