by Allen Hazen
I saw GP-9 1514 (chopnose; painted in the current dark red with the gold "medallion" on the side long enough ago to be fairly dirty now) in the yard at Edmonton, Alberta (not far from the yard office, a few blocks south of Whyte Avenue) today. It has unusual sheet-metal work at the rear end. About the top third of the end of the long hood (so: the part with the numberboards and lights) is of normal GP-9-ish shape but a bit below the lights it is build out several inches beyond the normal end-point, and squared off so the rear of the lower part of the long hood is a flat surface from side to side.
It was coupled to a pair of dump cars (there appears to be ballasting going on), so I thought this might house special equipment for operating the dump cars, but when I asked a group of railroaders having lunch at the yard office none knew of any special equipment: one got up to look out the window to see what I was talking about, and apparently had never thought there was anything unusual about the unit.
I have seen similar built-out hood sections in photos of first generation geeps bought for service on suburban trains: it housed extra power take-offs to allow the locomotive to provide electric current for train lighting. Did CP have GP-9 so equipped? and did the 1514 start life as one of them?
It was coupled to a pair of dump cars (there appears to be ballasting going on), so I thought this might house special equipment for operating the dump cars, but when I asked a group of railroaders having lunch at the yard office none knew of any special equipment: one got up to look out the window to see what I was talking about, and apparently had never thought there was anything unusual about the unit.
I have seen similar built-out hood sections in photos of first generation geeps bought for service on suburban trains: it housed extra power take-offs to allow the locomotive to provide electric current for train lighting. Did CP have GP-9 so equipped? and did the 1514 start life as one of them?