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Mississauga (Clarkson)
Commencing in April 1994, Ontario Southland took over switching from
CP and CN of the Petro Canada plant in Clarkson, (Mississauga) Ontario,
located on the Canadian National Oakville Subdivision, a Joint Section
also used by Canadian Pacific. Once the site of a British American Oil
(B-A) refinery (built 1943), later Gulf Oil, and finally, Petro Canada.
It now produces only lubricants, 350 varieties including motor oil, transmission
fluid, industrial grease, wax etc. OSR ended its contract in April 2008.
New contractor Railserve took over. Operations began using former TH&B 51, an upgraded NW2 retired by the CPR November 11, 1988. In recognition of its historical significance it was first kept for a proposed railway museum in Toronto and later for a proposed tourist railway on a portion of the abandoned TH&B branch between Brantford and Waterford; neither project came about. It was finally purchased in 1992 and later restored to authentic TH&B paint scheme complete with TH&B lettering. The plant has 18 tracks and is switched on two shifts a day with two, two-man crews assisted by an additional split shift man. Normally, 15 loads are shipped daily via CN and 15 by CP for an annual total of 7000 cars! The heavy tankcars, sharpe curves in the plant and a steep grade leaving the plant to the CNR yard requires two units in M.U. After ex TH&B 51 some MLW units were used. Two EMD GP7's were acquired in 1999. These 1500 HP units were the last of many GP7's on the SOO Line, 378 and 383. Early in 2002 a GP9 (ex C&O 6193) was acquired from the former contractor at CPR's Vaughan Intermodal Facility.
Note: 378 and 383 retained these historic numbers in a change of policy. M420 646 trails GP7 383 switching on May 2, 2006 Joe Dennis SOO 383 and 378 not long before being sold to OSR to switch
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