On Oct. 31, 2024, the VIA Historical Association unveiled a locomotive wearing a “new” livery at the Ontario Southland Railway shops in Salford, Ontario. Painted in VIA Rail’s blue and yellow from the late 1970s, this is the first operating FP9A to be returned to this scheme.
VIA Rail, created by then-Crown Corporation Canadian National in 1976 and soon spun off by the Canadian Government as a separate and independent company in 1977, is quickly approaching its 50th anniversary. To celebrate, members of the VIA Historical Association (VHA) are fundraising to complete a restored VIA trainset as one would have seen at the time of VIA’s founding.
With two coaches and a baggage car already under restoration by VHA, a locomotive was next on the agenda. The Ontario Southland Railway came to the rescue by offering the VHA OSR 1400 (Formerly VIA 6539), allowing VHA to purchase it but OSR donating back half the purchase price to the VHA.
6539 was built as CN 6539 in June 1958 by General Motors Diesel in London, Ontario, and would move to VIA in 1978 as VIA 6539. After a rebuild at Point St. Charles shop in 1984, it would emerge as VIA 6303 before being sold to Raillink Canada in 1999 and re-numbered 1400. After being transferred to a few Raillink subsidiaries in 2003, it ended up on Rail America’s Goderich Exeter Railway (GEXR, now part of Genesee & Wyoming, which acquired Rail America in 2012). GEXR used it in Ontario, specially in the winter to help with snowplow duties. By 2012, 1400 languished in the deadline at the Goderich shop where an OSR employee caught wind of its availability, as Rail America was purging and scrapping anything surplus. OSR President Jeff Willsie was quite fond of the FP9As and purchased 1400 with its sister locomotive 1401, saving them from the scrapper’s torch. Both needed a lot of work.
Restored to service by 2015 and used on freight and plow duties on the Ontario Southland, for a brief period in 2015, three FP9As would be found on freight trains as OSR hauled upwards of 100 cars a day to/from Woodstock Ontario from the General Motors CAMI assembly plant in Ingersoll. “Jeff’s Toys” as they were often called would be seen going back and forth throughout the OSR network hauling freight and generating revenue. They would eventually be painted for OSR, except for 1400.
After 1400 was sold to the VHA in 2023, Ontario Southland staff and shop forces worked with the VHA to paint 1400 back into the late 1970s VIA Rail paint scheme. But before paint could be applied lots of bondo and metal work was required to restore the body to resemble that of a factory fresh 1958 London, Ontario-built General Motors FP9A. Once the transition was complete, new number boards were applied, formally changing 1400 to 6539 once again.
Before the final VIA red nose decal was applied, the OSR staff took 6539 outside on a nice sunny day, and this photographer was there to capture it on camera. Almost all the fine details—the type of quality you’d expect from a Jason Shron product (Jason is President of the VHA and co-owner of model train company Rapido Trains)—were found on the locomotive and in exactly the right place, except the red VIA decal.
On Oct. 31 the VHA Board and members met with OSR to reveal the locomotive completed. VHA personnel and OSR staff would pose for photos with the equipment, while the other 2 FP9As belonging to Ontario Southland would be posed side by side with 6539.
What’s next for 6539? It will soon be wrapped (for protection from graffiti in transit) and sent to Toronto to join the rest of the equipment at the VIA Toronto Maintenance Centre, where VHA currently has several pieces of equipment stored. VHA staff noted that they are interested in acquiring another locomotive. In the meantime, the VHA is continuing existing restoration projects and raising funds to help complete its vision. To follow the VHA and keep up to date, visit the VHA website or its Instagram or Facebook pages.
