Miningman The Dominion was discontinued, the Atlantic was down to a single E8 and four cars with infrequent use of a dome car..............
The Dominion was discontinued, the Atlantic was down to a single E8 and four cars with infrequent use of a dome car..............
The use of the a Dome Car was not “infrequent” and nearly always in the consist until VIA took over in '79.
A Skyline had been regularly assigned beginning in '67-'68 and after the Quebec City and Ottawa conventional trains were replaced by RDCs.....those Skylines that had the non-swivel Parlour seats in the forward end were re-assigned to the Atlantic as Lounge seating. After CP stopped turing the consist in Saint John....flip-over seats from old commuter cars were installed in the Dome so seating was always facing in the direction of travel.
The Atlantic to Halifax from '79 to '81 used smooth-side CN equipment and no dome...... but after the Atlantic was restored in June 1985 it was assigned a 'Park Car' Dome Observation.
The Dominion was discontinued, the Atlantic was down to a single E8 and four cars with infrequent use of a dome car, so that is what I mean by diminished. VIA took it over in '79 and Trudeau killed it in '81.
The Mulroney government restored service '85 until discontinuance again in '94.
Miningman The Canadian was an immediate hit with the public and remained well patronized right up to the mid sixties, about 10 years. It was a pretty exclusive train in its day. It was the drop off and eventual discontinuance of the Dominion and the Atlantic.......
The Canadian was an immediate hit with the public and remained well patronized right up to the mid sixties, about 10 years. It was a pretty exclusive train in its day. It was the drop off and eventual discontinuance of the Dominion and the Atlantic.......
Budd's relatively standardized configurations kept them in the hunt for new orders pretty late in the game. The proposed 4-4-4 dome sleepers would have required little more than side panel changes from the NP order. The Parlors were most likely near-knockoffs of PRR "Congressional" cars.
The "Dominion" often carried long strings of borrowed Pullmans, either via Winnipeg or Moose Jaw, delivered by the Soo Line's Soo-Dominion and Mountaineer. 1960 was the last year for the Mountaineer, 1962 for the Soo-Dominion name, and through cars via Winnipeg ended entirely after the 1963 summer season.
Fixed/edited error above. The Dominion was discontinued in Feb 1966.
The Dominion No.8 with its regular mixed consist of standard and stainless steel equipment. Lake Louise August 1961
The original equipment as follows.
Stainless Steel equipment
The largest order of passenger equipment ever placed by the CPR (June 1953) was also the largest order ever received by the Budd Company of Philadelphia for stainless steel passenger equipment. 77 cars were for The Canadian and 96 cars for The Dominion totalling 173 cars.
Roster
1. 18 Park Cars. 1 drawing room, 3 double bedroom, lounge observation dome car. . . . . . obs. lounge 13 seats, mural lounge 12 seats, scenic dome 24 seats.
2. 18 Skyline Cars. Dome coach coffee-shop. 24 seats dome, 26 seats coach. 23 seats coffee-shop.
3. 18 Dining room cars seating 48.
4. 18 Baggage-Dormitory cars. Sleeping 15 crew and 2 stewards. 18 tons baggage.
5. 42 Manor sleeping cars. 4 roomettes - 5 double bedrooms - 1 compartment - 4 open sections.
6. 29 Chateau sleeping cars. 8 duplex roomettes - 1 drawing room - 3 double bedrooms - 4 open sections.
7. 30 coaches. 60 seats with full length leg rests. ____
173 cars
The Canadian was inaugurated April 24, 1955.
The faster schedule (70 hours) of The Canadian with fewer stops meant that only seven sets of equipment were required between Montreal and Vancouver (2,881 miles) plus two smaller sets between Toronto and Sudbury. Thus, 18 cars.
There were no spare cars! Instead, an elaborate system of preventative maintenance was carried out in segments during layovers at Montreal and Toronto. Vancouver doing only failures.
There was sufficient equipment for The Canadian as well as partial equipment for The Dominion.
A late decision saw rebuilding of 22 Tourist sleeping cars to provide more economical accommodations. These heavyweight steel cars were given stainless steel cladding to blend in better and renamed U class. This provided two cars assigned per train set plus four spares.
Answer to Robert Willison:
The Canadian was an immediate hit with the public and remained well patronized right up to the mid sixties, about 10 years. It was a pretty exclusive train in its day. It was the drop off and eventual discontinuance of the Dominion and the Atlantic that made a lot of similiar equipment available.
Guess we will never really know how close they came to picking up the phone and placing the order. The Boardroom had a tough call to make by '56-'57.
Even on it's inaugural run I remember a quote by the President and CEO of the CPR, ran in Trains Magazine, stating that even if the train was 100% sold every trip it would lose money. It was followed by some quick dollar quote on maximum revenue per trip verses the cost. As in the States, once the Trans-Canada Hwy was complete and airlines became the future things dropped off quickly. CPR gave it's passenger service a real good go of things right up until 1960. They ran passenger service up every podunk branchline and inaugurated new trains during the fifities. With the end of the steam era came the end of branch line trains. Almost all those never dieselized, when the steam ended so did the passenger service. The second Trans -Con train "The Dominion" was discontinued in Feb. 1966. The very popular and well patronized Chicago Express was dropped in '61. The "board" in the center of Union Station went from dozens and dozens of trains to 3 overnight. Just like that. All that was left was the train to NYC, which became a truncated RDC to Buffalo, a RDC run to Havelock that was shoulder to shoulder packed because it was used as a commuter train by the folks, and The Canadian. Canadian National picked up the slack and really gave passenger service a big go of it all through the sixties and to the mid seventies, but that's another story.
That equipment shown above is still running, less a few wrecked.
Interesting, when was the time frame? Were the plans shelved because of declining traffic and revenue?
A little-known fact is a planned second order for additional Budd-build equipment. Details are unconfirmed but 57 cars are thought to have been planned to finish re-equipping The Dominion as well as The Atlantic Limited. A later addition would have been for five parlor cars likely for popular Montreal - Ottawa service. Totalling 62 cars.
Order was to include coaches (52 smoker seats and 16 regular seats) and dining cars (48 seats) as well as two new car types: Buffet-Parlor 29 seats. Alternative 26 seats and 2 luggage elevators. Dome-Sleeper 4 double bedroom (connecting), 4 bedroom (lower berth only), 4 roomettes and 24 seats in dome.
More baggage-dormitory cars were also planned and not in second documentlikely because they were identical to existing cars.
Note: Individual quantities unknown. Also unknown is names for first class cars.
Note: The new dome-sleeper was added as it had been determined there was too little dome seating on The Canadian! For Tourist class consideration of ordering Budd Siesta coaches sleeping 32 (similar to Pullman Slumbercoaches) was not included since tourist class travel was declining and uncertainty of its future resulted in the decision not to order them. Instead, 22 heavyweight G class sleeping cars were modernized and designated as U class cars. A grand total of 80 additional cars would have been slightly less than 50% of the original order.
Official Budd Compnay diagrams and elevations CPHA collection
Coach 52 smoker seats and 16 regular seats(reverse of normal division) (Note: First order was 24 and 36 leg rest seats)
Dining 48 seats
Buffet-Parlor 29 seats (option 26 seats plus 2 baggage elevators)
Dome-Sleeper 4 double bedroom (connecting), 4 bedroom (lower berth only), 4 roomettes and 24 seats in dome.(Note; same as NP's North Coast Limited)
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