TORONTO — Canada’s VIA Historical Society has launched a major fundraising campaign to acquire its first locomotive, former VIA Rail Canada FP9A No. 6539, to be used as part of the organization’s touring exhibition train to celebrate VIA’s 50th anniversary in 2028.
The organization is seeking to raise C$250,000 to purchase, move, restore, repaint and maintain the unit as a operating locomotive. It would be the only operational F unit wearing VIA colors. An anonymous benefactor will match donations up to C$125,000; the non-profit organization is a registered Canadian charity, and donations from Canadian taxpayers are tax receiptable.
The society will acquire the locomotive from the Ontario Southland Railway, where it currently wears No. 1400. Ontario Southland has offered to donate back almost half the purchase price to the VHA.
The unit was built by General Motors Diesel in London, Ontario, in 1958 as Canadian National FP9A No. 6539, and retained that number when it joined the VIA Rail Canada roster in 1978. It was one of 15 units remanufactured in the early 1980s, becoming FP9ARM No. 6303 in 1983. It was one of the five FP9ARMs that retained its original side-panel configuration after remanufacturing, meaning it can be restored to its late 1970s-early 1980s appearance as VIA 6539 while retaining the benefits of its mechanical upgrades.
More information on the VIA Historical Society and the fundraising campaign is available here; those interesting in donating via electronic fund transfers should contact the society for more information. The society’s equipment fleet includes former CN Pullman-Standard sleeping car Edmundston and a group of Budd Rail Diesel Cars. Among those is former CN/VIA RDC1 No. 6110, the first RDC, built in 1949.
real luck would you be used as fuel, we have to pay for this useless garbage Kalmbach? explain why this allowed here ,please.
Best of good luck to the VIA Historical Society.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün