A little Canadian help please

[Herc Driver]

I'm thinking about adding an Nscale Athearn SD75i in Ontario Northland colors (O-N) to run with my CN and CP diesels. I've never seen one here in the Carolina's (but that hasn't stopped me from buying other diesels of various road names before) but I was curious...does (or did) O-N normally run with CN or CP trains? Or did they stick primarily to their own rails and routes? I've found only a few pictures of O&N SD75i units running with other railroads and wondered if there was some bigger corporate reason that they weren't not seen much attached to other CN or CP trains. Also, do they ever get into the US on CSX lines or other New England routes?

Thanks!

 

[60103]

Ontario Northland runs north from North Bay to James Bay so everything is north of Lake Huron. They do have one passenger train that runs through to Toronto. As far as I know, they keep their own power and let CN or CP pull trains south. I don't think they have a lot of extra power to lend out.

 

[Herc Driver]

Interesting - thanks David.

I ordered the diesel today - so I guess I'll need to dream up a reason for it to be found in North Carolina running my rails with the CN and CP diesels already in my roster that show up attached to other trains using the branch. Besides, my train crew (that would be the kids) liked the color scheme and as the owner/operator/managing director of my line - I try to keep the crews happy whenever possible to avoid labor disputes and inefficiencies...or something like that.

Thanks again for the info.

 

[galt904]

A few years ago the ON SD75s ran on some CN trains, but I think they stayed in Ontario.

 

[60103]

There was a story a few years ago that one of the (prototype) loco manufacturers turned new diesels over to their local railroad with a 3 week delivery date. Local railroad managed to run said locos over much of the northeast in that 3 weeks.
We used to see Santa Fe diesels on the CN in southern Ontario; GM was backed up in their London paintshop and sending them elsewhere for painting.

 

[cprac4400]

I have seen the O.N. units on the C.N. (with C.N. power) here in Winnipeg,Mb. I think I even have a picture.

 

[cn nutbar]

hi herc---sorry i can't help you with the modern era that you are modelling but i came across some photos from the late Reg Button that i thought you might find interesting---at one time,the ontario northland was a common sight in my hometown,hauling iron-ore from the mines in northern ontario to the steel plants and as you can see,the cn often had their locomotives in the motive power consists.a good friend of doctor wayne and myself who has moved to british columbia modelled the ontario northland(as well as cnr,cpr,th&b,nyc,and wabash)---it was a treat when we were invited to his home and he would run these colourful onr units---sorry the quality of the photos is not that good,but it gives you a general impression---BTW,the photos are from a book entitled "trackside around the niagara peninsula 1953-1976 with Reg Button"---hope you enjoy,nutbar

 

[Herc Driver]

THANKS! I appreciate your efforts showing those pictures...I like the Ontario scheme and plan on running an SD75i with CP and CN on the layout - and although that may not be absolutely prototypical - it's still going to be a good looking string of diesel power running our layout. Next time I'm flying to Canada, I'm going to take special notice of what power is out and about (CP, CN, ON) and how they're strung together. Railpictures.net has some great shots of course...but just looking down from the jet (my other job is flying a Citation X for a company) you can see quite a few yards and engine depots with all sorts of stuff sitting idle. It's amazing the number of "guest" engines drift between Canada and the US...and across the US for that matter. My understanding of "sharing" power between railroads is limited, but it seems that no matter what motive power you'd like to run, you can bet that just about every railroad's engine goes by everyone's area once in a while hooked up to a string of more "local" or regional power.

 

[60103]

I just got home and looked up my Trackside Guide.
ONT has 31 locos (as of the beginning of the year); 6 of them are SD75i. (just noticed 4 of them are F units converted to Electric Power generators for passenger trains.)