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Caption: CN Train 60, The Rapido, on a 5-hour, two-stop schedule from Toronto to Montreal speeds past a detouring D&H freight in Belleville, Ontario, on Monday, June 26, 1972. FPA-4 6771 was one 27 built by MLW for the CNR in the spring of 1959. Retired by VIA in 1989, it was sold stateside in 1990 and, ironically, was painted in D&H colours in 1993 while operating out of Cumberland, Maryland. In 2003 it entered service on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic RR in Independence, Ohio, near Cleveland. D&H 705 and 706 are changing CN crews and will soon depart for Toronto and Buffalo. They were part of a parade of detours running over CN and CP following the devastating impact of Hurricane Agnes on the Erie Lackawanna mainline. The two GE U30Cs were part of an order for a dozen units delivered in 1967-68 that were sold to the National of Mexico a decade later.
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Bill, you must be using new math! I count 34 FPA-4s: 6760-6793. The Rapido trains actually made 4 stops: two for passengers as well as stops at Belleville and Brockville to change engine crews, but these last two were not made at the passenger station so as not to confuse passengers. Great photo!!
Good point about the stops for crew changes. I’d forgotten that one. Yes, 34 FPA-4s but the 6760-6766 were built in 1958. I was referring to the MPA-18b class of ’59.
Understand the 27 now. Does anyone have a picture of the 6766??
Awesome photo!. They must have done things differently back in 72. When I was a conductor/brakeman after hiring on in 81. I can’t say that I remember too many times where my head end crew changed out on the way to Montreal or Ottawa?
Thanks. I well recall the westbound Rapido stopping under the Stewart Boulevard overpass in Brockville to change headend crews in ’67. Often, CN 45 from Ottawa to Toronto had to hold at the switch before entering the Kingston Sub just before 6.30 p.m. while the crew change happened.