Comments on: Three “branch line units” (8163, 8019, and 8044) lead an Extra West through Guelph Jct late in the winter of 1965. While Spring is supposed to be “just around the corner”, there’s still lots of snow on the ground on this bright day. http://www.railpictures.ca The BEST Canadian photos on the Internet, eh? Sun, 14 Jun 2026 05:33:55 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 By: RonaldB http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=53727#comment-67462 RonaldB Fri, 06 Mar 2026 04:26:45 +0000 http://www.railpictures.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/CP8163wb-Guelph-Jct-March1965.jpg#comment-67462 Those RS-23s took a while to load when switching. The SW1200RS units responded more quickly. When you asked for a "kick", the hogger pulled on the throttle, a big plume of black smoke followed and the inevitable "bump" when they dug in. I recall having the odd RS-23 on the 3 unit "London Pickup" power out of Toronto, or east on 50 (usually the east pickup) in the morning out of Quebec St. I only saw an RS-23 in the lead once on a mainline train, but a few times one in the consist behind the leader. Thanks for recording this bit of history Doug. Those RS-23s took a while to load when switching. The SW1200RS units responded more quickly. When you asked for a “kick”, the hogger pulled on the throttle, a big plume of black smoke followed and the inevitable “bump” when they dug in. I recall having the odd RS-23 on the 3 unit “London Pickup” power out of Toronto, or east on 50 (usually the east pickup) in the morning out of Quebec St.
I only saw an RS-23 in the lead once on a mainline train, but a few times one in the consist behind the leader.
Thanks for recording this bit of history Doug.

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