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Caption: A morning westbound VIA passenger train speeds through Scarborough with three MLW's on the head-end: FPA4 6788 and 6769, sporting VIA paint and logos, and an unknown 6800-series FPB4 still in CN zebra stripe paint. Nine passenger cars trail, including two baggage cars (most appear to still be in CN paint, as the new "VIA" branding was barely two years old at this point). It won't be long before the train covers its final miles and arrives at Union Station in downtown Toronto.
The location is just before Greenwood Avenue on CN's Kingston Sub. As per track diagrams, the train is heading westbound on the "west mainline", with the next track over the "east mainline", then the Y-200 service track, and the track bumper at the end of the old Greenwood Avenue team track (Y-012, appears to be out of use at this point). North of the mainline track was another service track, Y-230, that lead into the back of the TTC's Greenwood Yard nearby.
Original photographer unknown, Dan Dell'Unto collection slide.
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So this is the overnight Cavalier, #49-59.
At some point in 1978, the Ottawa and Montreal sections switched from combining in Belleville to combining in Brockville. I’m inclined to say this changed with the October 29, 1978 timetable, but I can’t currently find my timetables between October ’77 and October ’78, so I can’t confirm. However, the Oct ’78 timetable was the one to fully and officially integrate CP operations into VIA – I think that’s relevant as the Cavalier didn’t descend from the Pool Train agreement.
Most people are likely familiar with the splitting and combining of trains in Brockville, as the easier-to-photograph day trains had been doing this for some time under CN, and VIA continued the practice.
However, few remember that the Cavalier split at Belleville until 1978, and the Ottawa section diverged at Napanee and travelled on the CN Smiths Falls Sub (today the “Cataraqui Trail”) and stopped at the CN station (today’s Railway Museum of Eastern Ontario), not at the CP station, as it never touched CP rails. This portion is/was some of the rarest VIA mileage as the tenure of VIA on that route was so brief.