Caption: F Unit Friday: VIA FP9 6304 waits in the background while workers loaded piggyback flats at Thompson, Manitoba, in October 1991. Train 93, the tri-weekly Hudson Bay from Winnipeg, some 700 miles to the southeast, would lift three flats during its 90-minute supper-time layover in Thompson. The Ford tractor is loading the first of three Gardewine trailers that VIA will deliver to Churchill some 347 miles and 13 hours away. The railway is the only year-round access to the Hudson Bay port of Churchill. VIA 6304 began life as CN 6509 (GPA-17a, GMDL 1956 #A639). Via had the unit rebuilt at CN's Pointe St-Charles shops in Montreal in 1984 with a 16-645 prime mover, classed as a GPA-418a. It was the last of five similar units that had their steam generators removed for service on the Churchill line. In 1967 it was renumbered 1967 and was the trailing unit to CPR FP9A 1411 on Canada's Centennial Train. As VIA retired its steam-heated cars, it received a 275kW head-end power unit in 1997 and was subsequently withdrawn in 2002 and sold to IFE Leasing of Saugus, California. Edmonton, Alberta, is presently the storage site for VIA 6304.The year 1910 marked the first planning for a railway to Churchill, and initial construction was begun in 1912 by the Canadian Northern. Bankruptcy intervened, and the CNR finally completed by the line in 1929. CN sold the route to Colorado-based OmniTRAX in 1997. Operation of their Hudson Bay Railway line continued until major washouts in 2017. Some two years later, operations resumed under new ownership: Fairfax Financial Holdings & AGT Limited Partnership and Missinippi Rail Limited Partnership, representing First Nations members and residents. Gardewine is a multi-purpose transportation company headquartered in Winnipeg and is now a subsidiary of the Mullen Group Ltd. of Okotoks, Alberta.