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Caption: A gaggle of SW1200RSs cross over to the North Track at Bayview Junction, Ontario on, Tuesday evening, July 30, 1968.
Bayview Junction, Mileage 36.9 of the Toronto - Hamilton Oakville Sub marked the beginning of 78.9 miles of the Dundas Sub that ended in London. At the time, both of these subdivisions were double track, and ABS controlled. The units were likely to struggle over the next 9.6 miles to Copetown as they ascend the Niagara Escarpment. In steam days, this grade warranted a helper for the westbound climb.
The SW1200RS was a model designation offered to GMDL by my late friend and CN employee, Peter Cox, at the time he was researching his book, "Diesels from London" in the early 1960s. It was never officially applied by GM. As distinct from the SW1200 switcher, the immediately recognizable feature was the front protruding headlight/number board unit. GMDL included in the road switcher package Flexicoil trucks, 65 mph gearing, mu capability and larger fuel capacity. The builder installed CN's proprietary centrifugal spark arrestors on the last sixty built beginning in July 1959, and the railway retrofitted the others. CN bought 192 examples and used them from coast to coast in Canada. 1327 even served as a switcher in Port aux Basques, Newfoundland.
CN 1230, serial A857, was one of 21 units, class GR-12f in the second-order delivered in the spring and summer of 1956. Interestingly, on Friday, February 22, 1985, CN retired the locomotive, and on Friday, April 10 1987, it emerged from Point St. Charles Shops as Sweep 7302, class GS-413b. It sported a GP9 hood, main generator, cooling fans, traction motor blowers and, by using 645 series power assemblies, an increase to 1300hp. CN ended the Sweep Program after completing just eight units showed that the high conversion cost did not achieve the goal. They had sought a sufficiently robust switcher for contemporary yard service. The 7102 was retired and sold to Canac on Tuesday, February 29, 2000. In August 2007 it was leased by Savage, successor to Canac, to Cargill in Eddyville, Iowa. In November 2012 it was leased to PBF Refining, successor to Sunoco, in Toledo, Ohio.
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Peter Cox…………..another classic gentleman. I had the pleasure of attending several slide nights in Edmonton in the seventies and early eighties that he attended. His slides were always the highlight of the night.
I can imagine. Way back when, our family hosted Peter for a couple of visits at our home in Ottawa. My mother, in particular, noted how Peter stood apart from most railfans. Years later I visited him in researching my CP books. It was terribly hard to not look at his vintage CNR material while we were doing so. I could have stayed at his home in Edmonton for days. I well remember his beige ’64 Pontiac. One of my all time favourite cars. It was gorgeous even thirty years later.