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Christmas season Special. Certainly a different VIA than we are experiencing today... Early in VIA's tenure management had the railways' cooperation to experiment with services, per passenger demand... and early VIA had sufficient equipment to add service(s) where deemed necessary.... An eclectic consist it was: GMD FP7A 6539 GMD F9B 66xx NSC built Baggage 96xx, CN livery. Pullman 1941 built ONR Polar Bear Express coach #836 (ex N&W #1733) CC&F built coach 5200 series, CN livery CC&F 1930 built heavy weight (88.5 tons) #577 Club Lounge Buffet (club seats 27; lounge 19) series: Lake Couchiching two Budd built 100 series coaches, in CP Rail livery, vestibules forward. CC&F built 5500 series coach one sleeping car, CN livery. VIA Rail #11 'Atlantic' departing Union about noon hour on a very grey Saturday December 22, 1979 Kodak negative by S.Danko. So sleeping car and coach through service: Toronto to Saint John and Halifax, did happen ! This scheduled Special (hence no white flags / markers) was listed in a supplemental seasonal Timetable (anyone able to confirm?) issued after Thanksgiving, operating eastbound from Union with at least 2 departures: Thursday & Saturday. Attribute #577's (& sisters 574 - 578) longevity to the CC&F 1930 built car constructed with electro-mechanical air conditioning – a rarity for the time period. sdfourty
Copyright Notice: This image ©sdfourty all rights reserved.



Caption:

Christmas season Special.

Certainly a different VIA than we are experiencing today...

Early in VIA's tenure management had the railways' cooperation to experiment with services, per passenger demand...

and early VIA had sufficient equipment to add service(s) where deemed necessary....

An eclectic consist it was:

GMD FP7A 6539

GMD F9B 66xx

NSC built Baggage 96xx, CN livery.

Pullman 1941 built ONR Polar Bear Express coach #836 (ex N&W #1733)

CC&F built coach 5200 series, CN livery

CC&F 1930 built heavy weight (88.5 tons) #577 Club Lounge Buffet (club seats 27; lounge 19) series: Lake Couchiching

two Budd built 100 series coaches, in CP Rail livery, vestibules forward.

CC&F built 5500 series coach

one sleeping car, CN livery.


VIA Rail #11 'Atlantic' departing Union about noon hour on a very grey Saturday December 22, 1979 Kodak negative by S.Danko.

So sleeping car and coach through service: Toronto to Saint John and Halifax, did happen !

This scheduled Special (hence no white flags / markers) was listed in a supplemental seasonal Timetable (anyone able to confirm?) issued after Thanksgiving, operating eastbound from Union with at least 2 departures: Thursday & Saturday.

Attribute #577's (& sisters 574 - 578) longevity to the CC&F 1930 built car constructed with electro-mechanical air conditioning – a rarity for the time period.

sdfourty

Photographer:
sdfourty [674] (more) (contact)
Date: 12/22/1979 (search)
Railway: VIA Rail (search)
Reporting Marks: VIA 6539 (search)
Train Symbol: VIA Rail #11 (search)
Subdivision/SNS: Union (search)
City/Town: Toronto (search)
Province: Ontario (search)
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Photo ID: 52244
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One Comment
  1. jk_eaton
    December 28, 2023 at 2:13 pm

    Amazing. I knew they’d run Toronto-Halifax Christmas trains in 1980, but not in 1979 from Toronto to Saint John.
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