On September 12th, 2014, Ron Pullano, a CRHA Niagara Division member, spotted the locomotive shown above switching at the Oxy Vinyls plant on Thorold Town Line road in the Niagara Region. As a leased locomotive it carried the LTEX reporting marks, where the X designates it as a leased locomotive.

LTEX is the reporting mark of a very interesting company, Larry’s Truck and Electric of McDonald, Ohio. They have become well known in recent years as a scrapper, lessee, and reseller of locomotives. They dispose of large quantities of diesel units from many major railways. Some units are in running condition and are resold or leased out. The rest are scrapped. There is s a huge backlog of units waiting for scrapping. The “dead lines” contain hundreds of first- and second-generation units from many railways including CN, CP and VIA.

Dave Howard, another intrepid trainspotter from the CRHA, recently dropped by Larry’s and captured the image below.

Posting by Russ Milland; Images by Ron Pullano and David Howard

Click on each image for a closer look!