GMD Recollections - Switching at the North Side.

 

CP SD40-2F number 9015 is being shoved back through the main gates to the GMD plant on February 19, 1989.  This rear view makes it quite apparent how the "red barn" nickname came to be applied to these units.

By Peter Mumby.

Oxford Street East runs along the north side of the GMD plant.  Both of today's photos were taken looking north across the street.  The main gate to the plant is behind the camera.  If a locomotive was to be switched from one erecting bay to another, it had to be pulled out to the street before being shoved back into the building.  The track nearest to the camera continues across the road towards a connection with the CN (later, GEXR) Guelph Subdivision.  If you look carefully, you can see that the track the switcher is occupying features multiple gauges, allowing for the testing of the many narrow gauge export locomotives produced at the plant.

After the 9015 has been relocated, we get a chance to inspect the plant switcher in its Diesel Division paint scheme.