Canadian Railroads > Way back Wednesday

April 23, 1971 near Dundas, Ont,  CN 4520, 4586 & 4575 grinding up the hill.  Kodak Instamatic Moment.
Doug

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Ah, the CN I grew up with! Three GP9's working hard sounded great. You young'uns with your silent GE's don't know what you missed!

Brian N.

Long hood forward, high-mounted bell on the long hood, white extra flags -- Geeps the way they were meant to look/operate!

Thanks for posting. 

Did these dynamic brake equipped GP9s commonly run in Ontario?  I'd always thought they spent their time in the more mountainous west. 

I grew up in Grand Trunk Western territory.  I don't ever recall the Canadian GP9s (or any CN power) making an appearance on the US side.   GTW would always change power in Port Huron next to Tappan Tower (long gone), at the west end of Tunnel Yard (still there) or send locomotives light to the CN yard in Sarnia for the switch.

However there were occasional visits by Central Vermont d/b equipped GP9s (4542-4559, 12 units, not continuously numbered) that would appear on the Trunk in green and gold paint, much to the delight of Michigan railfans.

Edit: I must correct something.  CN power did come into the states for a brief period.

I checked Jerry Pinkepank's book "Grand Trunk Western Vol. 2: Visual Redesign" and discovered something called the "Wilgus Agreement".  This was a Canadian-US Tariff agreement that allowed locomotives and passenger cars to operate duty free as long as they returned the same way to their respective operator (CN or GTW) within 72 hours.  In 1968, GTW was extremely power short and leased some CN power to cover this shortage.  GTW had their own SD40s on order but they would not start arriving until August 1969.  Included in the GTW lease were CN F3s 9000, 9002, 9003 and F3Bs 9001 and 9004.  As these F3s were built by EMD, they were exempt from any duty charge.

After the Wilgus Agreement was implemented, CN FP9s were used on through passenger trains to Chicago releasing GTW passenger GP9s for freight service.  Six CN SD40s, 5047-5052, were used in through service between Sarnia and Chicago until the Trunk's SD40s began to arrive.

d.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/01/20 15:51 by 251F.

Great Instamatic shots.  Like the GP9 set running LHF with white flags.
Thanks for posting this great look back.
ALLEN