1962 Uniform Code of Operating Rules – Interlocking Rules

INTERLOCKING RULES

Note: Whenever the word “signalman” appears herein, it applies to the employee performing the duties.

605. Interlocking signals govern the use of the routes of an interlocking, and as to the movements of trains within interlockings, their indications supersede the superiority of trains but do not dispense with the use or observance of other signals whenever and wherever they may be required.

605A. Unless otherwise specified in special instructions, rear flag protection is not required within interlocking limits.

611. Unless otherwise provided, signals must be kept in the position displaying the most restrictive indication, except when displayed for an immediate movement.

612. Appliances must be operated carefully and only by those charged with the duty. If any irregularity affecting their operation is detected, the signals must be displayed to give their most restrictive indication until repairs are made. Any defects must be promptly reported to the superintendent.

613. When a route is set, signals must be operated sufficiently in advance of approaching trains or engines to avoid delay.

615. When necessary to change any route for which the signals have been cleared for an approaching train or engine, switches, moveable point frogs or derails must not be changed or signals cleared for a conflicting route until the train or engine for which the route was first cleared has been brought to a stop.

616. The lever operating a switch, derail, moveable point frog, detector bar or lock must not be moved when any portion of a train or engine is standing on or closely approaching the switch, moveable point frog or derail.

617. Operating levers must be blocked or marked and should not be used when a track, switch or signal is undergoing repairs or when a track is obstructed.

618. During cold weather the operating levers must be moved as often as may be necessary to keep connections from freezing. The use of salt is forbidden.

619. If the force whose duty it is to keep switches clear when snow or sand is drifting is not on hand when required, the fact must be reported to the superintendent.

621. Signalmen must observe, as far as practicable whether the indications of the signals correspond with the positions of the levers.

622. Signalmen must not make nor permit any unauthorized repairs, alterations or additions to the interlocking.

623. If there is a derailment, or if a switch, moveable point frog or derail is run through, or if any damage occurs to the track or interlocking, the signals must be restored to display their most restrictive indication and no movement permitted until all parts of the interlocking and track liable to consequent damage have been examined and are known to be in safe condition.

624. When necessary to disconnect a switch, moveable point frog, derail, facing point lock, detector bar or electric locking circuit, all switches, moveable point frogs and derails affected must be securely spiked or fastened in the required position and the levers locked or marked in such a manner that they cannot be operated before any train or engine is permitted to pass over them.

625. When switches, moveable point frogs, derails or signals are undergoing repairs, Stop indication must be displayed for any movement which may be affected by such repairs until it has been ascertained from those in charge of the repairs that the switches, moveable point frogs and derails are properly lined and secured for such movement.

626. Signalmen must , as far as practicable, observe all passing trains and note whether they are complete and in order. Should there be any indications of conditions endangering the train, or any other train or engine, the signalman must take such measures for the protections of other trains as may be practicable.

628. Hand signals must not be used when the proper indication can be displayed on interlocking signals.

631. Lights in interlocking stations must be so placed that they cannot be seen from approaching trains.

633. If a train or engine overruns a signal indicating STOP, the fact must be immediately reported to the superintendent. In case of apparent disregard of signals by trains or engines, signalmen must, if practicable, see if proper indication was displayed.

634. Signalmen must not permit unauthorized persons to enter the interlocking station.

When a signalman is relieved, he must transfer all necessary information.

637. A running switch movement must not be made within interlocking limits.

661. If a signal indication permitting a train or engine to proceed, after being accepted, is changed to a STOP indication before it is reached, the stop must be made at once. Such occurance must be reported to the superintendent.

663. A train or engine must not pass an interlocking signal indicating STOP until conductor or engineman has been fully informed of the situation, or hand signal has been received from the signalman. Movement may then be made at restricted speed. Yellow flags by day and yellow lights by night will be used by signalmen giving hand signals. Such occurance must be reported to the superintendent.

667. Sand must not be used, nor water allowed to run from engine appliances within interlocking limits.

669. Trains or engines stopped by signalman in making a movement through an interlocking must not move in either direction until they have received the proper signal from him.

