DIET PEPSI TASTE DRIVE TRAIN, 1990

A collaboration of Diet Pepsi, the Canadian music video TV channel MuchMusic and VIA Rail resulted in the Diet Pepsi Taste Drive train rolling across the country west-to-east, from Vancouver to Halifax for 19 days in June, 1990. (Toronto Sun, credited 'Elaine Boyle, Sun photo' below - appears to be the same location as Phil Mason's two top photos (going-away shot from Highball Graphics website):

'COLAESCING' THE CONCEPT

Concocted in 1893 and named in 1898 by a North Carolina pharmacist, Pepsi was launched in Canada in 1935, and Diet Pepsi in 1965. Cola wars between Pepsi and Coke began in earnest in 1985. The “Diet Pepsi Taste Drive” was launched in 1988, a brand conversion effort where Diet Coke drinkers received Diet Pepsi taste packs - the president of Coca-Cola being given the first one!

MuchMusic launched in 1984, its videos becoming a powerful marketing tool three years with the launch of MTV in the US. Remembering classic Canadian acts like Gowan (doesn't make me a strange animal), Glass Tiger (seems like it was someday in the 80s), Kim Mitchell, The Spoons (brings back old emotions), Prairie Oyster, Men Without Hats (safety, first!), plus Madonna, Thomas Dolby (inventing a hit song not an exact science), Tears For Fears, the Eurythmics  (I mean, would I lie to you?) and who can forget Max Headroom? Even the CBC launched its own video show, Video Hits with Samantha Taylor. The most desirable job in the biz because music video director because every single released also need a video to go with it.

Bubbling under the surface for five years in the mind of John Martin, MuchMusic's Director of Programming, was a music-train tie-in. Diet Pepsi's marketing manager Greg McIntee was keen to co-operate on this rock-festival-on-wheels. 

It's only natural(ly-sweetened) that a carbonated conflation of commercial concerns came together so creatively and casually. The Taste Drive train itself is still saccharinely seen as a marketing coup, a clever carbonated coupling of a train and a TV station sweetened by a widely-consumed product, satisfying each brand's track record. These days, anyone can be a content creator with TikTok and YouTube. Indeed, MuchMusic relaunched as a digital brand on TikTok and YouTube in 2021, aiming at Gen Z audiences. It was different then, and airplay was everything.

CONNECTING COLABORATIVELY

The train's final destination would be Halifax, with the first Canadian Music Video Awards airing live on Monday, June 25, 1990.The concerts along the way were not intended to be arena-fillers. They were merely set pieces to be videotaped and broadcast live, then edited later into the video awards special. Tom Harrison, reporter for The Province in Vancouver, cleverly called the concert series Rolling Stock, riffing off Woodstock!

The symbolism of using a visceral Canadian icon, the railway, to connect Canadians with music was not lost on the performers who participated. It was also a timely diversion from the Meech Lake constitutional consternation concurrent that summer. Another possible moniker could have been MeechMusic? Many Canadians were still mourning the massive cuts to VIA in January, 1990 that had forever removed many of passenger trains that had served their communities. The special tapped into some very Canadian feelings, becoming a short-lived cultural lightning-rod that even had an NDP MP rising in the House of Commons to commend MuchMusic for its choice of an efficient, environmentally-friendly mode of transport. 

Some comparisons were made to the Janis Joplin/Grateful Dead 1971 Festival Express, now largely recalled as a commercial and organizational disaster. Aboard the Taste Drive train, buzz was generated while rolling eastward, and clips were collected for awards broadcast.  Quebec's sister network MusiquePlus did not air the awards special due to coinciding with Quebec's St Jean Baptiste celebrations, instead broadcasting a program of Quebec artists' videos. Live 15-minute TV 'throws' were broadcast on MuchMusic at each stop. The late Morgan Turney captured the train on the curve east of the Winnipeg depot (below), into which videographers traipsed to feature the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club's Gateway Western layout:

CROSSING THE CONTINENT

An initial consist crossed the country westward in late spring, 1990 to be filmed in TV commercials promoting the June Taste Drive Train, including the multiple CN flat cars of Isuzus, stuffed with taste packs, no SGU with passenger cars. The commercials began airing early that June. One commercial showed two Diet Coke truck drivers preferring Diet Pepsi as the train passed their white-and-red truck at a crossing. Another commercial was filmed on CN's Albreda Sub (below - along the picturesque Moose Lake near Highway 16 in BC*):

Ten planned major-city stops and several impromptu ones (in brackets) were made along the way after departing Vancouver. Most stops featured a daytime arrival, evening concert and next day early-morning departure eastward. 

