Great catch! An unusual train in a number of ways. First, the Budd equipment is substituting after the incident near Belmont NS on March 20, when #15 hit tie plates left between the rails by an MOW crew, causing extensive damage along the train and forcing them to remove that Renaissance set from service. Second, this train is running with a second Skyline in place of a diner (with meal service in the cafe end), as VIA is short on diners with several out for maintenance and refurb work. Finally, the locomotives running in this rare back-to-back orientation was due to the April 4th derailment of #14 between Rogersville and Moncton, which caused a fair bit of track damage and temporarily closed the line - VIA wasn't sure if it would be open in time for this #14 to run through, so they sent out the locos back to back in case they needed to annul the train earlier and run the locomotives around for the return to Montreal.
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| Posted by tsched on April 14, 2019 | |
I love the picture. Great catch. And thank you Tim, for the informative comments.
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