VIA 1 on Thursday

I went out Thursday at noon to see the westbound Canadian. I drove west on Wilkes Avenue to find a spot to shoot VIA 1.A CN crew was hard at work at Elmhurst Road repaving the crossing. VIA 1 called to get permission to pass through their work block and were told that the workers were clear of both tracks. I parked just west of Carman Junction and waited for the Canadian to arrive.

They rolled past in bright sunshine with two refurbished units, VIA 6458 and VIA 6416.



As soon as they passed, I jumped in the car and headed west after them. They were doing a good 55 MPH so there was no chance of catching them... or was there? As they passed the hotbox detector at mile 10, they called out "Clear to Stop approaching Diamond". This meant that they would have to stop short of Diamond, unless the signal changed before they got there. I had a chance of catching them!

Sure enough, they slowed as they approached Diamond and came to a halt. I jumped out and took a quick shot of them.



The engineer gave two quick blasts on the horn and they started up again and accelerated out of view. I switched to video and took this "okay" video. I was waving to some of the passengers so the camera shake is kind of annoying. I wish I had my tripod with me at the time.



It was nice to see the Canadian again while it still has its summer length. I hadn't seen VIA 1 since July 28.