Caption: The one, and only VIA RS-10 8558, idles outside of the depot in Winnipeg, Manitoba coupled to CN 7716, one of the switchers assigned the station. VIA had acquired their only RS-10 from CP as a replacement for FP9A 1408, which was wrecked before it was transfers to VIA. Built in 1956, VIA 8558 was not long for this world and it was retired from VIA in 1981.
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Suffered a crankshaft failure in 1981, and that was it. VIA and CN never liked that unit: they nixed all their old 244-powered MLW’s, and then CP lumps them with this one.
What if CN never cancelled it’s Newfoundland trans-island passenger train ‘Caribou’ in 1969 and it survived until the formation of VIA? Then this is probably how the narrow gauge NF110′s and 210′s would have been repainted in the VIA blue and yellow!
Ken Pieroway