Caption: Last CN Passenger service at Palmerston, part 2. Operating as extra 6354, formerly running as train number 668 - the southbound RDC-3 from Southampton - coasts into Palmerston on Saturday, October 24, 1970 for the final time. Arriving at 0705h, the Railiner will be moved from the Fergus Sub side of the station over to the Newton Sub side to join the RDC from Extra 672 from Owen Sound which had arrived ten minutes earlier at 0655 (seen here). Both will be combined and having met extra 6118 (RDC-1), the former train 662 from Kincardine, will depart at 0715h for the trip to Toronto (formerly train 658) via the Fergus, Guelph, Halton, and Weston Subs. Extra 6118, which had arrived at 0700h from Kincardine, will too depart at 0715h for Stratford.
I believe the official last runs of the RDC service to Owen Sound, Kincardine, Southampton, and Goderich was the evening of Fri Oct 23, 1970. Although the Sat runs to Toronto (and Stratford) carried passengers, they were no longer operating as scheduled trains, hence the extra flags. Daylight Saving time ended early Sunday morning, Oct 25, 1979, and CN and CP would bring out their winter timetables at this time change.
John Freyseng Photo, David Warne Collection slide.
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David, you are correct. The last scheduled runs of CN’s RDC’s from Toronto to Owen Sound, Kincardine and Southampton were on Fri Oct 23, 1970. Instead of deadheading the RDC’s back to Toronto, CN decided to operate them back to Toronto on Sat morning, Oct 24th in passenger service following the scheduled times that were in the timetable which expired at 12:01 AM Sat Oct 24th. Since that timetable had expired, the RDC’s were operated as “extras”, hence the white flags and classification lights. Thanks for posting.
This is awesome.