Comments on: This area certainly has changed over the years. Yes, the bridge is the same and the waterway (Middle Thames River) is still there, but the runaway foliage now almost obliterates what was a great location for photos of westbounds on the CP. On a dazzling fall afternoon we see C&O 3015, 3004 and 3022 with a Canadian Pacific train approaching mile 101 west. The GP30s are of a group of 42 on the C&O roster at the time. I am assuming this is a train with run-thru power as my ‘lease list’ for the early 1980s shows mostly GP38s. Anyone with information ??

By: awmooney

awmooney — Sat, 26 Mar 2016 00:52:36 +0000

Thanks, Ron.

By: RonaldB

RonaldB — Sat, 26 Mar 2016 00:13:14 +0000

Orignally sets of 3 GP-30s and GP-35s were power for trains 942 and 937. When those trains started, they came to CP at “Powell” siding Walkerville via Pelton Jct. The Powell sidings were subsequently ripped up acct legal dispute but the power o those trains stayed. CP supplied both GP-38s and C-424s in sets of three for the service.

By 1979, though, they were leased as opposed to shared for run through on those trains. Sets of C&O GP-30s and or 35s were common , as well as individual units mixed with CP power. If I recall though, only GP-30s led.

We even had them on crap trains like the Pickup sometimes. They were filthy, I even got on one in Toronto with a hole in the floor.
The only had a CP lunchbox radio at first, and communication was almost impossible with other than the tail end.

By: awmooney

awmooney — Sat, 21 Dec 2013 15:16:53 +0000

Brad: Perhaps the fleet of GP38s were leased out (my list from 1983 has about 25 of them in 38XX series & a few 48XXs)because they were older than the GP40s? Dunno, really. But it was the GP38s I used to see on the TH&B Nanticoke runs from time to time, and GP30s that I would see on run-thrus. Time clouds the memory. )

By: BradKetchen

BradKetchen — Sat, 21 Dec 2013 14:33:43 +0000

I thought they were GP40′s they leased from CSX back in the day. I always wondered why they leased them when 6 axels were more beneficial for use. I remember seeing a Chessie unit role through Bala, ON just as I did seeing Chessies deep in the Velley at the New River Bridge in West Virginia.