Caption:

The Junction.

And those chaps with the lawn chair: Pull into the empty RBG parking lot ( in April few botanical types around ) on Plains Road and select a space beside the embankment.

On a sunny, warm spring day with a wrist watch, camera, timetable and lawn chair and you were all set for a grand rail watching time !!

Two of six MLW 1960 built RS-18m, the m for modified for high speed CN Tempo service and head end electrical generator equipped, easily handled the Tempo cars assigned to VIA 72

At CN Bayview, April 28, 1979 Kodachrome by S.Danko

Interesting: those RS-18m and Tempo cars were never in VIA's plans: the MLW's retired in 1984 ( owned by CN ) and the same year seventeen ( of the original 25 built for CN, 21 with VIA at 1984) Tempo cars were sold to the Ansco Investment Co. for the Ski Train. Ansco is owned by Philip Anschutz, and was ( as of 1984) the new owner of Rio Grande Industries which controlled the D&RGW.

And history repeats: after the Ski Train ceased operation ( as a UP operated train since 1996 but owned by Ansco) those seventeen Tempo's were bought back by CN (in 2009) for the ACR Agawa Tour Train.

More Interestingly: the original purchase agreement with Ansco included the sale to VIA of two (of three) remaining D&RGW's California Zephyr cars: D&RGW#1440 Silver Shop ( to VIA #519 ) and D&RGW #1145 Silver Sky ( to VIA #15519 Jasper Park (!)).

sdfourty