Comments on: Canadian Pacific SW1200RS 8147 leads a 4-pack of sister SW’s running “Elephant Style” westbound through Lambton Park on the Galt Sub, in the Fall of 1969. Intended for branchline use, CP’s SW1200RS units often found themselves in mainline service in solid packs of 3 or 4 units.

By: RonaldB

RonaldB — Fri, 26 May 2023 22:44:37 +0000

For years, week in week out, we had a trio of them on train 50 (east pickup) out of Quebec Street & on the westbound London Pickup, a pool train out of Toronto Yard to Quebec St. Quite often, the same set of power & even crew, would be returned on the pickup as soon as 50 arrived at Toronto Yard (Agincourt). As mentioned above, an RS-23 might also be used in the set of 3 pups, not usually not in the lead though. One trip we ran out of Quebec St as a van hop & didn’t pick up any cars until we arrived at Galt. After lifting there out of a number of tracks & then at Guelph Jct, we arrived in Toronto with 60 something cars.

By: BradKetchen

BradKetchen — Mon, 16 Sep 2019 11:37:08 +0000

This is awesome!

By: Stephen C. Host

Stephen C. Host — Sat, 03 Jun 2017 02:28:09 +0000

Nothing short of amazing. Great stuff.

By: Marcus Stevens

Marcus Stevens — Fri, 02 Jun 2017 19:08:01 +0000

Beautiful photo!

By: R.L.Kennedy

R.L.Kennedy — Thu, 01 Jun 2017 23:40:48 +0000

These ‘pups” along with the “rockets” (RS-23 8000′s) were acquired for branchline operation and thus a less strenuous use, not main line speed, tonnage and 7 day a week utilization. The result of them being used on week-ends for main line tonnage trains was a big increase in maintenance costs.

There was no better branchline unit built than the GMD SW1200RS with road trucks.