GMD Recollections - Road Trip

 

With a day of testing on the Strathroy Subdivision ahead of them, GO 522/521 are waiting for the Via train to pass by so they can pull on to the Guelph Subdivision and head down to London Junction.  If you look carefully, you can see that the paint work on the 521 is incomplete.

By Peter Mumby.

Rail access to the north side of the GMD plant was off the CN Guelph (formerly, Thorndale) Subdivision.  In today's photo we see GO F59PH locomotives 522 and 521 waiting at the north end of the siding.  As soon as the Via train visible in the distance has passed, the pair will be able to venture onto the mainline and head down to London Junction.  Normally locomotives would just be tested on the test track on the south side of the plant, but on this particular day the units are headed towards Strathroy on the Strathroy Subdivision for a more extensive outing.  At this time there still existed a spur track west of the Strathroy station which the units could use to clear the main any time a through freight was in the vicinity.  521 and 522 were just the second and third examples of this brand new model, so this might explain the need for a more thorough testing and evaluation regimen.  GO units 520-561 were built between 1988 and 1990; the testing sequence described above took place on July 29, 1988.