Caption: With some spare time in downtown Brampton on an overcast winter's afternoon, the first stop was our old favourite haunt: Fletcher's Creek bridge for VIA #84, seen bearing down on the bridge with its tail end just clear of the McLaughlin Rd. underpass. Knowing the schedules like the back of your hand helped (there were only 6 VIAs, one more than fingers), and the train is on time on the final approach to its downtown Brampton station stop. By this point in time, some of the VIA Rail F40PH-2D fleet had seen better days and were looking a bit shabby and unkempt, including today's unit 6407. Sent from Guelph with love was this peach of a leader, showing off its large front nose dent, Grade 5-level paint patching, faded/missing front lettering, and of course the MU flap up (something about broken latch mechanisms, IIRC). It was rehabilitated a few years later and put on the straight and narrow when it emerged from the F40 rebuild program.

The old red brick farmhouse on the right was the "Fletcher House" (located right by Fletcher's Creek, naturally) built circa 1840. It and the Fletcher farm it stood on pre-dated the CN/Grand Trunk line here by least a decade, and had seen more than their fair share of steam and diesel engines pass by since rails were laid (see farm just NE of McLaughlin underpass at upper left here). At some point during Brampton suburbanization the old farm became a garden centre, and the old farmhouse at the back of the property was retained and continued to be lived in (possibly rented out). The garden centre wound down operations around 2021-22 and the property was put up for sale. The farmhouse received a heritage designation from the city in 2020, but experienced one of those mysterious overnight fires in 2022 and was deemed a total loss, making it conveniently (too conveniently?) a good spot for some townhouses or condos. So it goes for another piece of Brampton heritage, like many other old farmhouses in the recent past.

Next stop was Mount Pleasant for the afternoon VIA #85 (photo soon).