Volunteers and members of the Grand Falls-Windsor Heritage Society have successfully restored a historic piece of the town's railway history. The 1953 Plymouth switcher locomotive, once used by the AND Company during the peak of pulp and paper operations in central Newfoundland, was at risk of being lost forever.

Brian Reid, Chair of Collections for the Heritage Society, explained that the switcher was retired and put into storage before being donated to the Trinity Loop amusement park by Abitibi Price in the 1980s. After the amusement park closed, the locomotive was left abandoned and became a target for vandalism.

The Heritage Society first attempted to access the switcher in 2018, but their efforts were unsuccessful. In 2022, they received notification that they could retrieve the engine, but they were responsible for removing the 14-ton locomotive from the site. Reid described the beginning of the restoration process, stating, "We got a company here in town, Exploits Welding and Fabrication, and they had the equipment. So they sent a person out to look at it and they said, ‘Yeah, there’s no trouble to get her out of there, but the problem is we don’t have a crane big enough to handle it.’"

To solve this issue, a crane from St. John’s was brought in to assist with loading the switcher onto a flatbed truck for transport to Grand Falls-Windsor. Reid noted that the condition of the engine was worse than they had anticipated. "Basically, everything that could be broken was broken, or had rotted away," he said.

The restoration team manufactured some parts locally and sourced gauges that resembled the original design. They replaced the wooden floor and repainted the locomotive in its original colors. Reid added that they also fabricated lights for the engine, as the original parts were no longer available.

The restored Plymouth switcher is now proudly displayed at the Grand Falls-Windsor museum, allowing the public to appreciate this significant piece of local history.