Caption: A muggy morning at Bathurst Street finds a lone VIA F40PH awaiting the 3rd track signal to head west. VIA 6412 serves as today's "drop unit" for combined J-train #40 + #52: Initially, both trains would be combined and face east at the VIA Toronto Maintenance Centre in Mimico, but they're scheduled to start their run from Aldershot Station (at 06:00) to the west in Burlington. So, instead of backing all the way there, VIA would tack on another unit on the train's rear (west end) to lead the deadhead to Aldershot, and it would then trail the train eastbound to Union Station (arriving 06:35). Before departing Union (at 06:55) the combined #40-52 would cut off the trailing unit at the station, and while the train would head east for Ottawa and Montreal, the "drop unit" would deadhead light power back to Mimico. An interesting daily movement that mingled with the GO and VIA trains of the morning rush, although today finds it waiting in a brief lull at 07:37.
(For an image of a VIA J-train, aka the combined #40-52, see here - imagine the above F40 being tacked on the rear: http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=12173).
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