The unusual makeup of this consist certainly supports the possibility that this
is an extra section, whether the cars are chartered by a tour company or just
extras drawn from the pool. Tours were sometimes accommodated in regular or
extra cars arranged by the railroads, especially if the itinerary involved many
stops.
Some Pullmans were occupied on the Banff (or Lake Louise) garden tracks,
although I can't say how frequently it happened. It was more common for cars to
be vacated and and then held on the garden tracks for another movement, in the
same direction or returning. Other cars were vacated at Banff and immediately
reloaded. The Mountaineer's traffic was heavier east of Banff than west, but
there were still a lot of both tour and regular passengers on the west end.
Some were from the west coast, and others on circle tours.
Don
----- Original Message -----
From: soolinehistory
To: cpsig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, August 31, 2010 7:09 AM
Subject: [cpsig] [PCL] Re: "The Mountaineer" photo, more questions
The list of Pullman cars assigned to the CP and Soo I posted last night got
me to thinking (always dangerous). The first three cars of the train in the
photo, the "composite" baggage-buffet and the two sixteen section cars, don't
appear on that list, which leads me to believe that this is a tour group that
contracted directly with Pullman, rather than with the railroads, for the cars.
This little ensemble would be perfect for about five dozen people, with self
contained baggage space and food service. In fact, it could even serve as
accommodations while the group was staying in Banff, so that leads to the
question; was such a thing possible to arrange? Were there occupied cars on the
"garden tracks" at Banff on a regular basis?
I also note that the photo is eastbound, still west of Banff, which leads to
another question; How much of this tour traffic came up from California and the
western US? We often think of the Mountaineer as a conduit for tourists from
the eastern and midwestern US, but the train also had good connections with the
US roads at Vancouver, and there must have been some traffic from the west
coast.
Dennis
