The First Diesels
CP Rail edged into the era of diesel-powered
locomotives in the early 1940s with the acquisition of its first yard switchers. As the decade of the '50s dawned, the first
diesel-electric road unit made its appearance on CP Rail lines. Within the next ten years, the company had
essentially completed its massive and expensive conversion to diesel-electric power for all operators.
A Problem
Most of those early units are still in service, and therein lies a problem. More than 25 percent of CP Rail's motive power
fleet consists of first-generation diesel units which are well within the bounds of service and mechanical
obsolescence. To compound the problem, an equally high proportion of second-generation power is rapidly
approaching obsolescence. While age alone does not decree that any unit has reached the end of its service life, a number of
factors taken together reveal the urgency for a major replacement program.
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