This goes out to all, but mostly for my fellow Canadian modellers. Where can I find decent pictures of Grand Trunk Pacific (GTP) passenger cars? I’m pretty sure they were Pullmans but I’m having a tough time with this. I’d like to make a diorama of a GTP station and passenger car. Any help is greatly appreciated.
As far back as1867, Pullman had a contract with Great Western Railway of Canada and introduced his Hotel Car Service on the line. Although Pullman would never operate the local sleeping car services of the C.P.R. , the company did run interline cars over that road, as well as both interline and some local Canadian services on lines which eventually became part of the Grand Trunk and C.N.R. systems.
Although technically not a Pullman, but a car that served on the C.N.R. , the heavy-weight sleeper displayed at the California Railroad Museum in Sacramento come amazingly close to recreating a journey in a heavy-weight Pullman without travelling a single mile.
The car, named St. Hyacinthe built in 1929 by Canadian Car & Foundary of Montreal, is typical of the steel Pullman-operated sleeping cars of the heavy-weight era. It contains 10 open sections, 1 drawing room and 1 compartment. St. Hyacinthe’s exterior has been restored by the museum to it’s late-1940’s appearance; the car’s interior reflects the early 1950’s.
The Dover Harbor was rebuilt by Pullman in 1934 and is now owned by the National Railway Historical Society in Washington D.C.- - - -they replaced the cars trucks with six-wheeled cast integral-pedestal trucks from a former Canadian National lightweight sleeper.
From the book"Travel by Pullman" by Joe Welsh and Bill Howes
This is the only mention of Pullman on the Grand Trunk or the C.N.R.
As the grand trunk pacific was amalgamated into the CN in 1923 you certainly are confined to HW cars.
http://search.nbca.unbc.ca/grand-trunk-pacific-railway-passenger-train;rad
Bytown Railway Society published a very detailed 350 page book in 1995, CNR Passenger Equipment 1867-1992, edited by Gay Lepkey and Brian West. It is now out of print and normally commands a premium price if you can find it used. But it includes some pictures of GTP lettered cars, and of course rosters.
As well as cars bought new under the GTP name, the parent GTR also transferred older cars to their western subsidiary. Only some of the cars bought new were built by the Pullman Company; many were built by the various Canadian manufacturers. Unlike the US, Canadian roads mostly operated their sleeping car service themselves and Pullman was not involved.
Ask the modelers in your area; perhaps one of them has the book and will let you look at it. There was a second book published some years later, a compendium to the first, which is more readily available. However it won’t be of much assistance.
John
B.C. Provincial Archives and maybe ( I haven’t checked) the Vancouver online Archives are worth a look. I have spent days going through their RR photo’s.
http://www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/cgi-bin/www2i/.visual/img_med/dir_103/b_01477.gif
http://www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/cgi-bin/www2i/.visual/img_med/dir_119/d_02564.gif
http://www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/cgi-bin/www2i/.visual/img_med/dir_99/h_07317.gif
Brent[C):-)]
The books which John mentions should both be available through your local library, either directly or through the inter-library loan programme. The second book has at least five photos of GTP cars, as well as diagrams. The latter volume also includes a section on passenger underbody equipment, including air brakes, train heating and cooling systems, and water and electrical gear, valuable for understanding and modelling such details.
CANADIAN NATIONAL RAILWAYS Passenger Equipment 1867-1992 ISBN 0-921871-01-0
A Companion To CANADIAN NATIONAL RAILWAYS Passenger Equipment ISBN 0-921871-03-1
Wayne