Approximate dates:

• June 7 Vancouver - 300 spectators heard Barney Bentall, Jeff Healey Band, Paul Janz, Jim Cuddy and Jeff Keelor of Blue Rodeo and members of Crash Vegas at the Vancouver station platform in the rain, departing at 1300.
• June 9 Jasper -  Bruce Cockburn singing on the tracks, not on the train.
• June 9-10 Edmonton - Jeff Healey Band, Prairie Oyster at the Cook County Saloon, hurriedly arranged when no venue was available nearer the VIA station (above - backing in*)
• June 10-11 Saskatoon - 300 spectators at the CN station for 54/40, Jeff Healey Band, Northern Pikes
• (Melville, SK - 50 spectators at midnight)
• (Brandon, MB)
• June 13 Winnipeg - 1,000 spectators in a parking lot near the depot to hear National Velvet and the Northern Pikes
• June 14 (Sioux Lookout)
• June 15 (Hornepayne a.m.)
• June 15 (Capreol p.m.) 
• June 16-17 Toronto Union Station track 1, performers at MuchMusic studios on Queen Street West
• June 18-19 Ottawa - 300 spectators at the VIA station
• June 20-21 Montreal
• June 22-23 Quebec City - VIA station with performances by Celine Dion and Francis Martin
• June 24 (Moncton, NB)
• June 24-25 Halifax - 1,000 spectators in a parking lot near the station, Lee Aaron and Blue Rodeo.

Arriving in Toronto past Cabin D (online auction site photos) on the morning of June 16. The special was listed on Union Station's departure board as 'SPL' destination Ottawa, symbolized CN train A002. It must have passed through Kingston in darkness.

Other participating artists included Maestro Fresh Wes, The Pursuit of Happiness, Toronto rapper Devon, Montreal's Layman Twaist, pop kitten Mitsou, George Fox, Murray McLauchlan, Jane Siberry, Burton Cummings and Basic English.

The unofficial dollar figure that Diet Pepsi paid for the train was $650,000. There were 14 VIA on-board staff to see to the needs of Diet Pepsi and MuchMusic corporate types, performers, crew and the inevitable hangers-on and groupies. An advance crew drove the route generating buzz, or should I say fizz, setting up for concerts, live feeds and giveaways in each city visited.

Forty-four year veteran CN and VIA passenger services Ray Borden, then 63 (above - interviewed by Video Jockey ((VJ)) and former Mountie Terry David Mulligan*) had previously overseen Royal Tours and political campaigns on the rails prior to coming out of retirement to provide liaison between Diet Pepsi and VIA.

Onboard VJ's Steve Anthony, Mike Campbell and Mike Rhodes, Dan Gallagher, Terry David Mulligan and Erika Ehm warmed up the locals. Promotions staff released bottled-up crowd enthusiasm by handing out T-shirts, mugs, hats and of course Diet Pepsi!

CONCERTED EFFORTS

Mix in the controlled chaos aboard - last-minute venue booking in Edmonton for which tickets were given away to underage attendees. Rather than going to the club, the youngsters got to tour the train the next day. Jeff Healey jamming at an open baggage car door down the Fraser Valley, an endless supply of hospitality in the form of food and drink, late night dome car card games, jamming in the Park car dome. 

The epic baggage car concert, well after midnight, performed for 50 ardent fans in Melville, SK (above*) by Saskatoon's Northern Pikes epitomized the tour. Sioux Lookout spectators spontaneously sang  'O Canada'. Capreol's citizenry erected a makeshift stage, ensuring the train's 15-minute planned servicing stop grew to three hours for a performance before the eager crowd of 2,000! Hitting the big Eastern cities, the tour took on a more hurried, less folksy and more big-city ambience, logistically and musically.

Scribbling last-minute lyrics for performers to join in 'Farewell to Nova Scotia' in Halifax. Off the wall, on the fly, every day a challenge. The CN dispatcher's lineup in Capreol listed the train as "VIA Extra 6400 East, Pepsi Express, PARTY PARTY PARTY". Canadian Press photo showing Jeff Healey performing prior to the June 7 departure from Vancouver:

The June 12, 1990 edition of the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix shows Jeff Healey Band performing for a crowd at the relatively remote CN station location:

The Winnipeg Sun's June 14 edition featured this photo of the Northern Pikes filming a segment at the depot (above) for the upcoming awards special* (below) 

At Ottawa Station, complete with Isuzu Troopers on the platform. An excellent series of photos posted to social media in 2024 by Bruce Giles: 

Note the non-standard VIA logos applied to the entire height of the fluted side:

Baggage car 615 (above) and Chateau Roberval (below):

Reporter Alan Cochrane of the Moncton Times-Transcript was onboard the train, photographing the Barra McNeils playing in the dining car 'kitchen party' while videographers shown, likely in the Park car, include Bill Welychka later a reporter, anchor and weatherman here in Kingston for CKWS-TV and Global Kingston.

'CONSOUNDLIDATING'  THE CONSIST

Wrapped as early as April, 1990, VIA's first wrap, and its first F40 6400 led the train (above - arriving in Winnipeg*). Emblazoned 'Taste Drive' on the conductor's size and in French 'Osez le goût' on the engineer's side, though the TV commercial showed English on both sides. 

