CP SDs in camera
Posted on July 2nd, 2008 in Photography, Railways, Travelling |
A selection of Canadian Pacific SD40-2s.
ONE OF MY favourite North American locomotive types is the 3,000hp SD40-2, especially those GMDD-built versions in operation with Canadian Pacific. Built for the trans-continental Class 1 in their hundreds, there is a surprising amount of variation between the various batches that were built. This is no surprise when you consider that they were constructed over nearly a decade and a half.
A modelling project of mine that is fast approaching will be to turn my fleet of Kato ready-to-run ‘HO’ scale models into an accurate representation of a variety of CP examples. No easy job. With this in mind I’ve been digging through my photo archive looking for some fun prototypes on which to base my locomotives. Here are a few of the images that I have dug up.
Two Union Pacific SD70Ms under evaluation, Nos. UP 4600 and 4604, form part of the set of locomotives leading a Canadian Pacific intermodal service through North Bay, Ontario, Canada, on April 10th, 2002 (pictured top). Leading the train were SD40-2s Nos. CP 6061 (Dual-Flags) and CP 5960 (Action red). The former is one of the late-phase machines described below (see CP 5867) - actually from the last batch of these locos purchased by CP - and it makes for an interesting comparison to the other SD40-2 in the lash up.
A Canadian Pacific Railway manifest train, lead by SD40-2 No. CP 5577, waits its time to leave St Lawrence & Hudson’s (ex Delaware & Hudson, now a CP subsidiary) Mohawk Yard, in Schenectady, New York, on March 17th, 2005. This yard is also one of the western connections of Pan Am Railways (ex Guilford Rail System).
SD40-2 production finished, in the main, in the early 1980s in the USA, but General Motor’s Canadian subsidiary GMDD kept building the classic design almost into the second half of the decade. Canadian Pacific’s No. CP 5867 wears a number of spotting features from this period of construction, including the straight frame and the angled blower duct. This was also the last gasp of the Multimark or Pacman logo! The Dash 2 is pictured at IHB’s Blue Island Yard in Riverdale, Illinois, on October 10th, 2002.
Having dropped the 1968-introduced Multimark (or ‘Pacman’) logo in the late-1980s, Canadian Pacific just outshopped locomotives in the same Action Red colour scheme sans branding. !980-built SD40-2 No. CP 5960 displays this paint variation when it was pictured at North Bay, Ontario, Canada, on April 10th, 2002. The rather unfinished scheme continued until 1993 when the railway adopted the CP Rail System brand.
Canadian Pacific Railway SD40-2 No. CP 5966 powers through central Binghamton, New York, with two other sister SD40-2s and a manifest freight bound for Buffalo on April 16th, 2002. The locomotive wears the controversial - but well liked by the photographer - dual flags colour scheme.
Canadian Pacific SD40-2 No. CP 5981 leads a manifest freight parked up at North Bay, Ontario, Canada, on April 10th, 2002. The 102-inch nose and other CP-specific spotting features give these machines a unique appearance - a true classic. This locomotive is one of the second batch of CP SD40-2s to be delivered wearing the small Multimark symbol, previous builds gaining a version the full height of the long hood.
Like Canadian National and its North American map version of its famous CN ‘noodle’ logo, Canadian Pacific also adopted a new US-leaning paint job after acquiring a couple of American railroads. Known as the CP Rail System or ‘dual-flags ’scheme, it was only supposed to be applied to former Soo Line and Delaware & Hudson road power, and CP units for US operation. Fairly unpopular, I quite like it! This is GMD-built SD40-2 (DRF-30U) No. CP 6001 at the Ex-SOO Bensenville Yard, Illinois, on May 23rd, 2006.
Another Canadian Pacific SD40-2, this time No. CP 6015, a product of GMDD at London, Ontario, from February 1981. The locomotive is pictured about to enter the former Delaware & Hudson yard in East Binghamton, New York, on March 16th, 2005. The two stickers on the cab read ‘GMDD maintained at Winnipeg, Manitoba’ and ‘This unit under Stage III extended 48-month air-brake test by Transport Canada authorization’.