The original 1955 Budd CPR Canadian consist was baggage-dorm, coach, Skyline, diner, Manor car, Chateau, Park car. Would you believe near-original consists were running on CN's Kingston Sub in 1983? Except for the ex-CN F's, and sometimes missing the diner, shortened winter-spring consists of VIA train 1/55 were nearly-original. In summer, up to three Budd sleepers were in the train, in winter sometimes just one. And Budd diners were also in evidence.This is the kind of uniqueness that we're lacking today. But wait, looking forward to the 1990's, there were still some pretty cool consists being operated by VIA, blue & yellow and stainless steel, F40's and LRC's. That's seven years beyond 1983, where I'm currently data-mining. Highball.
Eric, what you describe as the original 1955 consist of The Canadian is
ReplyDeleteproperly the list of car types used (excluding the heavyweight tourist cars)
rather than the consists. The 1955 summer consists west of Sudbury had a
baggage dorm; three tourist cars (2 Toronto, 1 Montreal); Skyline
(Montreal); coach (Toronto); 3 Manors, 1 Chateau and one diner (Toronto);
and 1 Manor, 2 Chateaus and 1 Park (Montreal). In the off season one Manor
sleeper would be dropped from both the Montreal and Toronto sections.
East/south of Sudbury were short-turned baggage-dorm, Skyline, coach and
Park cars to ensure one of each, plus provision for additional short-turn
coaches and an optional Montreal-Vancouver coach. The barebones consist of
seven different cars, one of each type, didn't operate until the off-season
in the 1970s.
Don Thomas
Thanks for that clarification, Don. CP ran a class act, and it's unfortunate that The Canadian declined through the 1970's to the shorter consist of which I was thinking.
ReplyDeleteEric