VIA
1423, 8558 and CP (VIA 1424) arriving at VIA's Dorval
station at the head of the westbound Canadian.Via 8558 at Dorval, Quebec
VIA Rail Canada only ever owned one "road switcher" type locomotive. It was No. 8558, an ex-Canadian Pacific RS-10 acquired by VIA on September 28th 1978 along with 27 other CPR units, all of them cab units. No. 8558 was retired in 1981. In VIA service No. 8558 invariably operated as a trailing unit. Its two mates on the Canadian on the day these photographs were taken in the late 1970s were also ex-CPR units. Nos. 1423 and 1424 were ex-CPR FP7As. Both were retired in 1983. VIA had planned to re-number all three units. No. 8558 was to become 3160 and 1423 and 1424 were to become 6567 and 6568 respectively. These numbers were never applied.
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VIA
1423, 8558 and CP (VIA 1424) arriving at VIA's Dorval
station at the head of the westbound Canadian.
Oncethe
Canadian has made its stop at the VIA Dorval station on the CN mainline to
Toronto, it will back through an interchange track to continue its journey to
Vancouver on Canadian Pacific's rails.
VIA
1423, 8558 and CP (VIA 1424) push the Canadian through the
interchange at Dorval.
Close
up of VIA 8558 on the interchange track at Dorval.
The
Canadian has negotiated the interchange track and is now on Canadian Pacific
rails.
The
three locomotives are CPR heritage, the baggage car is ex-Canadian National. The
rest of the train was a mix of CN and CP with CP equipment predominating.
The
"Park Car" is shown here passing CP's wood Dorval station building
which is now just a fond memory. The Canadian continued using the Dorval
interchange track until November 1981, when the Montreal-Sudbury portion of the
train was terminated, and the train rerouted through Toronto. The train used the
CPR M&O sub to get to Ottawa. The M&O was lifted west of Rigaud in 1986.
From Ottawa to Carleton Place it ran on the Carleton place sub which was lifted
in January 1991.