I appreciate the clarification about the car lengths.
The history was provided by Omer in a private letter that I do not have a copy
of; I will see if I can get a copy.
At some point - perhaps in 1917 - the car was fitted with a steel center sill
kit that retained the truss rods. It also received the distinctive CP-built 6
wheel trucks (Angus?), probably at the same time. Is there information
available about any type of program to upgrade wooden and/or official's cars or
was it more likely a case by case basis?
--Richard
--- In cpsig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Jeff Pinchbeck" <jpinchbeck@...> wrote:
In the recent CP Tracks, page 28 shows offical car 25. The notes indicate
that is was "shortened" when renamed "Saskatchewan" (ii) in 1917. Does anyone
have anymore information about this? To the best of my knowledge, the car
remained configured as shown in the drawing as "Earnscliffe."
Early railway documents are terrible for inaccurate data - especially early
folios. Folios were not always redrawn and if youâre lucky there are
revision notes so you can get the full picture. Early documents are also
known to sometimes refer to passenger cars as length over buffers rather than
the railwayâs standard of length over frame. It doesnât help that in one
MP.14, I think it was the 1947 edition, the lengths of some private cars
âgrewâ because the document listed them as length over buffers. Stuff
like this has caused a fair amount of confusion over the years because there
are instances of cars been lengthened or shortened. So one has to be careful
when viewing documents and be prepared to alter or ignore what you previously
encountered.
My opinion is that anything published by anyone should be interpreted as the
âbestâ information known at the time. Early passenger cars that entered
into the railway by acquisitions are especially problematic because early
railwayâs documents had errors in it. Wrong dates and builders, for
example, are pretty common.
A more detailed history of the car was outlined by Omer Lavallee in 1986:
Omer was never the only person ever to research CPR car history and, of
course, the research never stopped since either. There are individuals, like
myself, that continue that work today. The hardest large part of the work is
reconciling the conflicting data left behind by others and comparing it
against railway documentation. It is difficult at times to figure out what
to do.
I have never seen a document to hint that the car ever worked on the K&P and
everything I have ever seen anything to suggest the car entered the CPR
roster as EARNSCLIFF in May 1890 because it operated on the North Shore prior
to that. The North Shore was acquired in 1885 and operated under that name
until it was assimilated a few years later.
Data like this is too important to keep to oneself. Where did Omer published
this history? And how can I get a copy of it?
Jeff Pinchbeck
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