Caption: 9000 horsepower's worth of fast-moving SD40's on the head end of this CP #501 are hustling along at a good clip westbound though Guelph Junction, with a solid cut of blue CAST COFC container traffic behind the power. SOO Line SD40-2 6609, white extra flags flapping and nose class lights illuminated, leads CP SD40-1 5409 (ex-QNS&L 213) and sister SOO SD40-2 unit 6620.

CP #501 was a Montreal-Toronto-Detroit-Chicago intermodal train (part of the 500-503 group, research indicates they were introduced circa 1985 as the new "RailRunner" service) and ran with SOO and CP units mixed in the power poor. CP sometimes had an issue with the older SOO SD40-2's with the smaller capacity fuel tanks running out of fuel and needing top-ups along the route. Most of the ex-QNS&L 5400's (5402-5414) had a larger fuel capacity than other CP SD40-2's, so were often used in the early days. Apparently the SOO units were used as leaders more often since they had the FRA-mandated window glazing required to run-through into the US.

Some of the CAST traffic likely originated at CP's Parkdale Yard in Toronto, which had been converted into a container handling facility for CAST in its later years (Parkdale IMS).

Bill McArthur photo, Dan Dell'Unto collection slide.