said by LazMan: Fibre quality was a LOT lower back then, hence the need for re-generators so often. We've stretched some spans to 7 amps between regen - but that's about as far as we can go, with the cable that's in the ground.
Yup, I remember sitting on a conference call with the CN splicers overnight several years ago while they were cutting over the cables to the other side of the ROW through Burlington (making way for new track construction primarily for Go Trains). Took forever because the fibers in the FOSCs kept breaking due to the glass/splices were so brittle because they had been there for so long. Good times