Body Style
- DB — dynamic brakes. This is indicated for the SD40 family where they exist; they are a prominent identifying for individual locomotives. They are indicated for all GP9s.
- NC — (Photo)narrow cab. This is indicated where applicable for GP38, SD40 family, and GP40 even though implicit in locomotive type.
- WC — (Photo)wide (Canadian) cab. This is indicated where applicable for GP38, SD40 family, and GP40 even though implicit in locomotive type.
- XB — (Photo)no centre bell (otherwise mounted centre of cab above front windows). Indicated only for SD40 and Dash 8 families since this varies across the fleet.
- SA — (Photo)dual spark arrestor on exhaust. Indicated for SW1200 and GMD1 only.
- 4W — four-wheel trucks front and rear (B-B). Indicated only for GMD1 where applicable (some have six-wheel trucks).
- 6W — six-wheel trucks front and rear (A-1-A). Indicated only for GMD1 where applicable (most have four-wheel trucks).
- HN — (Photo)number boards high, above front windows instead of on front of cab. Applies only to first four SD60Fs which were bought much earlier than the rest of the fleet.
- DF — (Photo)different font for front number boards. This applies to individual locomotives of the SD40 family that belonged to Ontario Hydro.
Headlight
- L1 — (Photo)single rear light
- H2 — (Photo)horizontal double rear light (side by side)
- V2 — (Photo)vertical double rear light (over and under)
- FH — (Photo)high front headlight over cab windows (most Canadian locomotives have the front headlight on the short hood)
Paint Scheme
- ZR — (Photo)zebra stripes on long hood, red cab sides (still common, but decreasingly so)
- ZB — (Photo)zebra stripes on long hood, black cab sides (front of cab is red)
- CN — (Photo)newest CN scheme, no map under CN noodle (increasingly common). The width of the CN noodle is thicker on some locomotives than others.
- NA — (Photo)new CN scheme, with map of North America under CN noodle (only used for a couple of years). The width of the CN noodle is thicker on some locomotives than others. GTW or DWP locomotives may have the letters GTWor DWP under the unit number on the side of the cab
- NR — (Photo)white CN noodle on black long hood, red cab sides (common on switchers)
- NB — (Photo)white CN noodle on black long hood, black cab sides, front and rear of cab are red
- BN — (Photo)black body with white road number (slugs only)
- BX — (Photo)black body with white noodle and road number, newer scheme than BN (slugs only)
- CP — (Photo)(Photo)generally all red (former CP units with all CP identification painted out) with or without CN noodle on side of cab
- DW — (Photo)DWP paint scheme (blue and orange)
- GT — (Photo)GTW paint scheme (blue and orange)
- XX — special one-off paint scheme, further described in comments
- UN — unknown
Note: Some paint schemes in the roster are annotated with a date
in the form yymm. This is the month and year that the paint
scheme listed was last observed on the locomotive. If there is no date
listed, then the paint scheme is assumed to be as indicated without
verification, or has been extracted from another list of paint schemes
where dates were not listed. Since locomotives get repainted
periodically, older paint schemes on locomotives will eventually be
replaced by newer ones and this list is under constant revision.
Comments
- ret — retired, no longer in service with CN
- rmf — remanufactured and assigned a new number
- ren — renumbered
