Throwback Thursday - December, 1989

On Dec 08/89, Via 73 was just leaving the station at London, Ontario.  All of the railway equipment visible in this photo has disappeared from the railway scene and the black CN tower visible in the background has since been replaced by a much more compact structure.  I guess it's important to take a photo every thirty years or so just to keep up with progress!

By Peter Mumby. 

Locomotive 6907 was leading Via 73 westward out of the CN/VIA station at London, Ontario in early December of 1989.  With intermediate stops at Glencoe and Chatham, its ultimate destination was Windsor.  The LRC-2 was an early eighties product of Bombardier, and it was always interesting to catch this relatively modern power hauling steam heated equipment dating back to the mid-1950s.  At the time this photo was exposed, the major VIA service cuts of January 15, 1990 were looming on the horizon.  With weekly trains soon to be cut from 405 to 191, the Budd RDC equipment visible in the background would not be making many more revenue trips.

As time progressed, Via was able to recover from these cuts, to the point that recent years found the company on a relatively solid financial footing.  Let us hope that 2020's pandemic-related service cuts don't lead to too much permanent damage as far as public transportation providers are concerned.