Caption: Mount Pleasant was, at one time, the edge of civilization in Brampton as we know it: fields of rural farmland to the west, new suburban cookie-cutter neighbourhoods to the east pushing forward, and a deserted GO station with a large parking lot separating the two. It was quite wide open, which often made it a better bet for shooting than downtown.

One of those quirky regulars was Goderich-Exeter train #431/432, the Stratford-Toronto and back run over the GEXR Guelph Sub and CN Halton Sub to MacMillan Yard to interchange traffic. Power today was a combination of regular GP38/GP40 units 3835, 4096, 4046, 4019 and 3821, five of the GEXR's motley crew of cast-offs, secondhand specials and stray dogs rounded up and sent out in mainline service. They've just come through the plant at Norval pulling a long eastbound #432, slowly chugging upgrade through Mount Pleasant GO station before cresting the grade from the Credit River and beginning the descent downgrade into downtown Brampton and Bramalea. In a few hours, they'll be back going the other way as #431, hopefully not tying up the GO rush on the single-track through Peel. The ever-present silos of the Norval Farm Supply on Mississauga Road add a nice touch.

Things were a little more exciting here back in the day, compared to CN GE's rolling intermodal trains through the station today. This kind of rag-tag shortline operation would warm the heart of any budget model railroader (find five beat-up old Athearn Blue-Box GP38 and GP40 units from the used and abused table at the annual Brampton fairgrounds train show, give them all quick paint and lettering jobs, and presto. And if some don't work very well or start smoking and burst into flame, then all the better for realism - that 4046 had a smokey turbo).