Part # 7
Canadian Pacific Railway-Passenger Services-Montreal via State of
Maine-Saint John, N.B.-Halifax, N.S.
Montreal-via McAdam, N.B.-Through Sleeping Cars to St. Andrews, N.B.(St.
Andrews By The Sea)
During the Summer months Mid-June to early September- CPR operated through
sleeping cars on the "Atlantic Limited" trains # 41 and # 42 from Montreal
via McAdam, N.B. then to St. Andrews. Up to three sleeping cars would arrive
McAdam then switched to the local passenger mid-morning for St. Andrews,
N.B.-the same applied for the westbound run at 1930 of the "Atlantic
Limited" for Montreal. The mid-morning McAdam-St. Andrews passenger and the
evening St. Andrews-McAdam passenger during th Summer season was dubbed as
"The Champayne Special".
At St. Andrews is the location of CP's "Algonquin Hotel" a Tudor design
Hotel. The late U.S. President Roosevelt travelled this route after a
private car came in from Boston on the "Gull"(Boston-Saint John
service).-the U.S. President enroute to his Summer residence on Cambobello
Island off the New Brunswick/Maine coast.
*Symbol * Denotes CPR steam in Tuscan Red-grey-Black-Gold Paint Scheme:
Other CPR steam locomotives not to forget operating within New Brunswick
were the streamlined 4-4-4 "Jubilees" of the *2900 series.
Locomotive *2929 built by Canadian Locomotive Company of Kingston, Ontario
arrived brand new in 1938, and over the years assigned to numerous passenger
runs; McAdam-Saint John(the through
Edmundston-Aroostook-Woodstock-McAdam-Fredericton Jct.(for Fredericton)Saint
John. Another assignment St. Stephen-McAdam-Woodstock;
Fredericton-Fredericton Jct; and Fredericton-Saint John. Later came *2926,
and *2928.
Canadian Pacific Trans-Atlantic Empress Liner Service:
As the 20,000 ton "Empress of France (ex Duchess of Bedford) after 1960 was
to be retired, the new "Empress of Britain"(3rd) and sister ships "Empress
of England" held down the Atlantic service to West St. John, N.B. but with
reduced sailings and turning these liners to New York-West Indies-South
America cruises. The new 27,300 ton "Empress of Canada"(3rd) which entered
service in 1961 was constructed for cruising besides April to late Fall on
the Trans-Atlantic run. By the late 1960's the "Canada" made one trip per
year Liverpool-West St. John-enroute to New York to position the liner for a
number of West Indies-South America cruises, plus the annual 61-day New
York-Mediterranean round trip cruise and then New York-Liverpool direct run
prior to beginning its regular Liverpool-Quebec-Montreal service.
With the Airlines turning to Jets, and CP fighting back to compete with
jet-air travel-CP ordered the new 27,300 ton "Empress of Canada"(3rd) to
fight back at the Jumbo-jets coming into service. By the late 1960's around
1968-1969 CP cut back on its Trans-Atlantic passenger service to about 19
"Empress" sailings from Liverpool-Quebec-Montreal and in between
concentrated more on luxury cruises out of the UK, and a number of
originating cruises from Montreal and New York-more on that later.
CPR Passenger Service Montreal-Saint John:
During the Summer of 1967 the "Atlantic Limited" between Montreal-Saint John
was running with an interesting consist:
Four streamlined light-weight baggage & express cars-Postal-express
3000 series stainless-steel baggage-dormitory car
2200 series-streamlined light-weight "Deluxe" coach
100 series-streamlined light-weight stainless-steel "Deluxe" coaches
Streamlined light-weight stainless-steel Dining Room car
"Lake" series heavy-weight(rebuilt) buffet-parlor-compartment-drawing romm
sleeper
"R" series(rebuilt) heavy-weight sleepers
(the odd "Manor" series streamlined stainless-steel sleeper)
"View" series streamlined-stainless-steel bullet-nosed Club-Lounge-bedroom
sleeper.
Remarks: CPR in 1954 purchased four stainless-steel cars from New York
Central and renamed "View" series for the overnight Ottawa-Toronto, and
Montreal-Toronto route of trains # 21 and #22 overnight of th Chicago
service trains "Overseas Express" and "Chicago Express".
In 1969 at Saint John Union Station observed a number of "Grove" series
streamlined light-weight roomette sleepers; some in silver-grey with tuscan
red trim , others in the new CP Rail lettering and new logo painted
silvery-grey and "Action Red" trim.
Going back to the 1960's period the odd 1400 number series FP7-A units could
be found on this route, and later the FP7-A's of the 4060, 4070 series
replacing the MLW/Alco FPA-2's of 4000 series and FB-2 b-units 4463 and
4464, plus replacing the MLW/Alco RS-10's of the 8400 and 8500's.
By the 1970's EMD E-8's 1800 and 1802 were assigned to the Montreal-Saint
John passenger service. By the 1970 period one could observe both CP and CN
passenger services in and out of the Maritimes commenced to deteriorate.
The travelling public preferred air travel, or using their private
automobile. With the Jet-Age travellers turned to International travel
rather than travel within their own country.
Former General Passenger Traffic Manager for CPR Ian Warren in the
mid-1960's remarked at one time-"Wherever a new highway goes in, or improved
Railway passenger service is the first to suffer".
One interesting thing to watch what CPR is doing is to watch CPR "Vintage
Tours" and the "Royal Canadian Pacific".
As far as air travel is concerned within Canada-we are now back to a
"Monopoly"-Air Canada. We have gone back to pre-may 1959 when Canadian
Pacific Airlines(after a long fight with Ottawa) commenced Trans-Continental
service Vancouver-Winnipeg-Toronto-Montreal with Turbo-Prop "Britannia
Empresses"
End
Don Scott-Coquitlam, B.C.
Don Scott-Coquitlam, B.C.