Abandoned train engine listed on Kijiji for $25,000
Remnant of Tembec pulp and paper mill being sold off in Pine Falls
For sale: Train engine; tracks not included.
A long dormant yet fully functional train engine can be yours for $25,000, plus the cost of shipping.
The engine sits on about 15 metres of track on the site of the shuttered Tembec paper mill in Pine Falls.
It's an unusual item among the many ads for furniture, cars and garage sales on buy-and-sell website Kijiji.
Noel Chartier was hired on contract by the train's owners, NRI Global Inc., to sell it.
"The challenge is, with the tracks being gone, it's landlocked. Makes it a little harder to sell, a little more expensive to move," Chartier told Up to Speed host Ismaila Alfa on Monday.
Chartier has fielded about five "serious" calls in response to the ad, including one from a business owner who wants to use the engine as an advertisement in front of his business. Another caller wants to put the engine to work, Chartier said.
A B.C.-based museum also started a Go Fund Me campaign to buy the engine but that "didn't pan out," he said.
The price has already dropped $5,000, according to the online ad.
The buyer would have to move the approximately 90- to 110-tonne train off the property.
That would entail hiring a crane, removing the train wheels and hoisting the engine onto a special low-bed trailer, Chartier said. From there, the owner could move it to the closest set of tracks and drive it, or haul it via highways to its final destination, he said.
Tembec closed the mill in 2010 and later put it up for sale. The railway ties and tracks, except the 15-metre section the engine sits on, were broken down and sold for recycling.
The engine should still run but over the years, thieves have targeted the train.
"It was running when it was parked. We've had a little bit of a problem with vandalism," Chartier said.
"I guess there's value in copper wiring and somebody did a fair amount of damage to it just cutting the wires, but apparently it's still runable."
The engine is worth about $25,000 in scrap metal, Chartier said. If it doesn't sell, it will likely be broken down into pieces for recycling, except for the engine and generator, he said.
"A couple of guys [blow]torching, it won't take long to put that into small pieces, and it will be a piece of history that's going to be maybe turned into train tracks."