For 1987, that tunnel motor looks pretty good. It's amazing how quickly they get grimy when working in tunnels all the time.
It never was used much so I guess it was more trouble to maintain and worth more as scrap than the occasional lease. I was told that it was originally built to transport nuclear reactor vessels, but when that power source become unpopular, new plant construction evaporated and thus the need for such a monster. Here it was being used to transport a catalytic cracking vessel that would be used to refine low sulfur diesel fuel at a plant outside Denver. It was unloaded from a ship at the Port of Houston and moved by BNSF to Denver in March of 5005.
Conway Scenic Railroad moved a Schnabel car with a mammoth transformer through Crawford Notch, NH on the ex-Maine Central Mountain Division. The Schnabel car could move its load sideways 4' from center in either direction to clear obstacles, which was being done on this move.
Trains pass on NS's Rathole near Tateville, KY in April 2005. This is an extraordinary line, both in its engineering and its traffic density.
They were originally CN with the same numbers, transferred to VIA when that took over passenger duties. They pulled some pretty nice trains like the Super Continental. Best viewed in their original 1950s CN paint scheme.
