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Curtain Call for VIA FPA-4s Effective 1986-1989


Rappel pour les FPA-4s de VIA En vigueur 1986-1989


TOP: VIA Train 11, the westbound Atlantic, crosses the steel trestle near Londonderry, Nova Scotia, in June 1986. ABOVE LEFT: The Atlantic hugs the shore of Bedford Basin a few miles after departing Halifax, Nova Scotia, in December 1986. ABOVE RIGHT: VIA 6780 is in charge of the eastbound Atlantic at Folly Mountain, Nova Scotia, December 1986.


almost three decades earlier — the same reluctant anticipation of seeing something entirely new, tempered with the realization that novelty signaled loss.


How appropriate, and coincidental, that I would witness the closing of this motive power circle near a place — Gor-


don Yard — named for the man who presided over completion of CN’s dieselization. It was under Donald Gor- don’s progressive administration as CN president that the FPA-4s and FPB-4s were ordered, sealing the fate of his company’s remaining steam passenger locomotives.


Did that kindred fan regard Mr. Gor- don’s gleaming green, yellow, and black cab units with as much disdain as I di- rected toward the noisy gray and yel- low


box leading that morning’s


Atlantic? I knew then, as now, that I was unjustly punishing the messenger. The F40s, like the FPA-4s before


39


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