Saturday, January 9, 2010

VIA Corridor Consists 1982-1986

By 1982, Turbo, LRC and short F-unit conventional consists co-existed in the Corridor. The LRC's entered service in early 1982, and the Turbo's last revenue run was in October.

August 18/82: 146-151
September 18/82 149-154 (above, eastbound at Mi 184 Kingston Sub)
Ex-CP Canadian equipment operated in the Corridor in two services. One was the Montreal-Vancouver Canadian, running as VIA Nos 1/55, and Nos 2/44 Montreal-Toronto between 1981 and 1985. In addition, coaches and baggage cars were mixed with blue&yellow consists.

March 5/84: 6787-612-3229-108-3241-Saint James's Club (above)
May 7/84: 6781-9664-5546-3219-126 (below)
May 18/84: 6775-6867-124-115-118-5580-5569-5504-2508-5532-5649-Club Richelieu-5729.
VIA Nos 1/55 smoked its way out of Kingston on May 7/84:
6775-6863-617-3229-108-5649-760-123-3228-Thompson Manor-Edgeley
A typical westbound consist included baggage, coach, Dayniter, meal service cars, sleepers and dome car for the transcontinental, plus coaches for Corridor service. This westbound didn't include a Park car, with Edgeley bringing up the markers:
LRC locomotives also pulled SGU-less conventional consists in warmer weather, or teamed up with F-units.

May 25/84:6908-6632-617-3234-5558-752-101-3218-Dawson Manor-Chateau Dollier

July 28/84: 6908-9 blue&yellow cars (below)

July 28/84: 6911-5719-2512-5437-5467-5488-3222
Occasionally, CN passenger Geeps powered conventional consists, like this one pulling in to Kingston station then accelerating westward after its station stop:
August 26/84: 4361-6632-602-5458-3217-5594-5487-5595-3202-Union Club
On a sunny October 20/84, 6758 was eastbound with six cars, east of Napanee:
and 6781 was westbound with four cars:
On December 21/84, the pre-Christmas rush is on, and two long trains meet at Kingston at 1220:

EB: 6530-6864-University Club-5734-5447-5586-2512-5483-5516-3216-5700

WB: 6782-6865-York Club-108-5545-5486-2510-5494-5562-5574-3211
Two typical LRC consists pass through Napanee:

February 10/85 EB: 6923-6 LRC cars-6921
March 30/85 WB: 6928-3382-3368-3362-3349-3329
GP-9 4366 smokes it up with an eastbound at Kingston, punctuated by VIA pseudo-markers:

April 27/85: 4366-6624-9653-5452-5618-750-Club Richelieu-3226-5617
July 28/85: 6314 (GPA-18b)-5506-3201-5519-3225-9614

August 31/85: 6540-3223-5455-3248-604-Osler Manor(deadhead)

October 14/85: 6900-6505-5443-3229-5569-3218-5514-5471-3205-5642-3236-5728-5722-5455


On a pleasant June evening, 6784 is lifting a four-car consist westward out of Kingston:

June 14/85: 6784-5647-5452-3243-9616
Soon the F40's will arrive. In the meantime, 6762 has a westbound five-car consist in tow, including an ex-CP baggage car.
Running extra...
This leaves only one more post in the VIA Corridor Consists six-part retro series: 1976-1981. Arguably one of the most popular eras, at least according to our Trackside Treasure survey.
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A couple of interesting blogs to recommend. Will Van Dorp's New York Harbor:
http://tugster.wordpress.com/ and the Open Passage team's sailboat passage through the Northwest Passage: http://www.openpassageexpedition.com/index.html
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Hear that sucking sound? That's democracy leaving our nation's capital as Parliament is prorogued. What's next, should we build a (Red &) White House for our executive branch?

6 comments:

Robert in Port Townsend said...

I admire the discipline required to jot down car numbers. An aspect of the "hobby" I'm unfamiliar with. Was pleasantly surprised to see yet another GP-9L (look for the air pipe over the machine room) 4361. She was an infrequent visitor to Prince Rupert under her original number 4101. Her Flexicoils long ago switched out for Blooms.

Robert in Port Townsend said...

Addendum: 4361 mated with a bravo unit to supply life support for the passengers. Not ALL GP-9's had the requisite control panel to administrate a steam generator car (or "B" unit) in this case.

Zartok-35 said...

PAs never looked much better!

Eric said...

Hi Robert and Elijah, glad you liked this post. There was great variety during this era, as you can see. The passenger 4100's/4300's were frequent sights in the Corridor with CN and VIA.

Number collecting is a major part of British trainspotting. It's also part of the raison d'^etre for Trackside Treasure...to share this information with those who are interested.
Eric

Bryan said...

For the numbers, I assumed people nowadays catch them on video and then look it up in the Trackside Guide later when they get home. For me, I'm lucky if I can remember a car and engine count by the time they've gone by.

Anonymous said...

eric. i spy part two. jun 16 at port jct-via no 1...6452-6441 with 20 cars and banff pk at rear. jun 18 at diamond-6402-6431 with 20 cars and tremblant pk at end. mother parkers ex cn pacific sure looks out of place at the rear of the lrc consist. the pix of 6772 at wpg on the book ann was a pleasant surprise. i can remember how cold it was on dec 1981 on a sat morn, but the proof is in the prize. also of interest on the cd batch is a view of 6791 at port jct in 1986 of june, i think. will have to check the field notes. of note, teckie at fp was 2900 plus images scanned from 1983 and 84. color and b/w should i send a dupl of the cds?? call me on tues pm after 2000 hrs as i have to work on mon eve at 2200 hrs at the paper. schuff.