Publicity photos show four 89-foot flatcars loaded with about 25 Diet Pepsi-branded 1990 Isuzu Troopers (top two photos), though only one flatcar made the whole trip to the East Coast, with a huge satellite dish installed. The SGU and flat cars were also wrapped. No visible number was applied to the SGU side. A team of four took seven days to apply the vinyl wraps.

Though former Canadian cars were not wrapped, red and blue stripes were applied on the lower car sides and too-tall large blue 'VIA' lettering was applied to the side fluting, with the usual yellow window-band VIA logo absent. A large vinyl Diet Pepsi logo was also applied to each car side, cleverly but not necessarily centrally - fit under an upper roomette window on the Chateau cars, for instance. Baggage car 615 (pre-HEP) was outfitted with a full 16-track recording studio including crossbucks hung on the interior walls. Tweedsmuir Park's bar was taken over by an edit studio. Miles of cables strung inside, and in some cases outside, the cars ran from recording to editing sites.  Doug McClement, the recording engineer, described using a step-down transformer to get 120V power from the 480V supplied by the locomotive. With all the flat cars between the F40 and rest of the train, that must have been a challenge! The SGU and Tweedsmuir Park also had French lettering and pink or blue MuchMusic logos applied, and a Diet Pepsi drumhead adorned the Tweedsmuir Park's rear door.

Highball Graphics produced decals for the train, including several photos of the train on their website, some credited to Phil Mason, some appear to be other Bruce Giles photos taken at Ottawa. Fellow Kingston railfan and modeller Paul Hunter used the Highball set to create his Diet Pepsi unit:

David Morris kindly shared his photos, taken as the Taste Train passed through New Brunswick and Nova Scotia on June 24. The engineer's side:

Steaming at Moncton, the conductor's side:

David's very scenic view of the full consist at Gaytons, NB:

David's most excellent conductor's side views of the full train:

Meeting the westbound Ocean at Aulac, NB:

Three final photos by Bill Linley. At Folly Lake, NS:

Crossing the trestle at East Mines, NS:

Tail-end view at Halifax. Note Diet Pepsi drumhead!

At the end of the line - VIA 6400 at Halifax (online auction site photo):

Wascana and Tweedsmuir Park dedecorated, deadheaded back west behind the power on the Atlantic, No 11 on June 30. Baggage car 615 and Chateau Roberval deadheaded similarly on July 2. MuchMusic's Dan Gallagher interviews metal queen Lee Aaron (below*) beside the MuchMusic-branded SGU on the platform at Halifax:

 A COLA CODA CONCLUSION

I watched the awards special that Monday night, noting its footage from the train. (It was a short evening having worked overtime and with an eight-month old in the house! The awards special was widely panned by critics for its format - chosen by MuchMusic insiders rather than an academy of peers, or the fans.  The awards were renamed in 1995 as the MuchMusic Video Awards, hosted as a street party at 299 Queen Street West and morphing into just Much. In 2016, the show was rebranded under the iHeartRadio banner after Much's parent company, Bell Media, reached a licensing agreement with iHeartMedia. The 2018 edition would ultimately be the last, with the scaling back and eventual discontinuation of all music programming on the channel due to falling ratings. The age of TV-based music videos had come to an end.

*Screenshots from the MuchMusic Canadian Music Video Awards broadcast.

Lots o' links:

• The MuchMusic Canadian MusicVideo Awards, Part 1 YouTube link (the Pikes in Melville at the 1:27 mark!) and Part 2 YouTube link
• Canadian Rail No 418 includes contemporaneous coverage by David Morris at Aulac, NB.
• 'Well-trained' music videos of the era: Bad Day For Trains by Patricia Conway; One Way Track by Prairie Oyster; I Am Falling by Bruce Gouthro.

Thanks to Bill Linley and David Morris for sharing their photos and for their assistance in the preparation of this post.

Running extra...

An unnamed urban explorer posted these photos to social media of the interior of the CN Ernestown station taken over the winter. Although a township and secondary school were named Ernestown, out of Loyalist loyalty for the eighth son of King George III, there never really was much of a settlement around the station, located near Mi 188 CN Kingston Sub. The station's location on the GTR north of Millhaven and Bath was perhaps its main raison d'être.

What with CN's requirements that station buildings to be occupied trackside be fenced or moved altogether, combined with Ernestown's somewhat-remote location, it's not surprising that despite calls for its preservation, the station remains in this sad state.

First past the post...

Bill Linley and David Morris deserve extra thanks. Bill kindly sends out regular emails of photos and consists preserved by David, as well as updates and progress at Nova Scotia's Middleton Railway Museum in which Bill's been instrumental. Bill is also an author - I have his Morning Sun Books on my bookshelf -  and a frequent presenter. I had the pleasure of meeting Bill at Real Rails 2025 and enjoying his Zoom presentations to our ARK group. David is a consist collector of the highest order, and if it moved on the rails in Eastern Canada he has likely preserved it for posterity.