SD60MAC9500
SD70Dude, Sounds like you guys are really short on 4 axle power. What happened?
Age, wrecks, locomotive sales, and many years of indecision.
CN rebuilt hundreds of low horsepower units during the 1980s and 90s to partial Dash-2 specs. The official names for the rebuilds add a "RM" suffix onto the original model name, they include the GP9RM, GMD1RM, FP9RM (for VIA Rail), SW1200RM, SW1200RSRM, and SD40RM.
Since then no new 4 axle units have been purchased or rebuilt, and heavy overhauls have been minimal. Many older locomotives were sold off during the Hunter Harrison era, in particular the GP40 fleet was reduced from nearly 300 to only about 40 or 50 units, and many of those 'RM' rebuilds were retired.
The GP9RM's and GP38-2's still form the backbone of our yard fleet, and it has been at least 30 years since any of them were built or rebuilt. Heavy yard switching takes its toll, as does being operated via Beltpak by employees without much experience, and many units have been lost to accidents or accumulated frame damage from all the years of rough treatment.
The upper echelons of the Company have ignored this impending major problem for many years, just as they ignored the impending mass retirement of many senior employees in the mid-late 2000s. Things finally came to a head a couple years ago, and they started leasing a bunch of 4 axle units from GATX.
More and more 6 axle units have been shifted into yard service over the past 5 years, all the SD40RM's seem to have been equipped with Beltpak, as have some SD40-2W's, the ex-Northern Alberta SD38-2's, and even some ex-Oakway SD60's, though most of those are kept in the U.S. as they are also equipped with PTC.