Caption: VIA Train 152,the Evangeline, is running alongside First Avenue as it departs Digby, Nova Scotia at, 8.30 a.m. in September 1989. Just a few months away, on Saturday, January 13, 1990, the train would make its last run followed by its Sunday only counterpart, Train 154, to round out passenger service in Western Nova Scotia. The train had departed Yarmouth, 86 miles west of Annapolis Royal at 7 a.m.; Digby was at Mileage 20.2 of the Yarmouth Sub. The Train would cover another 151 miles before arriving in Halifax at 12.35 p.m. where it would make connections for Montreal, Sydney and other maritime communities.

The Western Counties Railway had completed a line from Digby to Yarmouth in August 1879. In the early days, the Joggins, Bear and Moose rivers prevented the completion of a through-line to Halifax. The Missing Link, as it was known locally, between Digby and Annapolis Royal, was filled by steamboats. In 1890, the Missing Link was finally closed with federal financial assistance. The Dominion Atlantic Railway purchased the Western Counties in 1893 and merged it with lines east of Annapolis Royal to provide a through route. Ironically, the end of VIA service led to the railway's abandonment west of New Minas in April 1990. Once again, the Bear and Moose river crossings were expensive to taxpayers as they paid the cost of their removal in 2013.

VIA 6221, was built in July 1956 (serial 6301) as MKT 20, their only RDC-3 although it lacked the customary RPO section. The Katy purchased it to provide a connection from Wichita Falls, Texas, to their Texas Special train at Denison. C&O acquired the car in November 1960, and it served as a backup to their two ex-M&StL RDC-4s along the Big Sandy between Ashland and Elkhorn City, Kentucky. The B&O borrowed the car and, CN purchased it in August 1965 and renumbered it as D-356, later 6356. VIA rebuilt the car as an RDC-2 and renumbered it 6221. Industrial Rail Services of Moncton bought the car in 2000. They could not find a buyer and scrapped the car in 2016.