670. A reverse movement within interlocking limits, or a forward movement after making a reverse movment, must not be made without the proper interlocking signal indication, or permission is received from the signalman.

670A. When a train or engine having accepted an indication of an interlocking signal permitting it to proceed stops within thirty feet after passing such signal it must not again proceed without permission from the signalman or under the provision of Rule 672.

671. When an interlocking station is closed, should a signal for an open route indicate STOP, train and engine crews must know that the route for their train is properly lined and be assured they are protected against movements on conflicting routes, after which train may proceed at restricted speed. The fact must be reported to the superintendent from the first available point of communication.

672. When a train or engine is stopped by the STOP indication of an automatic interlocking signal, and no immediate conflicting movement is evident, a member of the crew must proceed to the crossing and unlock box marked switches and be governed by instructions posted in the box. In boxes where lights are provided to indicate the approach of trains, if those of the opposing railway are lighted and no train is seen approaching, he will open the switch and give proceed hand signal to his train. If lights are not provided, or if those of the opposing railway are not lighted, such employee, after opening the switch, must wait three minutes before giving his train signal to proceed. After his train has occupied the crossing, he will close the switch and lock box.

At automatic interlocking where push buttons are provided on signals to enable a return movement to be made over the crossing while switching, trainman will unlock box and push button. If signal does not clear, he must comply with instructions in preceding paragraph.

Special instructions will be issued as may be necessary.

673. When a train is running against current of traffic it must approach interlocking limits under such control as to be able to stop at a dwarf signal indicating stop.

Evolution of an Image – CP Freight Car Paint Schemes

Posted on January 21, 2026 by admin

Like any company or institution that’s been around for a long time, Canadian Pacific has gone through a number of image and branding changes over the years. This article will look at the various rolling stock paint schemes used by Canadian Pacific over the last century.

Early Block (<1951)

CP’s lettering standard from the early half of the 20th century featured the Canadian Pacific name in simple gothic block lettering. There were variations in how this lettering was positioned depending on the car type or era, but they all used the same stencils and this was more or less standard from at least the WWI through WWII periods.

CP Spans the World (1947-1951)

Starting in 1947, this “CPR Spans the World” herald and slogan were introduced by CPR’s marketing highlighting CP’s steam ship connections that connected the railway to Europe and Asia. A number of boxcars repainted during 1947-1950 received this herald prominently applied to the right of the car side. Otherwise, the lettering was identical to the previous standard “block” lettering scheme, just with the addition of the “Spans the World” herald.

Due to the size and prominence of the herald, this was only applied to boxcars, with no change to the paint scheme on any other type of car.

Stepped Gothic (1951-1962)

CP’s standard boxcar scheme throughout the 1950s featured the railway’s name in “stepped” offset rows on the right hand side of the car, with the “CPR” initials prominently emphasized. Even though unaffiliated with the CPR at the time, the Pacfic Great Eastern and Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo railways would also copy this idea, introducing their own similar lettering schemes with stepped lettering.

Like the late 1940s “Spans the World” graphic, this was only applied to “house” cars like box cars and refrigerators, with other car types like hoppers, gondolas, and cabooses continuing to carry the simple block lettering above.

A minor change to this scheme would come in 1957 when the horizontal white lines above and below the car number, previously an AAR standard, were discontinued.

The Script Era (1963-1969)

CP had used a version of script lettering in marketing logos going back to the early 20th century, but in the early 1960s the script lettering was revised and the railway’s image updated to make wide use of it as their primary branding, applying the new lettering to locomotives, freight cars, cabooses, ships and trucking divisions, and all company paper work.

Freight car colours remained the same: brown for box and other “house” cars, and black for open cars like flatcars, gondolas, and hoppers. Cabooses remained brown with red ends. Only the logos applied to the cars changed.

This lettering change was applied to most car types on the CPR except for flatcars, which continued to use the simple block lettering as the script lettering would not fit on this type of car. Also while some groups of new gondolas delivered later in the 1960s were delivered in the new script lettering, CP shops were loath to actually do any painting of the script lettering over car ribs, and there is little or no evidence of actual CP shop repaints of any cars with external bracing with script lettering.

