Postscript: CN GMD-1's

CN GMD-1's covered much of CN's western branchline network, so there were bound to be a few mishaps along the way. On December 4, 1979 an eastbound with 1067-1069 sideswiped a westbound just east of Gladstone, Manitoba. A news photo in the Portage Daily Graphic showed 1067 mired in mud (above). On November 4, 1980, 1065 derailed in Portage, with a Graphic news photo showing a CN auxiliary doing the rerailing honours nocturnally:
In February 1974, here are the home terminal assignments for CN's GMD-1 fleet:
Calder: 1000-1005, 1018, 1024, 1058-1059.

Saskatoon: 1006-1011, 1013-1017, 1019-1023, 1027, 1032-1033, 1040-1041, 1043-1045, 1048-1051, 1053-1055, 1057.

Symington: 1012, 1025-1026, 1028-1031, 1042, 1046-1047, 1052, 1056, 1069-1071, 1073-1076, 1900-1903.

The Pas: 1034, 1036-1039, 1060-1068.

Neebing: 1904-1917.

Here are the consists of the two trains from August 1981 shown in the previous post:

Aug 26/81 WB 1353: 1052-1065-CNWX 108242-ALNX 396054-CNWX 396183-CNWX 100865-CNWX 107116-CNWX 395742-CNWX 107091-79853.

Aug 28/81 0855 EB: 1052-1065-CN boxcars 519991-535201-538674-539800-535456-531818-535902-481631-428515-426129-432838-426409-425488-420067-428899-426672-428867-521485-531762-427285-426451-480793-OTTX flat car 93535-429556-483528-534586-79545.

In April 1985 TRAINS magazine, Greg McDonnell wrote of his pursuit of 1027 across Manitoba, in an effort to photograph the numberboards and extra flags to head the magazine's Running Extra excursion listings. First a fleeting glimpse of a wintry run of the Steep Rock wayfreight in 1981, then finally tracking down the elusive unit (which shared the magazine's street number on North 7th St in Milwaukee) in 1984 in Margaret, the name of then-editor David P Morgan's wife.

Here's a GMDL print ad, published in the February 1959 CN Keeping Track magazine, shared by D.J. Gagnon:

Running Extra...

Not that you'd notice, but I made sure the posting time of these two posts on Ten-Hundreds was adjusted to read 10:00. Bloggero minutiae obsessivo, hogwarts!

Dave commented on CN's setting up the ten-hundreds to run long hood forward, thus ensuring crew safety at level crossings but poor air quality in cab.

Sperry Car SRS 119 OS yesterday eastbound at 1630. Checked the ol' photo file, and it turns out I saw her at the same mileage in 1983, albeit in the classic Sperry paint scheme. And that's not all...also photographed her in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba the same year. Those detector cars put on more mileage than a Budget Rent-a-car.