Fuzzy- I had always thought that they were kept as two seperate entities ( IC&E and DM&E ) for some kind of paperwork advantage . For example, I’ve read that Guilford Transportation keeps several of their roads seperate, then runs them by way of a seperate holding company (Springfield Terminal?) . Seems it had to do with work rules, taxes or something. I know there was a specific reason why they did it. For what it’s worth, the most common power I’ve seen mixed with DM&E blue and yellow diesels was bright red CP units.
DME bought 23 SD40s from CP Rail, 19 in 1999 and 4 in 2000. The CP numbers were 5501 to 5563. Would those be the CP units you saw, Murphy ?
CP has also sold a large number of SD40s and SD40-2s to leasing companies over the last 5 years, perhaps 100 all together.
Nanaimo- While it’s entirely possible that some of the red units are ex-CP units,it seems most times when I’ve seen red diesels up close, they’re lettered as CP RAIL. Granted, all I see would be DM&E trains. I’m a long way from ICE rails.