Caption: EMD demonstrator SD70M units 7001 and 7000 team up with a CN test car and GP40-2LW 9426, departing MacMillan Yard on train #208 onto the York Sub in the evening at Keele St. overpass. The two demos are showing off the latest and greatest of EMD's newly developed 70-series to CN. At this point, CN's most recent 6-axle mainline power purchases were the "Draper Taper" 5500-series SD60F's in 1989, followed by the two groups of 2400-series C40-8M's in 1990 and late 1992.

While CN would purchase 23 C44-9WL's from competitor GE the next year in 1994 (2500-2522), an EMD order would follow in two year's time for 26 SD70I's built in Jul-Nov 1995 (5600-5625, the "I" model denoting they were equipped with isolated safety cabs versus non-isolated safety cabs on regular "M" models), followed by subsequent orders for more of the higher horsepower SD75I's between 1996-1999 along with parallel GE Dash-9 purchases during the same time period.

EMD 7000 & 7001, built in 1992 as part of a group of 3 demonstrator units (EMD 7000-7002), would roam for years in the EMD-LLPX lease fleet (joined by 22 production units purpose-built for the lease fleet, 7003-7024) until being traded to CSX in May of 2000 in exchange for a large group of CSX's older 4-axle units.

Karl Bury photo, Dan Dell'Unto collection slide.