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Home
 
2001-2002
  
Canadian Pacific Railway Employee Communications
Room 500 401-9th Ave S.W. Calgary AB T2P 4Z4
 

VOLUME THIRTY-TWO

NUMBER FOUR 2002


CPR's General Purpose GP7 and GP9 Locomotives

TH&B 71  
 CP 1555 and 1592

Jonathan B. Hanna
Corporate Historian
Communications & Public Affairs
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Second World War was over and business was booming in the late 1940s. North America and CPR were gearing up to move more goods to market and more people to destinations across the system. And they were using new technology to do it - diesel-electric locomotives.
 
Post-war North America was fully attuned to the new technology. with diesel-electric locomotives replacing steam at a rapid pace, CPR needed a good all-purpose road freight locomotive. When diesel-electrics proved their value in switching and yard applications, CPR started to convert its motive power territory-by-territory across the system. In the late 1940s, CPR introduced diesels to Vancouver Island, the region southeast of Montreal, and into Vermont. These territories were assigned Baldwin and Alco diesel-electric locomotives, except for the Boston-Montreal passenger trains. For this high-profile run, CPR's first General Motors (GM) locomotives - the three E8A locomotives Nos. 1800 to 1802 made their debut. The Schreiber Division along the north shore of Lake Superior was next, the first territory to be dieselized in the 1950s. CPR would start to order General Motors products in earnest, manufactured in GM's newly-opened plant in London, Ont.
 
Meanwhile, General Motors was developing a hugely-successful, general-purpose locomotive. In 1949, GM's Electro Motive Division rolled out a 1,500 h.p. road freight locomotive from its plant in Illinois - the GP7. General purpose in the true sense of the word, it is adapted and used in all railway locomotive applications. And CPR does just that with its GP7 locomotives and the more powerful 1,750 h.p. successor GP9 model. GP locomotives are used in main-line, branch-line, freight and passenger service, and even switching service.
 
The first year CPR's GP locomotives arrived on the property - 1952 - was a water shed year for diesel-electric locomotives in the United States. Midway through, there were more operating diesel-electric locomotives than steam locomotives - 19,082 diesel-electrics versus 18,489 steam locomotives. But CPR was still heavily reliant on steam power, with 1,622 steam locomotives and only 292 diesel-electrics. The first CPR GP7s began to arrive that year, and were put to work on the Calgary, Revelstoke, Kootenay, and Kettle Valley division in Alberta and B.C.
 
Soon CPR placed GP9 locomotives on specific runs. They began to appear at the head-end of passenger trains. The final order of GP9 locomotives, at the end of the decade ensured complete dieselization of the CPR system before 1960 had come and gone. Throughout the 1950s, CPR split its orders for diesel locomotives between GM, Montreal Locomotive Works (Alco's Canadian manufacturer), and the Canadian Locomotive Company. But GM was the preferred supplier, and GP9s the favoured units.
 
GP7 and GP9 locomotives look more industrial on the surface, but mechanically are basically the same as there more esthetically pleasing cousins:  the F7 and F9 cab-unit locomotives. GP9 models are the most successful general purpose, four-axle diesel-electric locomotives ever produced in North America. GM produced 2,729 1,500 h.p. GP7 models and 4,257 1,750 h.p. GP9 models of all types.
 
CPR bought 17 GP7 locomotives in 1952 and 1953, and 200 GP9 locomotives between 1954 and 1959. It added seven more GP7s and three GP9s when it acquired the Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo Railway (TH&B), in 1977, including TH&B No. 71 - the very first locomotive produced in GM's Canadian plant in London, Ont., in the fall of 1950. Unfortunately a grade crossing accident in 1980 cut No. 71's life span and it was scrapped. By the time CPR added the physical assets of the TH&B to its books, 10 years later only six of the latter's GP7s were left. The Soo Line's full integration into CPR 1990 added seven more GP7s and 35 more GP9s to the CPR roster.
 
Throughout the 1950s, CPR used GP locomotives in all road applications - main-line and branch-line, freight and passenger. Some, living up to their reputation for utility, are equipped with steam generators to heat passenger cars. By the 1980s, CPR launched a massive rebuild program and upgraded its entire fleet of GP7 and GP9 locomotives. They came out of CPR's shops with low noses matching the original three re-built GP9 locomotives - Nos. 8633 to 8635 - already in yard service for a decade in Calgary's Alyth Yard.
 
The railway re-deployed most, but not all, of these re-built locomotives in yard service. Yard GP7 and GP9 locomotives were numbered in the 1500 and 1600 series, while some 50 low-nosed GP9 locomotives remained in road freight service and are numbered in the 8200 series.
 
CPR's rebuild program included the ex-TH&B GPs. The Soo Line also got five rebuilt ex-Conrail GP9 locomotives - SOO 4200 to 4204 - and acquired a few of its own GP9s, rebuilt into the 8200 series too. All of its GP7 and some of its GP9 locomotives remained untouched, keeping their high, short hood intact.
 
By the end of 2002, CPR had a fleet of 17 GP7s and GP9s. Three ex-TH&B GP7 locomotives - Nos. 1682 to 1684 - are the oldest in the entire fleet of CPR diesel-electrics. They celebrated their 52nd birthday this past fall. Coincidentally, the oldest of the three survivors, CP 1682 (ex-TH&B 72), is still assigned to yard work in London, Ont., its birthplace.
 
 
  Vital Statistics
Numbers
 CP 1682-1684
(ex-THB 72-74)
Class
 DPA-15
Builder
 General Motors
Outshopped
 Sep-Oct. 1950
Builder's Model
 GP7
Horsepower
 1,500
Cylinders
 16
Axles
 4
Maximum speed
 35 mph  (56 kph)
Length
 55 ft. - 1 in.  (16.8 m)
Width
 10 ft. - 4 in.  (3.15 m)
Height
 14 ft. - 6 in.  (4.4 m)
Weight
 262,000 lbs.  (118,843 kg)
Purchase price
 $191,712.00

This article is copyright 2002 by Jonathan B. Hanna and is reprinted here with his permission. All photographs, logos, and trademarks are the property of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company.

 
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