The Essex Terminal RR Visits the M & M Sub.

The Essex Terminal Railway (ETR) visited the M & M Sub. last month, in the form of ETR GP9 102.

The unit was built by owner Morgan Turney, who dropped by one evening with his grandson from Australia to run some trains.

But before getting to the unit itself, a bit about the ETR.

Incorporated in 1902, the ETR is an Ontario shortline that runs about 35 kilometers from the east side of Windsor to Amherstburg. It interchanges with CN, CP and CSX.

It provides rail services for about 15 customers engaged the lumber, steel, agricultural, scrap metal, alcohol, and liquid petroleum gas sectors, as well as serving a transload facility.

Not the 102, but sister 108.

Morgan became familiar with the ETR when he worked in the area in the mid-1980s. About that time the ETR was updating their locomotives, including the paint scheme.

“This included their new company logo that, for its time, looked very modern and 'sporty' with its 'chopped' nose - a somewhat recent modification for a GMD Geep,” Morgan says.

He took a special shine to ETR 102—it was the last GP9 built (for the ACR, as 172 in 1963) at GMDD's plant in London, Ontario, about 190 kilometers from Windsor.

As a result, Morgan decided to replicate the unique unit. He started with an undecorated Athearn GP9. After lowering the nose, he used an airbrush to prime and then paint the model using Floquil TTX yellow and black paint.

After applying the Highball decals and finishing it off with Dullcote, “I had myself a convincing model of ETR's 102,” he says.

As for the prototype ETR, the railway currently has four units on its roster, but the 102 isn’t among them. It was sold to the Ontario Southland in 2016.

But it lives on with Morgan, and for one night on the M & M Sub.