THE F40 add-ons to Ventures as potential HEP backup seems to be on hiatus. FINAL TALLY: 6413 with Set 14 Jan 5-9 6408 with Set 19 Jan 9-12 6405 with Set 26 Jan 12-13 (possibly 6433 with Set 29 Jan 7+) ...and no F40s after Jan 13.

Wonder if he had the presence of mind to phone via 'the blue sign'...

A no-whistle crossing. Also, consider whether the plow was 'stuck' on the crossing and couldn't move. Train speed was about 28 mph per the tracker.

VIA Venture-equipped train No 644 hits a snowplow approaching Guildwood just before 1400?

For anyone keeping track (pun intended) of the ongoing VIA injunction, this post details the latest known decision re: the amount of CN crossing data requested by VIA. It seems VIA's injunction is proceeding in Quebec Superior Court, though date of further hearings not known...

VIA officially ruled out tacking cars (never heard about locomotives) onto Venture consists for safety and monitoring reasons - back in the fall of 2024 when CN imposed the crossing speed reductions. (VIA also said it rejected joining Venture sets at that time, then formulated a complete plan...

I think it's there as an HEP-rescue locomotive. If the HEP fails only, otherwise the F40 is along for the ride only. I haven't been able to correlate the F40-added Ventures as being problematic HEP, or knowing how the F40's were assigned to certain sets.

While wondering how many Venture sets would be getting the F40-insurance, in three days it's been only one set. Set 14 with 6413, operating on a regular slot in the rotation. The first day, leading. The next two days, trailing in each direction, so wye-d in Ottawa.

6413-Set14 OTP: Monday No 63 departed 18' late, arrived 56' late. Tuesday No 40 made up 5 minutes between Fallowfield and Ottawa, arrived 17' late.

The only thing is...they can't go faster than the scheduled run time. VIA seems to have been reluctant to assemble more than one sets, nor more than two sets of the XL configuration.

My comment was intended as a coy comparison of North-American-built passenger rail products of the 1960s, 1980s and today. I come not to praise current foreign passenger rail production, nor to pine for resurgent North America builders today, because we all know those just do not co-exist. I...

So the Ventures are the best of the worst! They win the race to the bottom, the quest for mediocrity. :cool:

Dan knows. Social media are full of so many red herrings...snow in the intakes, cover up the side panel on the locomotive, thank goodness we are past the broken windshields, but there are still reports of x% of the fleet out of service, the new trains are s***! The end of the world as we know...

I have a Granny-square afghan that's really warm that I'm not using. Anyone else? :cool:

As a backup HEP source. I'm keeping track, pun intended, to see if the precious F40's are reserved for Sets which have had HEP problems recently - the problem children, as it were.