A Colourful Introduction (1967-1968)

Starting in 1966 CP started to modify their script scheme for several large purchases of new freight cars in the late 1960s. The size of the reporting marks and car numbers were increased and the font modified slightly. They also introduced bold colour coding to several types of cars (mainly box type cars).

New mechanical refrigerator cars were painted silver with red lettering. Insulated heated boxcars were painted a striking yellow-orange with red script. And a large group of boxcars dedicated to paper service were delivered in a jade green scheme with a large pine tree graphic.

Cabooses also got a colourful upgrade, with several cabooses repainted during this period into a bright red with yellow ends. However due to the short-lived period these paint schemes were applied, no existing freight cars are ever known to have been repainted in similar schemes to any of the above cars. These schemes only appeared on newly built cars.

Flatcars, gondolas, and hoppers (other than a group of pressure-differential unloading hoppers which were painted in a silver and black scheme) remained black, but deliveries from around 1967 can be noted for the subtle change in the reporting mark/number font and size.

The CP Rail Era (1969-1987)

In October 1968, Canadian Pacific introduced their most radical rebranding in company history. All of the company’s divisions dropped the classic script lettering, and adopted a unified branding with a new name consisting of the parent company’s “CP” initials followed by the division name, and new logo called the “MultiMark”, with each division using the same logo but with their own colour. Canadian Pacific Railway became “CP Rail”, and adopted red as their primary colour. (The specific shade of red to become known as “Action” red.)

On the railway, this lead to a radical change in the colour landscape, with maroon and grey locomotives giving way to red (although note the black locomotive model in lead graphic in this section – this was the original proposal which CP management rejected) and brown and black freight cars shifting to brighter colours.

Locomotives and most freight equipment (boxcars, gondolas, and flatcars) was painted in the CP Rail “Action Red” colour which was adopted as the railway’s primary colour, matching the locomotives. The company’s bold new black and white “MultiMark” logo was applied at one end of the car covering the full height of the car side. (The paint standard had the MultiMark at the “B” (handbrake) end of the car, although many boxcar repaints just put it to the left of the car side as it was easier to mask over a pair of grabs than a full ladder.) Early box car repaints featured a contrasting black lower sill, which was dropped on later repaints which just kept the lower sill the same colour as the rest of the body.

Several other colours were used however. Following the colour coding introduced with the 1967 schemes above, paper service assigned boxcars received a green paint scheme, insulated heated cars as well as cabooses were yellow, and refrigerator cars were painted silver. Hopper cars were still painted black. The last two car types received a modified version of the MultiMark, with Action Red used instead of black for the triangle in the logo.

Interestingly, the “CP Rail” brand also started a trend among other unrelated Canadian Railways, with British Columbia Railway renaming itself “BC Rail” in the early 1980s, Canadian National briefly experimented with “CN Rail” branding in the late 1980s, and Ontario Northland introduced a bold new “ON Rail” image for their locomotive paint scheme in the early 2000s.

The Loss of the MultiMark (1987-1996)

The MultiMark logo lasted for almost 20 years before CP decided to remove it from their branding in late 1987. (The first locomotive to be outshopped in a new paint job without the MultiMark was in November 1987.)

While the “CP Rail” name and branding would still last another decade before reverting back to a version of “Canadian Pacific” branding, the MultiMark symbol was now a thing of the past. In the early 1990s, CP would modify their CP Rail logo to “CP Rail System” featuring a split Canadian and US Flag (known to railfans as the “Dual Flags” scheme), although this logo is not known to have ever been applied to freight equipment, only locomotives and maintenance vehicles.

The Return to Canadian Pacific (1997-2023)

In 1997 CP finally retired the “CP Rail” brand for good, moving to a modern interpretation of the Canadian Pacific Railway name and classic beaver herald. There would be some experimentation, with the beaver logo occasionally being dropped and restored and going through some minor styling updates, but this would more or less be CP’s branding until the 2023 merger with Kansas City Southern to form CPKC Railroad, which currently uses a modified version of the CP beaver logo with the CPKC initials instead of CP.

Waterloo Region Model Railway Club

Modeling CP Rail's Sudbury Division in the 1970s