Transcription Description

My previous post listed contents of this new book on VIA.  The good news is, most of these text pieces and spreadsheets are now complete.  My printer will find a heads-up email from me in his Monday morning inbox, because this project is on the move.  The daunting (not necessarily bad) news is that transcription is now beginning. 

 

I could describe trains until I run out of paper, but nothing encapsulates a depiction of a train better than a train consist.  How else can you capture the interrelationship of equipment in a train?  Quite often, that is what we are interested in.  We all know that Park Cars, coaches, Chateau sleepers and diners operated behind CP F's, VIA F's and VIA F40PH-2's, but were they coupled together in that order?  Well, no, not always, but it could happen, especially if a Park car was deadheading...  But I digress.

Consists show a date, location, motive power, cars, and sometimes extra information about a train.  They are free of speculation, generalities, and (I hope) inaccuracies.  They are pure data without extrapolation or embroidery.  They happened.  They existed.  Photographs did too, but consist information augments what's visible in a photograph, adding rich detail that is of interest to VIAphiles and modellers alike.  That's why they will be included in this book. Train consist information shows the incredible variety of combinations and permutations on a particular route over a period of time.  

Now, to get trains from all eras of VIA from all across Canada shoehorned into spreadsheets for you the reader...

Highball!

Eric

VIA No 693 photo by David Maiers