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Caption: CN's Oakville Yard back in the day: CN SW1200 7020 works the west end of Oakville Yard, switching a cut of empty open autoracks over Chartwell Road grade crossing and under the signal bridge spanning the yard lead and CN's multi-track Oakville Subdivision mainline. Little GMD switchers like 7020 were kept busy by the nearby Oakville Ford Plant, that took a steady stream of boxcars full of auto parts inbound, and autoracks full of new automobiles outbound.
The CN 7000-series were "straight" SW9/SW1200 units not equipped with the roadswitcher package, like CN's 1200-1300 SW1200RS units were, but otherwise they were identical in horsepower. Note the relatively clean paint, single-beam "garbage can" headlight, AAR-A style switcher trucks, lack of MU plugs or cables, dual spark arrestors, and "flippity-flappity" rooftop radiator covers.
Bob Wilt photo, Dan Dell'Unto collection slide.
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Nice auto racks.
When were the south yard leads removed?
The south yard leads were removed when they expanded the mainline and shifted the tracks southward to add a couple new tracks on the north side for 435 to set off when the train was operating via the Bala Sub.
The tracks at Oakville Yard were reconfigured circa 2009 when the third track (No. 1 track on the north side) was installed. As “ngineered4u” said, the Main Tracks were shifted south and some crossovers removed with yard capacity replaced on the north side using the former main lines. With the new track configuration and the age of the signal plant (dating from the GO start-up in 1967), it would have been more cost effective to replace the CTC location with modern electronic interlocking technology. Signal bridges are very expensive to remove/replace, so the new LED signals were mounted on the old signal structure.