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Yard Engines Although St.Luc hump yard in Montreal used 1000 HP Alco S2 yard units, paired with unique booster units, GMD 1200 HP SW9 units, (built 1-3/53), were choosen for Toronto Yard. There were only six of these units, all used on yard and local jobs on Western Lines based at Vancouver and Calgary including Field and Revelstoke yards. There were also eleven GMD SW900 yard units on Western Lines plus ten GMD SW8's on Eastern Lines but, by far the majority of yard units on the CPR were built by Alco or MLW. The SW9's were heavier at 124 tons than the 115 ton Alco's and the highest horsepower yard units. The six units were transferred to Eastern Lines in 1963 where they worked various yard jobs in the Toronto Terminals including the Piggyback Transfer between Parkdale Yard and Queensway pig yard and for hump training at Agincourt. In January 1964 four units (7400, 7401, 7403 and 7404) and in April 1964 (7402, and 7405) were modified at John Street roundhouse with non-standard M.U. (on the rear only), along with cab signals and hump control (slow speed) on 7400-7402 (7403 was later equipped). Initially, pairs of units operated back-to-back with 2 sets in use at one time and the third as spare for maintenance. Later, one set was assigned three units, leaving only one spare. Early in 1974 the need for additional yard engines was answered with the addition of three GMD SW1200RS BLU (Branch Line Units) which required the modification (Jan.-March, at John Street roundhouse) of the 7400's with standard (27 pin) M.U. along with the addition of front M.U. on 7400-7403 only, at which time units were marshalled in tandem with the control unit on the west end, cab trailing. This allowed both hump engines to be assigned three units with a third set as spare. The 8100's had to be middle units since 7404 and 7405 still did not have M.U. on the front. The 7400's were later re-assigned to work the Pulldown when more powerful GP7 and GP9 road switchers replaced them. The Pulldown required two jobs with two units each. 6560 and 6561 (MLW 660HP S3) were especially built (#81547-8 6/56) for the CPR subsidiary Dominion Atlantic where they hauled small gypsum unit trains. Equipped for road service with non-standard M.U. combination pilots, classification lights, front facing illuminated number boards and chime air horns, they were also ballasted to 212,000 lbs. (106 tons) compared to the normal 196,000 lbs. (98 tons). These units were found to be too light for the heavy gypsum trains and were replaced by a trio of versatile GMD SW1200RS (the modern day D-10!). They had been lettered for DAR and were relettered July 1959. Transferred to West Toronto they worked singly on various local jobs where their heavy weight proved them equal to the bigger 1000HP S2. They were transferred to Toronto Yard to work the Pulldown in tandem where they remained until 1974 when they were replaced by a second pair of 1000HP units, 7107 and 7108 which joined 7077 and 7089. A second set of M.U. yard units 7077 and 7089 had been equipped in 1964 with M.U. for an afternoon shift Parkdale- West Toronto transfer. When this transfer was abolished, the two units were used singly until later reassigned to work the Pulldown. In 1974 6560-6561 were replaced by 7107 and 7108, a pair of MLW S4 yard units equipped with non-standard (19 pin) M.U. for road service and weighing the normal 115 tons. 6560 and 6561 went to Sutherland (Saskatoon). Note: 7100 and 7107 had years earlier (1956-57) worked the Hamilton Way Freight out of Lambton yard and were the only yard units equipped for M.U. road service on Eastern Lines. They were transferred back to Western Lines. April 1976 saw 6576 and 6594 another pair of MLW S3 yard units modified with M.U. assigned to the Pulldown. Shortly afterwards they went to Oshawa Yard where for the first time an M.U. set of yard units was required to switch the GM plant. They were shortly replaced by a pair of GM built 8100's and returned to the Pulldown. Longer and heavier trains taxed the overworked 7400's. One regular engineer used so much sand (the sanders were always on) he got the nickname of "Sandy" Shanks! The swirling sand coming from around the hump units was reminiscent of "Pig Pen" in the Charlie Brown comic strip! The shop even removed the sanding valve on the lead units and replaced it with a button that had to be kept depressed to make it work in an effort to reduce waste of sand. Shanks wedged his seat cushion up against the button and negated that effort! Early in 1981 sets of GP7 and GP9 GMD road switchers rebuilt into yard units as part of a system wide project to replace old Alco/MLW yard units with more powerful units, were modified and assigned to the hump at which time the 7400's were assigned to the Pulldown. GP7's 1500, 1501 and 1502 were equipped with hump controls as lead units along with GP9's 1516, 1517 and 1518 as trailing units. Even this was not sufficient and early in 1982 1534 and 1537 were added as trailing units allowing two sets of 3 units each with 2 spares.
Changes came about in 1991 with 1500 and 1517 wrecked in a head on collision with another movement in heavy fog resulting in their retirement, and with the failure of 1534 (renumbered 1025 in 1996) whereupon it was converted into a slug and mated to 1518. Further change came about beginning in 1994 with the creation of the Mother and Daughter sets of units and slugs whereby remote control was added to them and some sets were assigned to the Pulldown. Slugs were mostly converted from 6700's (SW8 and SW900) and 8100's (SW1200RS). Remote control eliminated the engineer on the hump and pulldown jobs and eventually, one man remote control operation came to the hump. Once again changes to the hump power came about in 1999, this time Hump Control Cab units were converted for use with pairs of SD40-2 units. These are for the remote control receiver only and do not have cab operating controls or traction motors. Three pairs of used SD40-2 units 5476-5481 ex GATX, ex NS nee SOU, were assigned, they are high short hood units (that originally operated long hood forward!) with blanked cabs that had previously been leased from GATX for road service. 1150 ex 1214 nee 8102 5476 ex 3250 A further change came about in ....... when the 5400's were replaced with ex SOO SD40-2's 6603, 6604, 6607, 6610, 6614 and 6615.
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