CN is "sweating the assets". More like beating dead horses. They will only buy just enough to get by, nothing more, and certainly nothing to actually increase their fleetsize. When the new units show up, expect a round of retirements to begin.
In February I shot a train on the Kingston Sub at Newcastle, Ontario. Train 362, 10,200 tons (heard on radio). Leader was C44-9W 2527, which was dropping load when they tried for full power. Trailing was SD40-2W 5247 with numbers 3 and 5 traction motors cut out. This train was heading for the York Sub and the grade up from the Lake Ontario shoreline. It's not 1%, maybe more like 0.7%, but how in the heck this train was expected to make it up the hill is beyond me. Naturally, the crew was calling for the Diesel Doctor, and the RTC was probably going to see if he could find them another unit at Oshawa. I'm glad I just watch the trains.