During its formation, VIA Rail inherited a fleet of locomotives from CN and CP Rail. Most of these locomotives were “F-units”, some of the the first diesel-electric locomotives built in mass quantities. The name “F-unit” came from the model designations

On January 12, 1977, VIA Rail was incorporated as VIA Rail Canada Inc. under the Canada Corporations Act and assumed the operation of all rail passenger services formerly operated by CN. VIA would soon add passenger services formerly operated by