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Caption: Southbound "Canadian" stopped at Parry Sound. Back then, crew changes took place at Parry for the passenger, rather than MacTier. We see the boys having an exchange of pleasantries before leaving. The leader, former CP 1410, now VIA; later became VIA 6558, but I do not recall seeing it in my travels as it was retired by 1983. Downside was, behind 1410 are CP 8580 and VIA 1961. Can't be seen in this image. I raced down to the town pier to grab a shot of the train over the trestle, but flubbed it. Oh well.
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VIA 1961? What type of unit was VIA 1961? Great shot of the Procor tank car on the right. UTLX 49671 would become PROX 49671 sometime after the 1981 introduction of the ‘PROX’ reporting mark. One can still make out the outline of the former Irving Company emblem to the right of the side ladder. Note the lack of a double shelf coupler as well, another future modification.
VIA 1961 was former CP, an F9B, acquired at the start up of VIA in 1978. It was retired by 1983. Rare sighting for me.
Nice shot Arnold! There was a renumbering scheme set out by VIA/CN where when one of the ex-CP units was rebuilt and upgraded by CN at PSC it would get a VIA number. CN didn’t want CP to renumber any of the units until the upgrades were made, thus all the ex-CP units in their former numbers.
Most of those ex-CP 1400′s were retired early and never rebuilt, thus never get 65xx numbers except for a select few done. CP bought most of them back from VIA to salvage the 567BC and 567C engine blocks for use in the GP9 rebuild program, including the two remaining E8′s.
The ex-CP F9B’s were renumbered from CP 447x’s to VIA 196x’s, then a few made it to VIA 665x’s when rebuilt and upgraded. One unit was briefly 1931 before becoming 1961 due to a numbering conflict.
Thank you MrDan the AnswerMan!!! Most informative.