Northern Alberta No. 404 "Smoky River" is an EMD SD38-2 that was built by the General Motors Diesel Division for the Northern Alberta Railway in 1975.
History[]
Northern Alberta No. 404 was constructed in 1975 by the General Motors Diesel Division and was in fact the final locomotive to be ordered by the Northern Alberta Railway. No. 404 was given the name "Smoky River" mainly because the Northern Alberta Railway had named their four SD38-2s after rivers. Northern Alberta No. 404 had served on the Northern Alberta Railway with its other three units Nos. 401, 402 and 403, mainly working in pairs of three by hauling heavy grain and ore trains with ease on the Peace River Hill thanks to their dynamic braking.
After six years of service, the Northern Alberta Railway was fully acquired by the Canadian National Railway, this resulted in CN inheriting all of NAR's locomotives, with #404 being renumbered by Canadian National as #5703, as it was initially patched and then repainted into CN's zebra stripe livery. Then in 1996, 5703 was renumbered to 1653 while retaining its zebra stripe livery so its number could be given to an EMD SD70I.
As of today, No. 404 along with its other three sister units Nos. 401, 402 and 403 are still in service with the Canadian National Railway and continue to do so even to this day.