Caption: The credentials of VIA F40PH-2D 6449 are visible for all to see on its builder's plate, captured during a station stop at Brampton Station downtown. At the time, the higher-numbered F40 units were western-assigned (out of Vancouver) for The Canadian, and rare to see on corridor trains in the east.

This "F40PH-2" is serial number A-4850, class GPA-30C (VIA's adoption of CN's diesel classification system), built 6-89 at London (Ontario), Canada. The logos visible are for EMD (Electro-Motive Division), GM (General Motors, parent company), and the Diesel Division of General Motors Canada Ltd (EMD/GM's Canadian branch, sometimes called General Motors Diesel Division - GMDD or DDGM - originally known as General Motors Diesel Ltd (GMD) for many years after the London, Ontario plant opened in 1950). All part of the "GM Locomotive Group" (GMLG - confused yet? All this became EMD when GM sold their locomotive business to Greenbrier). The exact model listed is F40PH-2, but I understand the D was either officially or unofficially added due to its desktop controls (sort of like all the widecab GMD units on CN where the W is not an official GMD or CN designation). All rebuilds became "F40PH-3D".

There was a well-known roster fellow (who shall not be named) on one of the Locomotive groups online a number of years back that, during a discussion about what VIA's units were actually called, kept rebuking everyone and insisting that the actual designation of VIA's units was just "F40PH". One day I had had enough and posted this photo of 6449's builder's plate clearly showing "F40PH-2", and he got quiet real quick. I guess nobody behind the keyboards bothered to check the builder's plates on them.